CobraKai wrote:
machichi wrote:
I am from upstate New York, and I will say with confidence that every single car you can imagine will be found in Ithaca. Remember that we are WAY more equipped to handle heavy snow up there. From thousands of snow plows to salting trucks, the streets will be pretty manageable all the time. It's in places like Virginia and California where snow is a catastrophic occurrence that brings everything to a screeching halt. Sure it may be wiser to have a more snow-worthy vehicle, but I grew up being shuttled around in a station wagon, an Acura, an Avalon, and a Jetta. Not exactly big cars.
True, but a RWD car is just an accident waiting to happen with any sort of snow/ice.
I lived in Colorado for five years with a RWD sedan. On numerous occasions my car was able to get through tough mountain snowstorms better than friend's FWD vehicles...simply because I had snow tires. As long as you have the proper tires any car can handle the snow without causing an accident.
As for the talk about purchasing a specific car for the snow, I would recommend not wasting your money. It is much cheaper to buy a second set of old wheels and have winter tires mounted in them and to keep whatever car you have. Wait until after b-school to make large purchases once you have an income again. Ithaca is a small town, you honestly won't be doing enough driving to justify the purchase and you'll have buyers remorse very soon after you arrive in Ithaca.
CobraKai, an AWD car without winter cars is a sled, just keep that in mind and make sure you don't have summer tires on the car...even all season tires are no match for snow/ice unless they are the oversized knobby tires.