e-4WD?

I know you can drive a fwd vehicle here in Minnesota. But it's not the best choice, especially at 5.5" of clearance or less. Does everyone agree?

 

I would say that unless you live on a steep hill you should be fine with fwd. We rarely get enough snow here where ground clearance is an issue, aside from that pile at the end of your driveway. If you live in very rural MN, where you regularly head out before plows come through after a major storm, sure, ground clearance and AWD could be important, but again, how often do we get 8 inch snowfalls?

In the cities, the only time I had issues was when I lived in Little Canada and had to climb a steep hill to get to the driveway. That said, I also couldn’t turn into the driveway while going down hill without sliding past it, so tractiion from AWD wouldn’t have helped as much as winter tires would have.

For winter driving in the cities, I would rank tires over AWD over ground clearance.

 

I've never had a problem. Like I said, I have lived in MN my entire life and had never had a problem driving FWD vehicles. I also mentioned above that I have driven plenty of rear wheel drive vehicles back when I was younger and never really had a problem with them either. As far as the Prius goes...with decent tires a Gen3 prius is fantastic in the snow..other than ground clearance. However, I have 'plowed' through snow just fine on occasion.

I suppose if I lived in a rural area with infrequent plowing my story would probably change. However, for my area I think AWD vehicles are somewhat overrated. Certain companies ( i.e. - Subaru ) have done a great job making everyone think they *need* an AWD vehicle...but in my view it is really more of a 'nice to have' feature.

This is why I think Toyota's AWD-e system is great. It doesn't affect MPG much at all...but assists when necessary. In general, other 'full time' AWD systems ( i.e. - Subaru ) are inherently less efficient than FWD vehicles are.

 

Makes perfect sense to me. I didn’t mean to sound like I was debating or being argumentative. We’be been quite impressed with the gen 3 performance. My wife has only been stuck one time. The traction control works well. Streets are plowed pretty fast and truthfully, we both have the opportunity to work from home whenever we wish in our lines of work. It’s just a matter of getting the kiddos to school. They don’t have a bus.

 

Conventional AWD/4WD is more maintenance expensive/hassle too.

 

The difference between snowy places for the ability to get away with all season tires on 2wd cars is terrain dependent, and maybe local government plowing/sanding/salt practices dependent. You guys in MN and other flatter locations do fine with FWD and all seasons. The mountain and hillier regions need winter tires if in 2wd cars, and even then, that might not be good enough several days per winter, when things get really iced up on steeper roads and driveways.

Probably several times per winter, when weather causes things to ice up, but before the sand trucks have come by, in the normal lane of traffic for one of the busiest intersections in Anchorage, a 2WD car with presumably all season tires will get stuck on the slight upslope, not able to move forward after stopping for a red light. I've walked/run by and seen this several times for a lone VW or Honda or other 2wd car. They can't go forward, their tires are spinning on the ice due to their open differentials. They can't go back because there's a long line of cars stuck behind them. It's kind of hilarious each time I've seen it happen (going by on foot, not stuck behind them).

The sand trucks are fairly prompt, but sometimes not prompt or good enough. They also don't use much, if any, salt here, which I like for the longevity of my cars compared to what I've seen/heard about for the NE. But that does mean that it can get slick enough that walking in rubber soled shoes on a flat residential road in the worse ice conditions, you will not be able to keep a straight line and will slide into the curbs due to the slope of the crown of the road.

 

I grew up in northern NY mountains and went to college in NH and I think most scenarios where I would have wanted AWD would have worked with this new setup by toyota. I remember trouble in dirt parking lots during heavy wet snow storms where the snow and mud would mix and suck in tires of my 06 Camry Hybrid or unplowed roads leading to my college campus that was up a steep hill being hard to get traction if I have to stop and go again. Even with studded snow tires I remember needing to rock back and forth and hope for enough momentum to get out of my first apartment parking lot some mornings. I think this would have been a good assist in those situations.

 

Totally agree. That is why I mentioned that FWD with decent all season tires are fine 'for my area'. I was basically trying to point out that tires are the most important factor. It's kind of funny seeing all these expensive AWD vehicles sliding around because the owners were 'too cheap' to put decent tires on.

Is FWD with snow tires ok up there..or is AWD required? Also, I wonder how Toyota's e-AWD would fare up there?

 

Exactly... This area of Ohio has plenty of hills and the local road departments use plenty of salt as soon as they can get to the roads before and after most storms. But, there have been a few times when the salt trucks just didn't get the salt on the roads in time. I remember a few years ago when that happened and I was on Interstate 77 in south Akron trying to go north towards the central interchange (in the middle of Akron) and everyone around me was going nowhere just spinning their wheels on pure ice. The slope was very slight, but the ice was very slippery. I happened to be in a Suburu at the time and was able to easily pull into the berm and just calmly drive around everyone. But I will say, those conditions are very infrequent and the last couple years or so have been a lot warmer and the snow and ice have been more infrequent. But that's another story!

 

FWD with winter tires is OK here. That's why I had the Prius. There would be a few days per winter where you would want to avoid driving up to the Hillside trailheads, or other steep roads. Maybe I would not be able to back out of my driveway on those days either, unless I had some sand on hand (which I don't, that's what my Subie is kept around for). If you lived on the Anchorage Hillside, you probably need AWD if you didn't have another AWD car to use on the slickest days.

I think the AWD-e would address the problem perfectly. It's a low power, low speed, but efficient solution. I'm not needing to drive a Prius like a rally car, so avoiding getting stuck on those really slippery days is all that is needed.

 

Again, AWD and snow tires.