LittleMisses

Hi everyone!

I have been told that mustangs are not good for winter driving at all and was wondering if this is true? If I do get one it will be driven year round.

I have been thinking about buying a used mustang but am worried about all the bad things i've heard about winter driving. I live in Winnipeg aka Winterpeg Manitoba and as you would probably assume we get a lot of snow during our long winters! A friend of mine brought her mustang out on the road in the winter and couldnt control it, she just spun around and around, while on the other hand, another friend of mine drove his mustang all winter with ease, just like any regular car...this is what has me a little confused.

Any advice would be appreciated..thanks!

DreamerGT

Well sounds to me like one friend can drive and the other cant. So I really comes down to whether you can drive a rear wheel drive car in the snow or not. Ive never done it so I wouldn't know

AirBrontosaurus

I mean, mustangs are not particularly good at winter driving, but they are manageable.

Are you looking at a V6 or V8? In either case, you will spin the back tires some in snow and ice. However, as long as you don't lose your cool and keep calm, you can easily regain control.

I drove my V6 in the winter for 2 years, and I never spun out once. As SliverNGrey said, it sounds like your one friend just can't drive.

P Zero

All I gotta say is SNOW TIRES!!!!!!!!!! Well that and about 200 lbs or 100kg of sand in the trunk and she'll hook up nicely.
Also, when you do get snows make sure you get ALL 4.

And no they're not that bad in the snow, my ranger is by far worse.

trackjunkie

Blizzaks on all corners and (3) 70 lb sand bags in the trunk and it's fine for me. I actually prefer a rear wheel drive in the snow because you can control the back end and corner much better.
On the other hand my girlfriend (who has no performance driving experience) panics every time a cars tail slides at all and hates it in the snow.
It's all how confident you are in your abilities.

LittleMisses

Thanks a lot for the responses, great points and a lot to think about! To be honest I am a novice driver, having my license for about a year and a half. I wouldnt say Im a bad driver but I have never driven a RWD vehicle before..some of the things said sort of make me nervous, like the rear tires sliding and what not. SO with that being said maybe i shouldnt buy one because im not the most experienced driver and its not only me using it daily but also my 5 yr old boy. I wish a mustang was like a regular vehicle so i could drive it safely! They are so nice..sigh

P Zero

Little misses, there is nothing wrong with driving a mustang in the snow. Like I said before, GET SNOW TIRES. You wouldn't wear flip-flops in the middle of winter would you? Tires are like shoes, they should be picked appropriately for weather conditions and what you do with them.

As far as sliding the back end out, it's not as hard as you'd think to control it. Not to mention with snow tires the likelihood of that happening is greatly diminished.

Also, the best thing you can do to learn how to drive it in the snow is, after the first snowfall, take it to an empty parking lot and learn HOW to control the slide. When you do this you become accustomed to it and then when it DOES happen in real world situations, you won't panic and you'll know EXACTLY what to do to correct it.

All in all this will make you a better driver overall, regardless if you're driving a FWD, RWD or AWD vehicle.

I think skid control should be a part of EVERYONE'S driver training.

Good luck

945LSTANG

i drove my 94 in the winter/snow all the time without problems. if you go easy on the throttle you should be fine.

i wouldn't know with the 03 because i pack it away during the winter.

TimmyGt

I use to drive my GT in MN year round without problems, snow tires and sand bags do help a lot though. they have been making RWD cars a lot longer then FWD and they seemed to manage back in the 60's and 70's, its just a matter of knowing what your car can do or more so can't do when there is snow/ice on the ground. having posi and traction control help a lot too if you can find a mustang that has it.

02stang2113

Like everyone else is saying... get some good snow tires and weight in the trunk and you will be fine! It might just take couple days to get the hang of driving a real wheel car.