With the country experiencing one of the worst winter's in memory - even states along the Gulf are experiencing black ice and freezing precipitation - if you are in the market for a new car you are probably in the quandary that's facing many potential buyers, four-wheel-drive, all-wheel-drive, front-wheel-drive, which one should it be?
Non-Answer Answer
Faced with this issue the best answer is a non-answer: do what you think is best for you. Here are some examples:
If you live on a steep grade, you may be a candidate for all-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive, if there's an automatic mode (the computer does the thinking). You have to realize, though, that even with four wheels that can provide traction, all you have is four wheels that can provide traction. If there's an inch of ice under the four wheels all you have is four spinning wheels. Take it from veterans of many New England winters.If you have a long gravel drive then you may think that all-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive are for you. Here's the problem: you have a gravel surface on top of the dirt so you have potentially two layers of lost traction before you get to the roadbed.If you believe that you can out drive the conditions then you will probably opt for the Escalade type of vehicle. Maybe it's just the vehicle or maybe the flashy money factory - "Hey world, I drive an expensive SUV (read that Tahoe, if you'd like because that's all the Escalade is, sorry Caddy owners) - but the more expensive the four-wheel-drive vehicle the weirder the driver. Here's a case in point on a road that shall remain nameless, but the incident is true: Just after the last major snowstorm hit and the main roads were still snow and slush-covered, with most people being sensible, some driver in a very expensive SUV decided not only that he could speed, but that he could pass over the double-yellow, screaming at drivers who just happen to be driving more slowly than his majesty and speeding along a two-lane roadway. It's possible the cost of the vehicle or the fact the driver may have had a buck or two to burn made him think his actions were okay. They weren't and never will be. Another driver, yesterday, tried blowing through a four-way stop and tied up traffic for an hour as his vehicle climbed an embankment and went over. It took time for the police and rescue folks to get the driver out. If he'd been going 10 mph slower or had a little more patience, he would have been okay and it was an all-wheel-drive vehicle.
What Does It Prove?
For one thing, it proves that slow and steady wins the race, if you have to be out in nasty weather or even the day after the nasty weather. If you can stay off the roads, do it and let the public works people keep the roads clear.
If you have to drive then it's "slow down to speed up" time. What does that mean? It simply means that who cares if you're doing 25 while the rest of the world wants to do 50 if there's no traction. Your vaunted SUV or AWD vehicle, while great for pulling slowly - repeat slowly - up an incline with limited traction is a great vehicle, is horrible at creating traction where there is none.
The truth be told, all four-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive will do, in most instances, where you are running a tad too fast is add an extra set of wheels to drive you into a skid. Imaging that, four-wheels propelling you through your skid instead of just two.
It Does Happen
Some years ago, on a major interstate, the driver of a Jeep Grand Cherokee was ignoring the fact that there was about a foot of unplowed snow on the road - it was snowing so hard the plows couldn't keep up - but since your confident friend, who, by the way was using a cellphone, had four-wheel-drive he figured he could just blow through while the rest of the drivers either pulled off at major rest areas for coffee or crawled along the far right lane looking for traction and safety.
All at once, our confident friend realized that he was driving on top of the snow with all four wheels driving him along and he lost touch with any sort of road surface. The look on his face was indescribable, something between shock and fear. Well, the cellphone dropped quickly and our friend figured speeding up would get him out of the problem but all it did was drive him into a four-wheel skid and off the road into the center median.
Well, someone was riding on this guy's shoulder because somehow he managed coral his side-skidding beast - he did slow down and that helped - and it was a good thing the median was wide and rock-free because he fought his mechanical beast and brought it back on the road after a harrowing half-mile.
Now, you would think he would have learned by that, but did he? No, he just kicked up the speed and moved right out. No one ever saw what may have happened to him and who knows he may just be the Escalade driver from the other day.
Lessons Learned
This piece really isn't about coming down hard on drivers of a particular stripe. It's just to try to remind you that there are ways to drive in snow or ice storms. The way to drive is:
If you don't have to be out there driving, don't no matter if you are driving a BMW AWD or a Hummer. You'll still have the same four wheels just waiting to push you into the skid by overdriving the conditions.Don't overdrive the conditions or "slow down to speed up!" Sometimes a nice slow, steady pace where you maintain some traction is the best policy. Certainly, it does take longer to get somewhere but you are not driving on top of snow with no traction under your wheels.Remember the egg: drive as if there were an egg under your right foot and stay off the brakes as much as possible.If you do drive in this manner you will not only be a safer driver, but you will also keep those on-board your car safer also, as well as those around you.
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