What to Drive in Winter

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"That's who you always see in the ditch first. People with all-wheel drive can get overconfident," he says.

A Cross-Section

In reviewing which cars were best for winter driving, we took the "be prepared" approach—choosing, for instance, Toyota's (TM) Sienna minivan with optional all-wheel drive, even though a front-wheel-drive model would probably suffice for most people in most regions, most of the time. Rear-wheel drive is on the bottom of the traction totem pole, since nearly all cars have the engine in the front, so there's less weight over the driving wheels, compared with a front-wheel-drive car.

Rather than picking one product segment over another for winter driving—say, SUVs instead of small cars—we included a cross-section of products, to cover a wider range of shopping lists. Nor did we pick one vehicle over another in the same category based on weight. There are arguments both ways on weight. Crosswinds are less likely to blow a heavy vehicle off course, but big, heavy vehicles can also be more top-heavy.

Besides AWD, we also picked vehicles that come with antilock brakes, traction control, and stability control as standard equipment. The growing availability of those features has made driving safer on both dry and slippery roads—but especially on slippery roads, and especially for newer drivers. Antilock brakes in effect "pump" the brakes far faster than a human could do it. Traction control does the same thing when accelerating, instead of slowing down. Those two systems react to forward-and-back motion. Stability control uses the brakes and the throttle to reduce the vehicle's tendency to yaw, or spin around a vertical axis.

Practice Makes Perfect

These systems reduce, but don't eliminate, the need for acquired driver skills. Bob Burns, an off-road driving instructor for Land Rover, says it's still important to practice driving—and especially braking—in the snow and ice, for instance, in an empty parking lot.

"Four-wheel-drive vehicles provide twice the traction for steering and accelerating but offer the same amount of traction for braking as a two-wheel-drive vehicle," he says.

One important reason to practice is that most antilock brake systems make the brake pedal pulsate, or "chatter." Thinking something's wrong, drivers who aren't expecting that can react the wrong way and let up on the brakes. Burns also recommends practice steering while braking at the same time.

John Kochevar, president of the International Ice Racing Assn., based in St. Paul, Minn., says that in racing on frozen lakes, all-wheel-drive cars have such an advantage over all other cars, they're automatically put in the most competitive bracket of street-legal cars.

Not that we advocate racing on the ice, except on a closed course. For everywhere else: "Ice and snow, take it slow, or just don't go."

Click here to see a roundup of the best cars for winter driving.

Jim Henry is a reporter covering the automotive industry and automotive trends in BusinessWeek's New York office.