Truck or Car: What's Better in The Snow?

Come on stop! Wow it just keeps going and going. Here's a simple question. What's better in the snow? Is it a car or is it a truck? And today we're going to find that out because to my left we've got one of the most well bad weather worthy vehicles out there. It's the Subaru Outback and to my right we have the most popular truck in America the Ford F-150 and luckily we're in Colorado in the middle of a snowstorm. So over the course of this video we're going to do a little bit of testing to see which of these two vehicles is better in the snow. First we're going to go 0 to 30 on pavement to see which one accelerates faster. Then we're going to go 30 to 0 to see which one stops faster. Then we're going to do a little bit of dirt testing to see which one can climb the hill faster and at the end of this video we're going to take it into the mountains where there's a lot more snow and see how they drive and see how much confidence they inspire. And behind the camera as always is Tommy. Say hi Tommy. Hi. All right you want the car or the truck Tommy? All right I'll take the truck. Let's get at it. So let's talk about the elephant in the room and that is of course tires because driving on snow is all about tires. Now I bet you're thinking why don't you throw some snow tires on these cars and the reason for that is we want to test them the way that you buy them. In other words these vehicles have the tires that came on them from the factory the way that you would get them originally. So let's start by talking about the tires on the F-150. This F-150 has the FX4 package so it's got a little beefier tire. These are Goodyear Wranglers. They're rated mud and snow and they've got Kevlar in them. The tread is relatively aggressive and they should do okay in the snow but they are not dedicated snow tires. Basically they're kind of an all-terrain all-season tire. Now the Subaru here comes standard with Bridgestone Dueler mud and snow rated all-season tires. They are somewhat aggressive for a road going tire. They do have some siping and they perform fairly well in the snow. So both of these vehicles have mud and snow rated all-season tires so it is fairly apples to apples. Hey Tommy do you have heated seats in the Subaru? Yeah sure. That's a great option but let's talk about this truck's four-wheel drive system. Now most full-size pickups of course start as rear-wheel drive and you can switch them to four-wheel drive. You can go four high, four low. You can also lock the differential. If you look you can do all that on this truck here. You've got two high, four high, four low and pull to lock the rear differential. But there's also something really cool and that is four auto. And what four auto does is it basically sends power to whichever wheel has the most traction. So it's the perfect mode for a snowy day like this. Yep even with this Subaru in cloth seats I also have heated seats. Now Subaru uses a system called symmetrical all-wheel drive which is a full-time all-wheel drive system which means I don't even have a knob to engage rear-wheel drive like my dad does on that truck. I also have X mode which is kind of the off-roady mode but I won't really need that today. But the point is is I don't have to touch anything to get this vehicle into its most snow worthy version. So basically I've got the truck in four auto and you've got full-time all-wheel drive. Yeah pretty much. They work a little bit differently but what it means today is that when we floor the accelerator pedal in theory both front and rear axles should be getting power. Yeah so it's about as apples to apples as you're going to get with a car and a truck. Sure. The other thing that of course comes into play is weight. The truck is a lot heavier. Now ground clearance is also an issue because if you have a very deep snow you don't want to get high centered. But the Subaru actually has 8.7 inches of ground clearance which is very similar to that Ford. Yeah in terms of ground clearance the Outback which we're in right now is very capable. Yeah and the Ford of course is a pickup truck so it's got a lot of ground clearance as well as pickups usually do. Alright well let's get out there and do some 0 to 30 accelerations and then see which one brakes better because really it's about the tire choice at this point too. Right. It's a combination of both how the tire performs in combination with the vehicle's four-wheel drive or all-wheel drive system. Yeah well and of course it's 0 to 30 we're talking about performance. This has this little tiny four-cylinder that's got a twin turbo v6. Yeah I've got a little bit more horsepower. So if you look into the uh distant horizon you'll see just a whole bunch of white and that's because that is the beginning of the mountains. Those are the foothills. I bet you this road's going to get a little bit more snow covered. Oh yeah that's exactly what we want. Look at that snow-covered road. Alright tell me when you hit 30, 0 to 30 going up a little bit of a hill. Let me start right here at the tree. Okay start at the tree. Okay I've got my clock ready. Clearly not crazy sciencey. No. We're starting at a tree and using a stopwatch. This is a real world test. Okay go for it. Ready? Yeah. Three, two, one, forward. Whoa. Going sideways. Let me know when you're at 30. 20, 30. Okay there you go. 10.40 seconds. Same stretch of road? Same stretch of road. Let me grab my stopwatch here. Alright. Whenever you're ready. Three, two, one, forward. Going sideways. Sideways too. Whoa that was a handful Tommy. 9.72. I had to back up a little bit. Whoa. I'm going sideways there. That's uphill. That's a little bit of an uphill. Right. It got a little sketchy there because the snow is getting driven over and it's getting a little soft. A little bit icy. Now we're gonna do the exact same thing except we're gonna go you're gonna come down this hill and we're gonna do a brake test. You're gonna do a brake test. So when you get to the tree you hit the brake and I think because it's so icy I think 20 miles an hour is a good is a good number. What do you think? I think that's a good number. Okay that's a good number. So I'll come down this hill. Yep. I'll hit my brake when I get by the tree. Yep. And then you put the cone where I stop. Okay. Okay 20. 20. 20 miles an hour. Okay so remember it's this first tree here. Yep I know I'll be doing 20 and I'll hit my brakes hard and then put the cone where I stop. You know Tommy if I were watching this video I'd be saying this isn't very scientific is it? No it isn't very scientific. And you know what guys we do real world reviews and if you want really good scientific reviews of how well vehicles perform in the snow I suggest you head on over to Consumer Reports. They've got an entire proving ground where they can just do apples to apples comparisons. Here we're talking about a real world test of the difference between what it's like to drive a car and a truck in the snow. And I gotta tell you Tommy I feel like I have more control in the car. Okay. Even though I think the truck's tires actually have a little bit more bite I think the lower center of gravity in this car makes me feel like well it makes me feel like a WRC racer. I feel like I could toss this around. All right here we go. This is the brake test. We're gonna hit the brakes hard and see how long it takes for this to come to a complete stop. Now we're not going to measure it we're just going to compare the stopping distance between the F-150 and the Subaru. And here's the tree and here's the cone. Hard on the brakes. Still going. Still going ABS. Still going. Still going. Still going. There. Finally came to a stop. Mark that the front wheel. Okay. Your turn. Now the Subaru Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive system works very well in all sorts of conditions and we've proven this using our TFL All-Wheel Drive Slip Test. Here we go on to the brake test. I'm just going to hit the brakes. Of course I have ABS brakes in this in this car. So here we go and hard on the brakes. Come on stop. Wow it just keeps going and going. What was that Subaru? One. Two. Five feet. Five dad feet. Yeah five dad feet. So I think there's only one other thing we have to do now. Yep. We've been driving these in the snow for a while. I'll drive the Subaru. Yep. Give you my impressions. Yep. You drive the truck and let's kind of decide which one we'd rather have in a snowstorm. Sure. All right. Yeah let's do it. Which one do you want to take first? You want to take the Subaru first? Sure. Let's do the Subaru first and then we'll do the truck. Yeah let's do it. All right. You know first time in the Subaru in the snow and compared to the truck it's just a lot more manageable. It doesn't have any more grip but I feel like I've got a lot more control and that's probably Tommy because I'm kind of lower to the ground. Lower center of gravity. It's a lot wider a vehicle and I feel like I can toss it around a little bit more in the steep stuff. All right Tommy. You've been driving the Subaru all morning. Now you're behind the wheel of the truck on this icy road. What do you think? Well I know you like how you kind of sit lower in the Subaru. Yeah. I actually like how you sit a little bit higher in the truck especially when you're with traffic. You can see above cars in front of you right so you know there's a snow plow that's causing a delay or what's going on and with this four auto it's nice because you know in the past it used to be that in four-wheel drive trucks were very capable in the snow. In two-wheel drive they were horrible but if you forget to flick it in a four-wheel drive you're going to be sliding all over the place. Part of that has always been because in a truck you've got this big bed in the back with essentially very little weight over the rear tires and that's kind of less of an impact on more modern trucks like this because they have shorter beds than maybe in the past and they've got bigger cabs so the weight distribution is a little bit more even and with this four auto any slippage it'll send power to the front you can distribute it front and back as you've mentioned and it really inspires a lot of confidence and I think these tires have a little bit more grip maybe a lot more grip than the all seasons of the Subaru. Yeah I think if there's one lesson that I would take away from this morning of testing is modern snow tires all-season tires right with the M&S on them are just not good in the snow let's just these are just not good tires if you want any kind of snow safety and stability and traction you gotta get dedicated snow tires because those things bite into the snow it's almost like driving on dry pavement these tires you're never quite sure of where the grip begins and where it ends it's always just a little dicey. Yeah and I will admit I was wrong you know just looking at these tires side by side I thought maybe they would be pretty even out here yeah but this Goodyear Wrangler on this FX4 is much more aggressive and it's giving me a lot more grip out here in the snow. So now we've gone up the hill which is actually quite easy in a big heavy vehicle why don't we turn around and go down the hill and I want to see how much confidence you have with all this weight pushing you down the hill. Yeah let's see. Yeah see what you think. Yeah it's all it's a lot of mass it's got to slow down. Yeah it certainly feels less maneuverable right I mean you're very aware that you have a significant more amount of vehicle and in the Subaru you kind of feel like you can negotiate turns a little bit easier. Yeah I think you should be able to. Well I don't have a strap so that's probably the bigger problem. Keep on trucking dude keep on trucking. All right so this is our dirt hill climb test now Tommy's gonna back on down this hill in the Subaru here's the finish line he's gonna start at the yellow trailhead sign and he's gonna get out of the groove and he's gonna fly up here and we're gonna see how long it takes him to get to this red well orange cone and then we're gonna do the same thing in the Ford to see which one has better traction on a dirt covered snowy hill so I'm gonna get my watch out. Okay hill climb test here we go getting some fresh powder here. All right here we go three two one go. Come on car. He's struggling. Traction control light is flashing real good going a little bit sideways traction control is on. There we have it 18.36 18.36 of that 2.5 liter boxer. How was that? It's pretty scary yeah you're going like sideways. Okay all right now I am in the F-150 and we shall see how this bad boy does going up a dirt hill. Keep in mind that I've just got everything that's bigger. Bigger tires, bigger truck, bigger turbos. Actually Tommy doesn't have any turbos. Bigger truck nuts. So I'm gonna once again kind of try to do the same thing take a line that's through the snow and not through the stuff I just ran over and let's see how this truck does. All right Ford four auto engaged. I'm at the start line. I'm in the snowy patch. Here we go. I'm forward going sideways. Whoa still going sideways. Foot's in it all the way. Oh my god. I almost didn't stop. And that's the trick right? A lot of people who get all-wheel drives or four-wheel drives think that it's really about going when in reality it's about stopping right? You can always get going well for the most part but accidents happen when you can't stop. How fast is that? 14.76. So it was faster yeah but stopping was probably three times as long as it took you to stop. But you were probably going 20% faster. I didn't look. I was too terrified. Yeah I think the reason it took you so much longer it's because you were going so much faster to stop. Yeah that's true. So you build up speed faster but then you don't scrub it off any faster. Yep. All right Tommy if push came to shove in a snowstorm would you rather have the truck or the car? You know if both had the same exact snow tires that equal I would take the car but most specifically the Subaru Outback because that symmetrical all-wheel drive system is really good. I would take the truck. I know I've been kind of down on the truck but I would take the truck because for the reason that you said. First of all you can go farther I think in the truck. And secondly you've got things like recovery hooks that actually let you get out of a snow pile if you get stuck right. Yep. And I do love the fact that you sit taller and you feel like when snowmageddon comes yeah that's the right vehicle to be in. But you know that's also because we live here in the mountains right. If I lived in a place like New York I'd probably take the car. Yeah that makes sense. Well guys thank you for watching. Remember check out tflcar.com and tfltruck.com for more news views and of course real world snow reviews. Snowmageddon reviews. See you guys next time. Ciao. Are you doing 20? Wow. Whoa. That's how slick it is. I just took a pretty big tumble. I mean look there's pretty much ice under here.