u/Uptons_BJs

In Canada, when you show people that you drive a RWD car, a lot of them will assume that it is a summer car, that I have something better for the snow in the winter. Well, my Camaro (and previously, my Mustang), was my winter car! My summer car is my motorcycle. When I tell people that, the first question I get is "well, how is that thing in winter". I figured that since that is a very common question, I might as well have that discussion here in case anyone is interested.

For context, I had a Camaro 2SS. This is a RWD coupe with a limited slip on the rear wheels. I put winter tires on in the winter, but I downsized the rear from 275 to 245. I also live in smaller Canadian town that does get regular plowing, but on a side road that doesn't get plowed immediately. The Camaro also has an awesome heater that heats up really quickly, and nice toasty heated seats and steering wheel.

The first question people probably ask is - Do you get stuck in winter? I do. Every winter, I might get stuck perhaps a couple of times. Mind you, I try not to head out on the worst days, but I still occasionally get stuck. Maybe 5 times a winter?

Driving down a street where other cars have driven is practically never a problem, but I've had problems going up hills before or doing a 3 point turn. But typically I can rock myself out with the traction control off, maybe only once per season do I end up with a bait of a hairy problem.

I've only had 2 really memorable incidents. Once I was picking up a first date, and I tried to turn on her street, did a three point turn on her neighbor's driveway, and got stuck on his driveway. The gentleman kindly came out and helped me out, and he gave me his business card saying "I sell Subarus, why don't you switch to a WRX and don't embarrass yourself again?"

The second time I was driving up a hill on a snowy day, and the road was full of cars. There was an all way stop on top of the hill. As I was inching up the hill, my front tire hit a speed bump, and I got stuck. There was a car behind me and I was sliding backwards, which gave me quite a scare.

But overall I think the "getting stuck" aspect of RWD in the snow is bad, but not too bad, especially with modern cars.

The bigger annoyance to me is the low ground clearance with a pointy splitter. This is especially annoying immediately after some light snowfall. The plows would push snow to the side of the road to create a small row of a snow pile, and I would be driving on the road totally fine, but when I try to turn into a plaza, my splitter would smash into the pile of snow.

The biggest problem IMO is fishtailing. Sometimes when I pull into a snowy parking lot or especially up an inclined driveway with snow on it, and my rear end gets a bit squirrely, and I'm constantly afraid that I'd crash into the cars next to me or the wall or something.

But overall, a RWD coupe isn't that bad in the Canadian winter, I did it 9 years in a row! Would something AWD or FWD have been better? Maybe, but if you really want something RWD, I wouldn't say it is unsurvivable, even as an only car.

As for me, I just got myself something AWD instead. I figured if I do 70% of my driving in the winter, and I'm on my motorcycle so much in summer, I might as well get something all wheel drive to make it slightly easier.