Quote:
Originally Posted by Muslenutz
I was under the impression that X drive was going to act like a 4wd vehicle. Through the snow, to me all it does is make me feel that my car performs like a front wheel drive car. I'm a little under whelmed here.
|
Regardless of AWD...without the proper tires mounted for the conditions...you will not get the best that it can offer. Tires are like shoes for your car...the tires are what has contact with the surface you're driving on. If the tires suck because they can't handle what they're being driven in (snow, cold temps that harden the rubber, ice, etc)...then AWD isn't going to help that much.
A 2WD vehicle mounted with winter tires on the driving wheels will perform better than an AWD/4WD vehicle mounted with summer or all season tires.
Again, the rubber compound on summer & all season tires begin to harden at aroun 45° F...so the colder it gets, the less traction they have. Stopping, turning and acceleration will all suffer (even with an AWD/4WD vehicle).
Winter tire's rubber compound stays soft in ambient temps below 45° F...and their tread design with all the sipes and other design characteristics will enhance a cars ability to stop/turn/accelerate...and if it is AWD or 4WD...it will makes things even better.
The images below were captured from a TireRack video on YouTube that compared summer/all seasons/winter tires on an ice skating ring...you can see the differences in performance. If you have AWD, winter tires will compliment the AWD capabilities by providing better traction. If the tires don't have traction...AWD or 4WD will suffer and not be much better than FWD or RWD. In fact, again, 2WD, FWD/RWD mounted with dedicated winter tires will perform better than AWD/4WD mounted with summer or all season tires.
The image below shows the stopping distance on ice compafing summer/all season/winter tires:
Turning @ 10 MPH...the winter tires were able to make the turn and stay within the cones that were set-up...the other two tires busted through the cones...thus would also slide into oncoming traffic or other lane:
Pics below show acceleration times on ice comparing summer/all seasons/winter tires: