How much ground clearance do you really need?

Question to the Forum:  How much ground clearance do you really need to make it to the ski hills and back?

I'm ready to buy another car, and I'm definitely getting something with AWD, but beyond that I'm debating.  The normal choice for a ski car is a high riding SUV, but I have a few issues with that:

1) I'm a short guy - At 5'6" it's a giant pain in the a** to climb on top of these things to get my skis out of a Thule box.
2) Because of of #1 I always end up throwing my skis in the car which not only reduces cargo area, but is actually quite dangerous
3) I live in Brooklyn, and having a more compact car is easier to park

I'm thinking that getting a regular sedan or hatch would be easier to get on top of, easier to park, and actually safer when it comes to transporting skis if I'm putting them on top.

Does anyone have any experience driving a regular height AWD sedan or hatch through snow storms and snowy / muddy parking lots?  I'm thinking of something like a regular Impreza hatch, or the little Mazda CX-3.  Does increased ground clearance really do anything for traction?  I'm not going off roading or anything.

Thanks,

 

I'm driving an old 2002 Subaru Legacy right now and I love it for going to the ski area and back. It trucks in the snow and it's easy to get around town in.

I like Mazda's a lot. My gf has an older 3 and it's really fun to drive. I wish the 6 came with AWD.

We have an Impreza and a 4Runner.

We end up taking the Impreza everywhere because, while we thought we would need the additional ground clearance of the 4Runner for super snowy days, it turns out that we didn't.

Plus the Impreza gets better gas mileage.

MC2 - Is it a hatch or a Sedan?

Also do you think the WRX (not STI) would be too low?   I've always wanted one but at 4.9 inches of Ground Clearance I'm worried that might be too low for those crazy potholed ski resort parking lots.

Do you stay overnight in the mountains? What is the driveway like, where you stay?

I live on a dirt road in the Daks.  I’ve had both a Subaru Outback and a Legacy Sedan along with several other SUVs  I felt the Legacy drive the best in snow and didn’t have any issues bottoming out

I’m looking at getting a Legacy again for my next car.  The Impreza seems pretty cramped to my inside.

I do stay overnight at various different places.  At worst they are unplowed dirt roads, at best they are plowed parking lots.  The worst I've probably seen was a VRBO in Lake Placid that was up a steep unplowed dirt/ice hill.  My old Ford Escape did get me up and down just fine.

The legacy has 5.9 inches of clearance.  Surprisingly high for a sedan.  That being said I do prefer the compactness of the impreza for parking reasons.

https://www.caranddriver.com/subaru/legacy/specs

TheGreatAbyss wrote

Question to the Forum:  How much ground clearance do you really need to make it to the ski hills and back?

About this much.



Anything else, it's all the same shit nowadays. The make and model is almost irrelevant, all cars are built mechanically very similar with very little ground clearance to improve fuel economy. I'm not saying to go out and buy a Fiat, I'm just saying that if ground clearance is a concern, well, It's really just what works best for you.

AWD is really just a marketing game on the vehicle manufacturers part. There's a differential between the front and back wheels in an AWD (that's how they stay in AWD all the time) so once you are really in a slippery situation and the diff spins out you aren't really that much further ahead than with a regular front wheel drive vehicle than gets better mileage anyway.  I've seen AWD vehicle get stuck, and there's still only one wheel spinning.  4 wheel drive that you shift into manually when you start slipping creates a solid mechanical link between the front and back wheels, and will be the only thing that's really going to save you if you really do get into some serious shit.

Honestly, Tires are the biggest thing here. If you're looking for a small car, get yourself a Honda or a Nissan, and put snow tires on it for the winter months. I have a Nissan Sentra (and a 4wd truck) with just 2 Cooper Weathermasters on the front and that thing will shred the gnar. I've driven it on a lot of powder days this season, as well as commute every day on rough roads all winter long, and have not had any issues. Meanwhile my mom has an AWD Chevy Traverse, and i've driven it a lot but personally I think it handles horribly on snow compared to my little car. Partly because she runs all season tires. My dad has an AWD Subaru Legacy, and it honestly doesn't handle any better than the Nissan. I actually think the snow tires on the 2wd Nissan still handle better than the Legacy with whatever tires he has on it.

Basically, no standard vehicle is "designed" to handle in conditions other than pavement, unless you mod the heck out of them

Ethan Snow wrote

TheGreatAbyss wrote

Question to the Forum:  How much ground clearance do you really need to make it to the ski hills and back?

About this much.

How much is that?

Not exactly sure. That truck comes stock with 9.1" of ground clearance, but that's referring to the height of the axle which is fixed. It looks like the truck has about a 7" suspension lift on it. so the body has probably close to 20" or so.

For the record, not my truck. Just a pic I had.  

If you are driving on paved roads that receive normal plowing, you don't "need" anything more than a FWD vehicle with snow tires.

I am a storm chaser and I've always gotten by just fine with low to the ground compact cars. If anything, my current Civic Hatch might have the least amount of clearance of any car that I have owned. If the snow is so deep that ground clearance is going to be an issue for a compact car, you probably shouldn't be driving even if you have a vehicle with large ground clearance as that means the plows can't keep up and even large clearance AWD drive vehicles will have issues with travelling safely.

If you routinely drive on roads that do not receive good plowing and you need to plow through a full night of snowfall without plowing, by all means get a big SUV or a truck.

Otherwise, ground clearance really shouldn't be a factor in most people's decisions. I've been a storm chaser for almost 20 years and I have never had a single issue (excepting when I first started storm chasing as a flat lander without snows, fixed that issue right quick).

TheGreatAbyss wrote

MC2 - Is it a hatch or a Sedan?

Also do you think the WRX (not STI) would be too low?   I've always wanted one but at 4.9 inches of Ground Clearance I'm worried that might be too low for those crazy potholed ski resort parking lots.

Sedan. I know skiers who drive WRX's. If you've always wanted one, get one. You'll get to the mountains when you need to.

I have a Mazda 3 hatch-back, front wheel drive, 35+ mpg. the key to winter driving in snow country Snow Tires! The only time I have had trouble is when I had to drive in 8+ inches, the front wheels kept loosing traction because the under-carriage pan made the car float. I don't have a box , everything goes in the back [seat down] sometimes 7 pairs of skis plus needed duffels and packs, plenty of room as long as you only need to transport yourself. I live in the DACKs and I do have a Tacoma as back-up. I also have a friend who drives a WRX full time but he doesn't live  up here but spends a lot of time at his camp in North River.

In the mid 90s I bought a Ford Exploder, manual tranny, real 4wd with limited slip diff. Good ground clearance. About 4 years later I bought my wife a Suburu Forester. The Forster was better on snow packed roads, the only conditions the Exploder was better was in deep snow or busting through a snow bank left by the plows. Oh - I couldn’t wrap a chain on the rear of the Forrester and pull a stump like I could in 4WL in the Ferd, but I now hire a stump grinder for that.

I forgot to mention, lately I was thinking about a Land Rover, but within the past few weeks I have been considering the Jaguar F pace, when your looking at the last car you are likely to buy - you can consider pulling out all the stops.

Ethan Snow wrote

How far is that rear diff off the ground?

I drive a all wheel drive sedan. Put 30k miles per year driving around the park. You will never see more than 6 inches on most of the roads. Get 30 mpg so why not get awd. Once you are moving it's true you don't need awd. It does handle better and it's nice never getting stuck getting moving. Put a set of snows on it and you can plow through pretty deep stuff.

Harvey wrote

How far is that rear diff off the ground?

I think that's the 9.1" The rear diff will always be pretty low on a truck. But it's a solid axle, so it will always be the same distance from the bottom of the tires. They're not usually a problem.

You can have both.

Go drive the Subaru Forester and Crosstrek. Both of these cars are easy in and out, and with 8.7" provide nearly the same amount of ground clearance as the full-size SUV and PU markets do.

And yes, the WRX would be fine as it has close to 5" of ground clearance.