[nynor]

Originally Posted by HondaDustR

Yeah, and don't follow people down a steep hill. Go down one at a time. It's also better to keep rpm low, especialy in low gears. Lifting in 1st is the worst thing you can do, especially going down a hill. Put in the clutch and carefully use the brakes to control speed. Otherwise, it's great with the right tires and horrible with the wrong ones. Narrower is better no matter what kind of tire. I got around just fine the last winter on good all-season tires when the east got all that snow. Real snow tires would have been better, but I was easily passing a few SUV's and FWD cars getting up hills. As mentioned, don't stop while heading up a hill. The real limit is ground clearance. You'd never notice the difference in snow depths until it starts getting deep enough to hit the front crossmember.

Best way is to go find a nice deserted parking lot with between 1 and 5 inches of snow that hasn't been plowed and experiment. Try evasive maneuvers, stopping, cornering, stopping while cornering, see what it takes to spin out, practice steering out of a spin... Once you get the hang of it, you'll see they are very well balanced cars and can actually be pretty good fun. Much better way to do it than my first drive out in the snow...driving home on a two way road out in the country with dry-rotted worn out pirelli's. I did end up doing a 180 at 20 mph only because I was experimenting with inducing a spin and then saving it...got it twice before getting ahead of myself. I did get home without further incident, but it was a very difficult drive. Proper tires with good tread do make a huge difference in grip, predictability, and control, though. An alignment can also help if yours is off, especially in the rear.

exactly. i cannot emphasize how much snow experience this activity gave/gives me. i do it every year, at least once. my wife loves it.