Funny thing happened .....

Well, I finally got to drive my Element in the snow and I actually scared myself. I have a 2003 Honda Element with the " Real-Time four-wheel drive." I have driven front-wheel drive cars, rear-wheel drive cars and four-wheel drive trucks on snow but this was my first outing in a vehicle with this kind of setup. Going into a corner off the gas it rolled through nicely. I touched the gas and turned the wheel sharply and the damn thing went into a four-wheel drift. I nearly shit myself. I let off the gas and it straightened right up. I've never driven anything that acted like this and wondered if this is what I should expect from this type of setup, or is it just a result of too much go pedal and not enough knowledge about the characteristics of the drivetrain? For those of you with AWD cars a little input would be nice. Even though my son thought it was fun, I don't want to do that again.

Unexpectedly anyway!!!:evillol:

drift good....snow bad...BAD!...

*arm raking motion*

Go to an empty parking lot and get a feel for how the car will handle in the snow.

4wd dougnuts are the shit!

also so what you sold the camaro?

In my AWD durango, I can get into some pretty sweet drifts. As a matter of fact i was doing that yesterday. Anyways, to keep from going into a drift like that dont press the "go pedel" until you are pointing straight. AWD only helps in straight lines, corners it can kill you. Take the advice and go spin around in a parking lot and get a feel for when it breaks traction turning. Drive in a circle slowly (a large circle) and slowly speed up until it breaks traction. And when you get really familiar with you car you can do AWD donuts. It just takes careful modulation of the Gas pedal, also dont use the breaks, if you do you'll end up facing the wrong direction, or sideways to the path you want to take, if you need to slow down fast, drop it into a lower gear, if auto just pull the thing into 2nd of 1st. Oh and drive with overdrive off.

That's the way my GSX acted in the snow. As long as I remembered to be really gentle with the gas everything would be fine but as soon as you get on it all 4 will loose traction and it'll scare the shit out of you the first few times you do it on the road.

sounds like fun....

4wd dougnuts are the shit!

also so what you sold the camaro?


Camaro??? I think you have me confused with the other Redneck.
The snow here is gone so it will probable be next year before I get to do much experimenting.

Depends on the vehicle and its tires...If I push the legacy in he snow eventually I am going to lose traction and go into a full drift OR understeer like crazy...depending on the type of turn and speed I put in

and VinventDurango AWD will help you in the turns...if in mid turn only 1 tire has traction power is going to be at that tire vs fwd or rwd where its only a 50/50 chance

Don't get me wrong I don't think AWD is the winter savior ( I actually prefer the Protege to the legacy because its more predictable)...but it can help you in turning situations

but not stopping situations, which is where I think its needed the most in winter

Camaro??? I think you have me confused with the other Redneck.
The snow here is gone so it will probable be next year before I get to do much experimenting.


yea, don't you guys rarely get snow down there in Carbondale???

yea, don't you guys rarely get snow down there in Carbondale???


Depends. I'm not really in Caarbondale, i'm 28 miles south in Jonesboro. Last year, we got 16 inches of snow then 5 days later we got another 5 inches. This year I don't think we got a total of 8 inches all winter. At least C'dale cleans their roads. Here, they clean the main roads and some of the backstreets but the "backroads" get left to fend for themselves. Thats where the fun is.:evillol:

^freakin sweet, you're gonna' have to show them back roads when I come down there in my z :D

I know how you can keep it from happening again.































Sell the God damned thing. Everything that can be wrong with a car is with the Honda Element.

I happen to like my Element. Why the hell do people get so pissy when they talk about these things? I haven't found 1 reason to not like this thing. I hauled my wife, a recliner and a loveseat in the damn thing in a fucking thunderstorm 40 miles and nothing got wet we were comfortable and I got 22 mpg in the sumbitch. I couldn't do that in my Blazer, Explorer or my F-150...