I thought I'd post my experience with my new/stock '06 GT convertible with an automatic in today's snow storm up here in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area to help those considering a Mustang as year round transportation. I searched the site before I bought and found the reviews a bit high-level.

As a background, I grew up in the northern part of the state back in the 70's where it seemed heavy snows were as common as sunny days. Back then everything was rear wheel drive and I spent the bulk of my time in a Ranchero and an LTD.

Why mention this? Since the 80's my experience with cars has largely turned to front wheel drive or some sort of 4/AWD in trucks and SUV's. Winter handling in the Mustang is a throwback to the engine heavy front and light weight rear-end days. Sure the weight distribution is better, but there is no doubt about which end of the car the 4.6 lives.

Driving the neighborhood on unplowed, unsalted or unsanded streets and taking corners this translates into front-end plow through corners on the snow covered roads if your speed is much over the 10-15 mph range.

Below that the rear-end swings out a couple feet and you need to perform the old school steer into the slide and get off the accelerator. The traction control engages, but the P Zero Neros don't do much of anything to inhibit the lateral slide.

The effect feels a bit disconnected and takes some getting used to when the rear is out there and power is being managed independently of your actions but not really translating into anything useful. For example, with my F150 I can feather the accelerator to "linearly" manage the slide. I would have to imagine some form of electronic stability control in concert with the TC would do wonders.

The traction control was very busy getting on the highway. Once there, the salt or sand helped the P Zero's find their grip on the straightaways. All traffic was moving at about 40mph and with the accumulation that is about where I felt the limits were for our first try at this. I also think above 40 the TC cuts out.

I'm not quite ready to take the plunge into all out snow tires and rims, but I can see them in my future.

The heat and ventilation systems worked exceptionally well. There were no surprises and the windows stayed clear and fog free. The leather seats, while very comfortable, are also somewhat cold. There is a local dealership installing seat heaters at $375 for the pair. I guess they have another customer.

 

one word : Continental
i am going to be ordering some 20X9 shelby razors and i am going to order some all-season Continentals that do have a decent snow and ice rating, even though i live in the hot and humid deep south texas i will be going to Wisconsin soon and would rather have these tires then dive into buying a new set of snow tires to use on my old rims, plus i would not know how to carry the old rims with me in the car with all my stuff too

 

I'm not sure how this will help, but I'll try anything once.

 

RWD cars in the winter means snow tires and possibly a little weight in the trunk depending on the car and a full tank of fuel. We are in Northern NJ and have had our fair share of snow through the years.

Never had a problem with any RWD car in the snow when set up properly with the exception of an 81 buick with 65/35 distribution that was a death trap in the rain. Do I want to go out in the snow in a RWD car, no, that is why we have an SUV in the family. But if I have to get home from work or something, it pays to have the car set up right for the winter.


The limiting factor on most sports cars is that they turn into a snow plow.

Seat heaters would be nice, but if it comes down to tearing the covers off of my seats to install them or being a little chilly for 10 minutes, I will take the later.

 

All out snow tires on a slightly narrower rim with a modest amount of extra weight in the trunk will do wonders. Don't add too much weight or the tail might tend to swing out too much if it does break loose. I'd say 70 to 100 pounds max.

At least that is what worked on my 94 Mustang GT...On it, I used Blizzak snow tires on stock steel V-6 rims without a problem. Sure, you live with lower performance of the tires between snows but when it snows, your covered.

 

I'm pretty sure the Mustang has All Speed traction control.

 

I can vouch for Blizzaks, they are a good snow tire. As for putting weight in a car to improve traction. Like mot250 says, just be careful how much you use and where you put it. Put it as far forward in the trunk as you can. Weight near the back end of a car (or especially a pickup) creates a lever arm that will put you into a spin if you take a turn just a little too fast.

We don't get much snow out here in the Eastern Washington desert, but on slick roads, my '05 auto does a pretty good job. It's great that you can start off in 2nd gear. A lot less spin that way.

 

I drove my Mustang on snow for 4 winters in Idaho and Wisconsin and it sucked. I finally got F-150 4x4 in 2005.

 

Did you have snow tires on all four wheels? I drove my '98 through a couple of winters with a lot of ice and snow and with 4 snow tires and some ballast in the trunk and I didn't think it was bad at all.

Snow tires like Blizzaks, Graspics or Michelin X-Ice make winter driving a lot less stressful. I think of it this way: Would I wear tennis shoes to walk around outside in a snow storm? Nope, I'd wear some boots made for the snow. It's the same thing with my cars.

 

I've driven my Crown Vic through 6 winters (4200 lb nose heavy RWD sedan). It originally came with Eagle LS tires and an open differential.

Adding a Traction-Lok differential made the biggest difference, followed by snow tires. Even a 4x4 or AWD sedan isn't going to be impervious to the effects of ice and snow, but you can always swap tires with the seasons and not have to pay insurance on yet another vehicle.

For the really bad snow storms where you would need a F-350 4x4 or a 4x4 Explorer with all-terrain tires, just stay home.

 

No, they weren't winter tires. I also had some weight in the trunk. I didn't like it at all.

 

Snow tires do make a lot of difference. They have a lot of sipes and the rubber compound is very soft. They are generally designed to channel slush and grip on mushy surfaces (dry snow). Be careful on black ice, glazed ice, and other ice. Also be careful with really thick wet snow.

The dry powdery snow isn't too bad with snow tires or really good all-season tires. The Pirelli P-Zero Nero tires are essentially Ultra High Performance All-Season tires, which translates to DRY and WET roads only. Been there, DONE THAT!!

 

Yeah it took me a long time to put in my seat heaters BUT I am sure glad I did! It IS worth the trouble...trust me. I put in Check Corporations best model units.

 

I thought about buying the factory seat warmers, but I do not like leather seating and was unhappy that Ford forces us to buy leather seats in order to get their heaters.

 

[quote=Northwest GT;820548]I can vouch for Blizzaks, they are a good snow tire. As for putting weight in a car to improve traction. Like mot250 says, just be careful how much you use and where you put it. Put it as far forward in the trunk as you can. Weight near the back end of a car (or especially a pickup) creates a lever arm that will put you into a spin if you take a turn just a little too fast.quote]


Like Northwest GT says, put the ballast forward in the trunk. The second winter, I made a 2x4 frame for the trunk to keep the sandbags as close to over-the-axel as possible without them sliding all over the groceries and such. No problems, no spinouts. I even let my wife drive it in the snow...

 

We just had a big snow storm in the Portland area yesterday morning. My GT with Michelin X-Ice 's on all four wheels and about a 100lbs of ballast in the trunk handled the snow really well. I took it easy and accelerated from a stop very lightly. In first gear, I had to find that sweet spot where you can just get the car rolling smoothly without spinning ,but not stall it letting out the clutch. Starting out in second was easier.

I took it really easy and kept it under 40 mph on the packed snow and I had no problems with sliding. Braking was fine, too. I saw 4X4 pickups with lift kits and big aggressive tires having more trouble sliding around than I was. Front drive cars with all season tires were spinning and getting stuck at intersections. A lot of people put their snow chains on.

The only place I had problems was going up a hill where a bunch a people were spinning their tires and had to pushed to get going. I had to stop behind all these cars and they polished the packed snow into a nice sheet of ice. But with snow tires, traction control, and the limited slip diff., both rear tires spun until I had enough traction to get going.

The new generation of studless snow tires are definitely worth it. The stock Pirelli's wouldn't would have worked as well.

 

Well Played, Sir

 

I do not drive in the snow, period. I take a sick day from work or whatever I need to do to avoid it. Glad to know you GT handeled well in the snow, better then I did with wet roads in my past V6.

 

I live in the Twin Cities area as well. When did we have a 'snow storm'? Did I miss it or something?

 

You didn't notice any environmental changes in the past week?

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