And Audi s done well with their Quattro.

BMW making x-Drive an option on all (if not most) of their lines are -

so no more "i love a BM but i cant drive it during winter ..."

 

Although you can't have an X-Drive 5 Series - perhaps they want you to purchase the X5 instead

I have to say, I do like a 4wd car. I've had an Impreza (not a turbo) and a Sierra 2.9 XR4x4, and now the slightly more sensible Superb 4x4.

But you don't need power in the snow.

Skinny wheels and 4wd ideal for a bad winter.

 

lots of low down torque is very helpful though - being able to turn the wheels slowly and under control

That is low gearing is it not in a light passenger car / SUV is it not when they are AWD , Front Wheel or Rear Wheel drive.

Having Torque low down can still have many vehicles spin the tyres, if they are the wrong one for the surface you are on,

or you are heavy on the accelerator, be that in the Wet, Cold, Gravel. Grass, etc. or even on a dry surface.

(Locking diffs are more likely to prove useful, on loose surfaces, Mud, Snow etc, but as always, 'No Traction can equal no action, or locomotion.'

Wrong tyres and wrong gears, wrong rpm,  is a bit like Wrong Trousers.

 

Many drivers just select 2nd or 3rd on Manuals or press the *  'Snow' 'Winter Buttons on Autos and proceed 

just fine without spinning wheels / tyres regardless of lots of available power or very little BHP.

 

Lots of the Part Time AWD vehicles these days are only front or rear wheel drive until the Electronics sense slip of 

the Driven Wheels and then give the Assistance to the normally redundant ones.

You carry often the extra weight, fuel use  and purchase price all the time for the benefit once in a blue moon 

with many Buyers / Drivers.

 

You can be better off financially buying a decent car for all year apart from the occasional time,

when you can spend £500 Buying a Old City Type car for Winter months or a few days of snow, 

or hire a Vehicle if you need to Tow on odd occasions.

 

george

Edited 15 October, 201411 yr by goneoffSKi

Other things being equal, having proper winter tires in winter is much better than having a 4x4 on summer (or all-season) tires. So buying winter tires is also a practical option. 

Edited 15 October, 201411 yr by briskycat

I know which Ford 4x4 I'd rather have...

 

 

not sure I'd be happy driving around in an anagram of e vaginal. People already think I'm a ****, that would simply confirm things

not sure I'd be happy driving around in an anagram of e vaginal. People already think I'm a ****, that would simply confirm things

LOL. Thats a very good point.

Going to sound really stupid here, am guessing the Cougar and the Mondeo mk1 were fairly similar then chassis wise, I believe the ST200 used the 2.5 V6 so guessing quite a simple swap?

The cougar and the mk1&2 mondeo shared the same platform though if you were to go into a delaers you'd get totally different prices on things like wishbones despite them being the same part lol. Subframe and sump had to be modified on the cougar to run the mk1 4x4 system but was a relatively straight forward job to do.

 

The cougar v6 and the mondeo st24 shared the same engine, though there have been a few st200 engine swaps (compression and internals are different) and i know of at least one which has the st220 3.0v6 in though that took a lot of work to do.