My 1984 Firebird with manual trans, some decent tires, and a beefy chain coiled up in the back was a pretty nice car in the snow. Except for the open diff.
This is the first winter driving my 1997 Saturn SW2 with the same type of tires as the Firebird had.. I thought the ones I had on the Firebird were pretty decent, so I bought more.
I am not impressed. It is terrible in areas/conditions where the Firebird was solid.
I know I never liked most things about my Saturn but I expected better from it in the winter.
I suppose I could upgrade to a set of studded tires. but while better on ice, that is not going to help with the appallingly hopeless performance in slush.
From what I have seen so far an inch of slush can make the SW2 handle like the Firebird in 2-3 inches on my twisty middle-of-nowhere roads!
This is horrible. I hate my SW2, the only redeeming feature that I can think of off the top of my head(aside from the car being low-KM and in really good shape) is the ease of working on it. Taking things apart is relatively straightforward and sensible for a modern car. And at least the interior does not look as vomit-inducing as most modern cars esp imports.(thirdgen Firebirds had wicked red-backlit dashboards, btw)
It is worth noting that this car is fine during dry and heavy wet weather(I
love flying through big puddles). So of course I may simply have the very worst tire&car combo for winter and any other winter rated tire might make this car amazing... ha. If I had
another spare $800+ for a new set of tires I would probably just get a dedicated manual+RWD winter beater instead of sinking more money into the modern FWD+auto la-de-da look at me I am a special flower saturn garbage I already have.
The world needs more third gen Camaros and Firebirds, among other even older american cars.
It could always be worse. I could be driving a non-american car or something made in 2000 or later.
Oh well. Keep it slow, keep it sensible, keep it safe.
It is also fair to say that so far I have only had this car out in slush and ice, not any snow. So it might be better on actual snow. *shrug*
I suppose this belonged in the rants thread.
Oh, speaking of winter. Last year I remembered to take a picture. Unfortunately not the biggest of piles. The game is this: How big does the compacted pile of snow have to be before you lose too much momentum to make it up the driveway while sliding the back end unnecessarily with excessive exhaust noise. Much loud pedal and smiling is involved.
Though I was smiling most of the time I drove that car regardless of what I was doing.
Of course my road is never plowed until the afternoon when I am already at work... not that it slowed the Firebird down much.
Obviously this game is only fun until someone decides to put a big rock at the bottom of your driveway.
(thankfully that never happened)
This is a game that was lots of fun in the Firebird, but I do not think will be as fun in the SW2.
You can tell from the curved tracks that I was smiling.
Of course I bet most of you do this as well. Who pulls over and blocks half the road just to shovel the bottom of their driveway anyway?
Eh, I should probably see if I can swing some cash at the Saturn for different winter tires. If I am really lucky that will help, and something studded would be good for ice.. I would prefer if I did not die in a car I hate. We will see what happens with this.
