Well its upon us, anyone venture out yet (New England?) Just got back from Florida and was welcomed with ice/2-5 inches of snow today. A bit worried about my E-Class. Might have to leave it at work and take a the SUV home, but curious to see how it will do. With < .5 inches it seemed to be sliding all over the place. Kept the all seasons on, but do you think its worth throwing snows on? OBV. night and day, but maybe I should just park it for the winter/only use on clear days.

 

All season tires and 4Matic and you will be fine. It is a heavy and big car so getting around is not a issue. Be careful on that ice!

 

With proper winter tires, any car AWD or RWD will be fine. Its slippery when it snows, and you must remember that. If you think SUV is safe and it does not slide, you are mistaken. Specially first snow that usually goes on top of icy roads is the worst. No car is safe if you are not careful.
I would not run all seasons even on 4matic if you get snow and ice in your area.
4matic will help you in getting off the line and slow turns, it will not do anything more. Stoping and cornering grip is same as RWD or FWD. If your tires dont have grip, you can have 18matic, it will not help you.
Please be careful. Im in chicago and every year i see people hitting curbs, cars and anything in between. No matter what wheel drive they have. I've even seen turned over "safe" SUVs.

 

Great answer!
I live in Chicago and most of the time we get a lot of snow. I drive RWD e350. I put winter tires and when it's icy, snowy roads, I'm better off with my tires than all those suv's with all seasons on. And yes, you have to be more careful.

 

Tossing on some snow tires. Only concern really is ground clearance but getting them today. Mine as well.

 

4matic with snow tires and my air suspension (E550) raising the car if needed is unstoppable in the snow.

 

So lucky to have the air suspension. I would have added that on the 350. but will need the snow tires, stay safe out there if in New England this weekend!

 

My 2010 RWD E550 with all season tires has handled the Chicago snow and slush very well so far this season. The Michelin Sport A/S 3 tires on my car have good traction and excellent breaking in snow up to 3-4 inches, but they are not winter tires. I have not had a chance to try them in deeper snow. As the snow gets deeper, those rear tires have to overcome the front tires wanting to plow the snow rather than rolling through it. 4-Matic overcomes that problem, but my rear wheel drive will have problems at some point as the snow gets deeper.

 

Ground clearance will be an issue before traction, if you install a proper set of snow tires at all four corners. I was simply amazed at how well my E350 Bluetec tracked through the white stuff. Snow tire technology has really come a long way. I used Michelin X-Ice x3 tires mounted on a set of Elbrus rims with TPMS sensors from Tire Rack. Really worked great and transformed my E in snow. The X-Ice have really good tread wear and are very quiet on dry pavement. When I was researching, I was amazed at how many folks just use them as all-season, year round tires.

 

Sorry but we all drive in the real world where this is no such thing as no (zero grip) on the road. There are always varying degrees of traction and it can change instantly. AWD will certainly have an advantage navigating a corner with thrust from all four wheels rather than only two (or one).

 

Snow tires are a must whenever the temperature is below 7 degrees Celsius. It's that simple. My car is like a tank with them on. It's amazing very good traction,braking and control. It also extends the life of your all seasons..really a no brainier IMHO

 

You don't want to be driving on high performance summer tires when the temperature is below 7 Celsius or about 40 Fahrenheit. The rubber compound on the high performance tires looses it's grip in the cold and will slide even on dry pavement. The all season tires are fine in temps well below zero, they just lack the deep tread found on winter tires and as a result, are not as effective in snow. I spun my SL600 180 degrees turning from a residential street onto the highway when it was 30 degrees Fahrenheit on high performance summer tires. I mistakenly thought the wide tires would still have traction. From then on I switched to all season tires!

 

I think you are missreading. Im not sure how you derived Zero grip out of my statment. I also did say you will have advantage in a slow corner. Should you start sliding AWD will not help. Try it next time you have ice with fresh snow on top.

 

You wrote "if your tires don't have grip". Don't usually means no or zero. I am going off the words you write and simply correcting your false statements and over-generalizations. And seems you just wrote another one:

Wrong.

 

Jeff, you're are being extremely **** about the words where it absolutely does not warrant it, and just nitpicking for the hek of it.

Im not going to waste any time arguing with someone who is obviously extremely knowledgeable and unsubscribe from this thread, but do explain everyone the following:
1. When you're trying to stop and your car starts sliding on slippery surface, zero traction or not it still slides forward, how is AWD going to help you?
2. Your car slides sideways when going around corner, zero traction or not it still slides sideways, how is AWD going to help you?
Please tell us.
Thanks

 

Looks like its going to be one of those winters!

 

OK first of all I never mentioned anything about braking or stopping or that AWD is better than RWD under braking. Secondly modern cars do not "slide" forward while braking. ABS takes over and the vehicle decelerates WITHOUT sliding in a straight line and even allows you to steer.

As for #2 above it should be obvious why AWD will help you more than RWD going around a corner when a car starts to experience yaw (understeer or oversteer). AWD has driving force at the front wheels to help bring the vehicle back in line and pulling through a corner. This is true for ANY LEVEL OF TRACTION, grippy clean asphalt, mud, snow or ice. Why do think the fastest and most stable rally cars are AWD?

Here are some links to help educate yourself:

http://blog.motorists.org/pros-cons-...l-wheel-drive/

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5770150_awd-vs_-rwd-cars.html

Unfortunately for others, if you unsubscribed from this thread, you will continue to spout your mis-information around.

 

Invest in a set of snow tires.

I've had very good experience with Bridgestone Blizzak, got me wherever I needed to go with a RWD car back in my upstate New York days.

 

That is an AWESOME combination. And indeed probably unstoppable.

 

Because driving on snow and ice is all about balancing the car. Just like in racing. If you understand how to balance a car with brakes, throttle, and steering, then you can drive fast. When you drive fast, even on dry track, the car slides just like on ice. When you know how to balance a car, you understand that the goal for winter driving is not avoiding sliding but maintaining control of the car by balance.

The awd system is clearly amore balanced system of applying power. It is also a more balanced system of drag when releasing throttle. These things help the driver maintain balance in stopping and going around curves.

This is to be differentiated between driving too fast on snow and ice. Nothing will help that, even snow tires. Physics is physics.

 

This is exactly the thread i was about to post. Time for new tires on my 550 w/AIRMATIC, going for some Blizzaks next week

 

for anyone wondering, I picked up Nokians instead of blizzaks and they are unreal.