how do you guys drive it in the snow?

I've had the opportunity to own a Mustang under both scenarios. I purchased my '97 mustang because I was just so excited about getting one, I didn't even care about having to drive it in the snow. I ended up selling it because it just wasn't practical for me in the winter. Now I have the Jeep that rarely gets squirrely in the snow, and I usually just leave it in 2WD. The '98 Mustang I bought is my fun spring/summer car and it will sit when the white stuff falls.

my last beater was a 84 subaru gl. i got it for 200 bucks from my buddy, it cost like 7 bucks a month extra on my insurance, and i have sr22 insurance. cost u less ftw haha. that car was one of the funnest cars i have ever had considering what it was haha. that car would go damn near anywhere it was 4wd had a high and low range manual transfer case. and would just crawl around. i would be laughing my ass off everytime i drove the car, that car would climb any hill as long as it wasnt to rutted out. it was the ultimate camping/fishing car. it did beter than just about anything in the snow if it was a foot or less. more than a foot or two and i break out the crawler, sadly i have jumped and bashed that car a little too much, subaru's are the toughest cars i have ever seen though. you can find them cheap as hell all over my neck of the woods. dont know if they are avaliable for you guys cheap. all the damn hippies have em here and sell them cheap lol. if you can find one thats the way to go, it got almost 30mpg to.

I'd park it, but if you can't afford a 2nd car to drive/plate/insure etc...put 200lbs at least in the trunk. I roll around with 100lbs in my Terminator at all times in the summer to get traction....put I don't even know it's back there. My tires still spin. You'll need at least 200 in the winter...or more.

And get rid of the 245-45's. Get some 16X7 pony wheels and put a 225-60-R16 on there. My Dad had to take his old 95GT vert through two winters and he never got stuck with those tires.

I did it for 2 years. If the snow is more the 3" and you have to go up any kind of hill at a slow speed forget it, your going to go backwards. I had enough and bought a 94 jeep Cherokee last summer for 3k. No I don't drive the stang in the snow or rain anymore. Oh and for my jeep and stang I pay $170 a month for full coverage all year.

007 said:

I love macho snow posts. "I can drive thru anything". The same guys I see spinning out form the fast lane every single year.
I've seen so many snow crashes its insane, Every type of car... so often due to over-confident drivers.

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i dont know who you are refering to, but to clear it up a bit.....it not about being under or over confident. its about having a properly equipped vehicle and having the right amount of confidence. i drove behind a lady in a new-ish Pathfinder 4x4 and BFG long terrains (factory equipment). we went 20mph in a 50 while it was snowing. i am all about being safe in the snow, but this was ridiculous. at the slightest amount of wheel spin she would stab the breaks causing more issues than the wheel spin. a little bit of wheel spin never hurt any one, and playing in an empty, un-plowed parking lot does a TON to help you figure out how the car will react in many situations.

i have 8 years of mustang in the snow experience, the key is to know what you are doing.

i love macho pay to play posts. "if you cant afford a winter car dont drive a mustang" its the same guys that think they are better than others because they can afford to or have enough space to have the toy and the 4x4.


long story short, do you have to do and for me that means the blizzaks get mounted on the cobra.

Gearbanger 101 said:

I strongly disagree. Any front wheel drive vehicle with narrow tires is going to fair better in 3" of snow than a Mustang....open diff or not. The majority of the vehicle weight is over the wheels where its needed most and those pizza cutter sized tires get right down to the crust to gain a bite on the problem. As far as the differential goes, the open diff is what keeps these cars in a strait line when attempting the feat....as opposed to the back end sliding all over the place and digging holes like it does in a Mustang. This has been proven time and time again.

Same goes for a 4X4. Sure, the control or stopping abaility isn't there with lousy tires, but neither is it with a Mustang...and the 4X4 still has twice the traction. That's one more out of the three that a Mustang has.

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I find this odd coming from you because you and I usually agree on a lot of stuff.

I'm not sure who has proven what to you or in the magazines, but I am simply stating first hand accounts.

The vehicles that I have driven in the winter as my cars are as follows:

84 old gutlass 3.8 punched .040, open diff with pizza cutters---sucked in the snow.

69 bronco, 302, 3-on the floor, 10.5 wide Firestone A/T's ---sucked with wide tires and a 3600lb curb weight. Posi Dana 44 front, Open diff rear and had a heck of a time turning on the snowy roads with 4h engauged because the posi front end walked on me.

68 Bronc A/T, posi front & rear, same lousy 10.5 inch tires and the truck walked all over.

97 Ranger 4.0L- 5-A, Worst yet in the snow... Dueler A/T's and 400lbs helped it out, especially updated with the skinny A/T's, but I still fought the open diff on hills. Didn't keep it long enough to throw a posi in the 8.8

83 Capri RS 5.0 4M---blew that one up before winter came

72 Chevy C-10 long bed, 350/350 A/T 3.08 opn with Firestone Wilderness A/T's... This truck was a freak in the snow, ran like a 4x4. The only GM product that I liked.

87 Notch... Friend lost his space and had to drive it with standard 10-hole mounted rubber in the rear and front runners on the front... He was too scared to move it, so he called me up to do it for him. I think he messed his pants on the ride along, but I had a ton of fun in that car when the roads were snowy.

2000 F-150 4x4 short bed, Sport, 5.4, 4R tranny. This truck too ran really well in the snow. 8 miles per gallon however, forced a sale.

2003 Spec V... front wheel jobby, helical limited diff, winterforce 15" pizza cutters. This car did pretty well, but not as well as my mule below. 2800lbs was a bit light.

2004 Mustang GT. Full width Blizzaks Ws-50s. I made my wife stop on a corner that banked towards a ditch and immediately proceeded to a medium hill. I had a Wrangler driver stop in dis-belief that I was going to have my wife make it up...no no, that my wife was going to drive a GT up a hill with 3+ inches of snow on the road. I told her to ease into the throttle and take your time. She never even spun the dog gone tires. Winter tires FTMFW.

She then took it to work the next day, drove into an unplowed lot, probably bottoming the car out a tad and she stopped up by the plow driver and he wanted to know what she had done to the 'Stang to get it to go through the snow like it did, she told him that her hubby had thrown winter tires and 150 lbs in the trunk. He then asked her to leave the lot so he could clean it out and she said that she did spin a tad at take off, but the car walked right out of the lot with no problems and never did she not feel unsafe in it.

This car does not have ABS nor trac control.

Here is my point, if my wife, whose driving skills are no where near mine, can handle my GT in the snow with big, fat, scary, wide winter tires and not once feel scared... I will not comment further.

Oh ya, her comparison vehicle is a 2006 Xterra 4x4 with Dueler A/T's and trac, stability, and abs. For her to go from this into the GT and not ever feel scared, or that the GT was not incompetent by any means in the winter, well I rest my case.




Look, if there are two foot drifts out on the roads...like everywhere, then I stay home. Even with record snow fall last year in the Chi-town area, the 'Stang did just fine.

I can understand if guys do not want to subject their cars to salt...my '93 stays warm and cozy all winter, but if there are any of you who cannot afford a second vehicle or simply do not care if the Mustang gets salty because it will be traded in within five years for the next latest and greatest 'Stang, then it can be done if you implore common sense along with winter tires.

Its all about the tires.

Kilgore Trout said:

Its all about the tires.

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Without a top-of-the-line (Michelin, Bridgestone...) winter tire, the GT would not move two inches in the snow with summer performance tires. That my friends is a fact.

Notchbck93 said:

Without a top-of-the-line (Michelin, Bridgestone...) winter tire, the GT would not move two inches in the snow with summer performance tires. That my friends is a fact.

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What about these?