Well, how’s your lower back treatin’ ya, eh? I have shoveled and shoveled and everything was fine until I was clearing a trail for one of our cats (long story), and a strange, unpleasant pain ensued. Oops. Thus we have one of the many downsides of the Winter from Hell, where we have received more snow in a month than any month in history (or so I am told). I have no reason to doubt this claim. It has been pretty cold and white, all the damn time.

But there has been a drop or two of lemonade in this lemon of a season. It’s given me the opportunity to do a proper shakeout of some all wheel drive machines (and some non-AWD autos as well) under very wintery conditions. A lot has changed in the last couple of decades in terms of both the availability and sophistication of four wheel drive systems, and now what was just a comparatively simple mechanical drivetrain has now become more complex, and largely electronic in nature. Here’s two examples of the state of play: the Mazda CX-9 AWD and the Jeep Grand Cherokee 4X4. The Mazda’s AWD is simple as you really never even have to think about it. Normally it’s a FWD machine until things start to slip, and then you get help from the rear wheels to keep you moving. It works splendidly, and great tires and decent ground clearance have made even unplowed roads negotiable. It was very sure-footed, and I was impressed.
The Jeep has the marque’s latest off-road wizardry, so much so that it’s a bit daunting at first to wade through it all. This includes Quadra-Trac II, Select-Terrain traction control and Quadra-Lift air suspension. Got that? It is a ball to play with, as the Select-Terrain switch has a mess o’ modes including Sport, Auto, Snow, Sand and Mud, Rock, Skulls (see Terminator II) and Crushed Cars. OK, I made those last two up, but you get the point. Amazing stuff, really.
However, I have to admit I preferred the Mazda in the snow. Why? A very simple reason: tires. The OEM units on the Jeep, astoundingly, were really lousy in the snow compared with the standard All Seasons on the Mazda. The Jeep’s shoes were in fact Mud and Snow rated like pretty much all the units sold in these parts, and were made be a very reputable manufacturer. But they really couldn’t deal with snow and ice very well at all. Even with all the electronic aides and modes and Trial Rated badges and Quadratics the Jeep slid around a fair amount, and even glided backwards a bit when parked on hills. No fault of the vehicle there, to be sure. Bloody hoops were the culprit, don’t cha know.
Take home lesson, and if you don’t know this already you should take heed: nothing is better for traction, on any type of surface, that excellent tires. 2WD cars with full-on snow shoes do amazingly well on even really nasty snow and ice. And crappy rubber can make even the best AWD systems around lose their might when the surface gets nasty. I’m just sayin’.