Hello Everyone! I am a recent transplant from California to Indiana. My L is a 2004 bought last year after I moved to Indy. I drove it last winter but I was very uncomfortable doing so (and very fortunate that most of the snow days were not work days for me so I didn't have to leave the house!).

This year I have a couple of extra $$$ and wanted to get an early start on finding a good vehicle for winter driving and leave the L in the garage on the days we get snow. How many of you Drive your L's in the winter? How may of you store you L's and drive a second car? Since I am relatively new to the snow, any recommendations for my winter car would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

anything with front wheel drive and you'll be fine. I have an 02 svt focus for a winter beater (had to changed to all season tires but after that it kicks *** in the snow). One thing to remember the skinner the tires are the better they will be in snow. I drove my lightning for a couple years with 225/60/16 snow tires the thing actually went through the snow pretty good.

 

I drive mine in the winter, but when it snows I drive a Tahoe.

 

I used to live in upstate NY and we got a lot of snow. I've owned 6 or 7 fwd beater cars for the winter over the years, and with a good set of 4 snow tires they were all very capable. (aside from my Focus hatch, I never felt safe in it when the slippery stuff was around, although I appear to be in the minority on that one)

Some recommendations:
Any Subaru
Any Honda
Toyota Corolla

Stay away from:
Any car that must use a low profile tire due to large calipers/big wheels.
Ideally, you want something that can run a 13 or 14" wheel

 

I had an S4 last winter and that was amazing in the snow. I had low profile snow tires on it with 18' rims and you could do a 100 mph in 3 feet of snow, felt like it almost drove better in the snow then dry. anything AWD like subaru or audi is the best for snow. but also it is all in the tire, wrong tire and you will be sliding off the road regardless of the type of car.

 

On a side note Leeann's *** sig looks pretty damn good!!

 

Now I don't have a Lightning, but deal with quite a bit of winter driving here in Minnesota. I rarely end up using the 4 wheel drive on my truck in the winter time. A good set of tires with an all season or winter grip work well. I toss 4 tubes of sand (280lbs) into the back of my bed over the axle to help keep the rear tires on the ground. Having your tires siped also help in the traction department.

As for cars, I have driven a few....(Horizon, Golf, Corsica, 2 Grand Ams, Grand Prix...etc) Again, from my experience, a good set of either all season or "winter" tires on the driving wheels work well. My favorite car was the VW Golf. Summer time I would have more of a road tire up front and the winter tires on the rear to keep them from wearing out. Winter time comes around....rotate the tires and the winter grip would grab and pull me anywhere. Also, the golf was light enough it would almost feel like it would float over the snow rather than trying to "snowplow" it.

The only thing I see all the time here in the cities with the 4wd and the awd is you may be able to fly down the interstate at 80 when conditions call for 35 or 40 mph driving.......they do help with the extra traction to get going.....but regardless of how many wheels you have driving.....they all stop the same way! (and that is where most of the accidents take place)

Good luck in your search.

 

Thanks for all of the input. Nearly all of you mention snow tires. Is there any specific brand of snow tires you would recommend? Thanks again!

 

ML320 Benz (for now) during really nasty days in Indiana.

Where are you in Indy?

Bob

 

snow tires Bridgestone Blizzak's probably the best in the biz.

 

when my stock goodyears finally wore out i put on Bridgestone Revo AT's didnt like them for the first week but now i love them, last winter was a blast playing in the snow

 

Hi Bob. I'm in Zionsville. Just Northwest of Indianapolis.

 

i could not, would not discrace my lightning with snow tires or wheels my 2-door chevy blazer 4x4 does the trick, it is a totally different animal than the slug of a 4 door blazer/jimmy. push button 4 wheel drive baby, 5 speed manual. i live in the mtns & no 2 wheel drive vehicle could take me the places i go when it snows. my L get's enough of a workout at the track and towing, i let her rest the rest of the time. you can find some really good deals right now on used vehicles thanks to everyone trading their cars in for these big ford/chevy sales. good luck beater hunting.

 

SBG,

Excellent. Just be mindful of the Z'ville constabulary. They'll give ya a ticket in a second. Been there, paid that.

There a group of L owners (and an HD) in Indy and surrounding area that get together a couple times a month. Check out the INSANE forum on NLOC. Linky

Bob

 

I can get to work before the 4X4 do with this, and 210lbs of sand in the back.


Have you been to IRP yet?

Check out Bobs link.