CX5 FWD in the Snow??

dblgoat

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07 VW Passat Wagon, 3.6
I don't drive in the snow that much, but can get caught in some snow from time to time. Have never had a problem with my FWD Passat and plenty of other FWD cars. How does the CX5 with FWD perform in 3-4 inches of snow??
 
I don't have a fwd version, but I'm sure you'd be just fine with fwd in that kind of snow. It can be done. However, there's no doubt you will have less traction issues with awd, especially when on any incline. This is all assuming you kept stock tires on both versions.
 
I don't drive in the snow that much, but can get caught in some snow from time to time. Have never had a problem with my FWD Passat and plenty of other FWD cars. How does the CX5 with FWD perform in 3-4 inches of snow??

With real Winter tires it will perform awesome in most situations with 3-4" of snow (better than most AWD's with all-season radials). With all-season radials you will be in the loser category when traction is scarce.
It's not so much how deep the snow is, it's what's underneath and what kind of snow it is. There's a reason the Inuit have over 100 different words for snow.
 
It'll perform similiar if not slightly better than your Passat. It'll all come down to tires and the knucklehead behind the wheel more than the vehicle. I drive mine (yes FWD) in all weather but do switch to snow tires from Dec- March.
 
One of the reasons I decided just to get the FWD CX5 was that my old FWD 2002 Mazda Tribute did so well in the snow. It actually did better than my old 4WD Wrangler; the Jeep was so light it would fishtail or spinout even in just rain. One time I was turning left onto a side street and the Wrangler did a full 360 in the lane as I turned. And that was with nice Goodyear Wrangler tires. Luckily no traffic was approaching. Scared the @#%! outta me though.
Keeping my fingers crossed that my new CX5 does as well as my Tribute in the winter weather. I'll soon find out in the next few months.
 
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Slap some snow tires on. You'll be better prepared than most drivers out there.
 
Before the CX5, the wifes cars were always FWD. Never had any issues in winter. So we bought the FWD version CX5. With winter tires, have yet to run into problems. It gets around great on snow / ice roads. Around here our road clearing is not exactly great which leads to big deep ruts. With the CX5, the clearance is a bit higher than a sedan, so that too helps with bottoming out. Just fooling around in a field testing its limits, had no problems with fresh snow, deep enough that it dragging bottom the whole time.
 

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