[awd-gg]

how do I put it....THIS car is jut awesome on snow....
Gotsome serious snow strm right middle of the day anddecided to leave office early....bad mistake ....took me over 30 mins to go 5 miles...that when I decide to take the smll route back knowin that I will have to dribe thru' some unplow road... The subie never spin a wheel at all... saw cars spin out multple time on my way home... this is with 3 yrs old OEM Conti Pro with 5/3-7/32 tread!


anyone here hav any experience with tribeca (7 passengers trim)? thinkingof getting a used Tribeca as a 3rd car for wife to drive on days like today? is the 2006-7 tribeca as good as the newer on...OK, the 2006-7 is ugly....3rd row seat i a must for her, so only Tribeca qualify....

btw,took my wife 5 tries to get up the driveway on her Sienna today...and she has goodyear Triple-tred on hr van...

 

[bradze]

the only bad thing about the tribeca is that it sucks on gas, but its not near as bad as some other crap out there. my friend traded an '07 kia for an '06 tribeca cuz he thinks the new ones are ugly. i don't think anyone agrees. its nice, just sucks on gas.

 

[jp1203]

Eh, my 3.0R Outback sucks on gas too (a whopping 17.1 MPG last tank), but if I cared about gas mileage that much I wouldn't be driving a 245 HP >3600 lb AWD wagon. Computer says I'm averaging 21 this tank, though, probably from some highway miles. We'll see if that's correct or not. It tends to be a little optimistic in comparison to reality.

I put Geolandars on mine a couple weeks ago and we haven't really gotten any serious snow since then. They're saying we could get over a foot (or almost nothing) tonight and tomorrow, so that might give me a chance to see how they do.

This is my first Subaru with VDC and I've got to say that's pretty cool. I played with it in the icy parking lot at work one night and it's quite good at correcting a skid. Nice to be able to disable it, though, for when I want to act like an idiot.

 

[subiesailor]

Dont get the tribeca for the 3rd row. Never should have been sold with 3rd row. Totally useless

 

[awd-gg]

Dont get the tribeca for the 3rd row. Never should have been sold with 3rd row. Totally useless

The tribeca will be wife's backup car when weatehr is bad (like today). SHe needed the 3rd row because we car pool with the neighbor kids to school.(4 kids altogther and non of them old/big enough to sit in the front (approx. 10 miles one way). so, MPG is NOT an issue at all....

she will continue driving her minivan when there's no snow....and she already decided she don't want any non subaru SUV with 3 rows. (You have to thank my OB for that! LOL!) SHe would even consider a Sequoia, LC, Yukon, SUburban and the rst of the large SUV.....She say why would I want a inferior AWD/4WD technologies!! haha!

She does not like the idea of a 3rd car as there's no rooms in my garage for 3rd car(unless I get rid for riding mower and snow blower! (NO way that's happening)....
SO, next obvious solution maybe just winter tires for her minivan....

I really hope she go the Tribeca route!!!!:29::29: we will see!
Saw a used high mileage tribeca with 3rd row a few weeks ago at local dealer selling for $8xxx.(i think it was a 2006 or 2007, the ugly, Pig nose one)!

 

[awd-gg]

back to how amazing the OB Awd is... OK, I Lied abt the car didn't spin wheel today!
I had to make a left turn and after waiting 5 minutes to go 200 yards, Got impatient and decided to ride 2 wheels on the curb (or in chicagoland, it's a turning lane) which is unplow at all (4-5 inches of snow on top of ice).The 2 wheels spins but the car continue to move forward without any wiggling/fish tailing. It stay straight with just 2 passenger side wheels have full traction. I can feel the 2 driver side wheel spin then AWD goes to work.This happen when I have to stop because one of the car in front of me (Stupid Honda driver) decided to take up both lane blocking me from going into the turning lane!!!

Seriously, the car STAYED straight the entire time with 2 wheels have almost zero traction for abt 100 yards!!! and have to start from a standing stop too! (No momentum to help)....
on a crappy 3 yrs old Conti Pro with 5/32-7/32 tread!!!

 

[AltaBrig]

back to how amazing the OB Awd is...
Seriously, the car STAYED straight...
on a crappy 3 yrs old Conti Pro with 5/32-7/32 tread!!!

And that is amazing and scary all wrapped up in one. Going to get me some new tires this week before a run to Yeti land. My contis are scary in the sh!t and require chains when it is deep, slushy and icy.

I am leaning towards the Defenders.

I would go snows if I didn't live in freeway land.

 

[Adam07]

We had snow here in Iowa as well (6-8") and I hate to say it and sound cocky, but I was taking off and driving like it was nothing while nearly everyone else spun their tires

Not as much fun as my old 05 STi in the snow, but it is my new hunting/daily driver/grocery getter vehicle and it fits my needs perfectly.

 

[imwjl]

Just remember they don't stop as well as they go. I watched somebody mess up on that one last night.

Last week I did 140 miles of mostly snow covered roads and freeway where I was happy to have awd vs 4x4. The return trip on dry roads was about 1.5 mpg better which was interesting.

 

[Lesjob4d]

I wish we would get just one good snow storm here in Philly before the year is out so I could see how my new Outback would run in it. I've had 3 AWD/4WD vehicles over the years(1988 Isuzu Trooper, 2004 Forester, 2005 Dodge Dakota Quad) they all handled it very differently. The Forester was great all around, the truck could blast through the deep stuff no prob, and the Trooper was a unreal, it wasn't as easy to control as the other two but when you locked those front hubs, dropped the xfer case into low and put the power to all four wheels that sucker could go anywhere. There are times I still miss my "Rat", it was uncomfortable, loud, lousy at highway speeds, handled like crap, and had none of the ammenities that I have grown to like but **** if it wasn't fun in the snow and mud.

 

[mcbrew]

Just remember they don't stop as well as they go. I watched somebody mess up on that one last night..

You're right about that... AWD gets you going and keeps you going... Snow tires help you stop and steer!

FWD with snows will steer and stop better than AWD with all seasons. So, of course, AWD with snow tires is the best setup. I've got a set of General Altimax Arctics on my Outback right now, and it is truly unreal how it drives in the snow.

 

[AltaBrig]

I wish we would get just one good snow storm here in Philly before the year is out so I could see how my new Outback would run in it. I've had 3 AWD/4WD vehicles over the years(1988 Isuzu Trooper, 2004 Forester, 2005 Dodge Dakota Quad) they all handled it very differently. The Forester was great all around, the truck could blast through the deep stuff no prob, and the Trooper was a unreal, it wasn't as easy to control as the other two but when you locked those front hubs, dropped the xfer case into low and put the power to all four wheels that sucker could go anywhere. There are times I still miss my "Rat", it was uncomfortable, loud, lousy at highway speeds, handled like crap, and had none of the ammenities that I have grown to like but **** if it wasn't fun in the snow and mud.

Its a snowbunny, just don't go crazy and hop her off the road.

 

[awd-gg]

You're right about that... AWD gets you going and keeps you going... Snow tires help you stop and steer!

FWD with snows will steer and stop better than AWD with all seasons. So, of course, AWD with snow tires is the best setup. I've got a set of General Altimax Arctics on my Outback right now, and it is truly unreal how it drives in the snow.

Yes, when you are stucked intraffics for 2hrs and
can only go 5mph, stoping is quite easy, snow tire or not...

.

 

[chrisi]

Just remember they don't stop as well as they go. I watched somebody mess up on that one last night.

Last week I did 140 miles of mostly snow covered roads and freeway where I was happy to have awd vs 4x4. The return trip on dry roads was about 1.5 mpg better which was interesting.

It's important to remember every car has four wheel brakes. I don't know if my Outback stops worse than it goes, but you have no advantage over other vehicles.

 

[shamrocker]

We're taking our first long road trip North next week. I used to dread the thought of driving through bad weather, but now I am excited at the prospect!

 

[beninma]

It's important to remember every car has four wheel brakes. I don't know if my Outback stops worse than it goes, but you have no advantage over other vehicles.

Brakes are not all created equal.. not all cars have 4-wheel/4-channel ABS with electronic brake force distribution.

IMO the Subaru ABS is very very good. My old car had 4-wheel/3-channel ABS, it could sense & brake the two front wheels differently, but it kicked in the ABS on both rear wheels if either one slipped and it always proportioned the brake forces equally. Granted that car was a 2005, but the Outbacks brake performance in the snow was kind of a revelation.

The Outback has the AWD/TCS/VDC/ABS integrated together really nicely, I think it is part of the reason people get this invincible feeling in the snow. Even when you get the car sideways the systems give you an assist with remarkably little drama compared to lots of other vehicles.