Thinking about buying a new car. Plan to occasionally drive to Tahoe in the winter, 1-2 per month. Would adding AWD be worth it?
Nope. Snow chains are just fine.
It better to have it, so you don’t have to crawl around the car installing chains. Very hard task for software coders
laughed at people putting on chains in a blizzard as i sped past towards boreal with AWD
Were you using regular mud+snow (m+s) tires? We're they giving you enough grip? I used to drive a lot in snowy/icy conditions and unless I had studs, it was tricky, even on AWD.
nope, all season! if you’re driving in a snowy area all season then winters are the way to go with tired. otherwise all seasons are just fine. if you used winters to drive up to tahoe from the bay area, the roads will eat up your tire and you won’t get as much life out of it.
AWD in deep snow is useless unless you turn off traction control. AWD is waayy better for slick roads.
How often do you find yourself in deep snow in Tahoe? Do you go off the main roads?
Totally. Under certain road conditions police only allows 4wds or 2wds with snow chain on the road. So having a 4wd could save you the hassle/expense of putting on the chains
How often do these conditions actually happen?
I have been up there only 2-3 times, I am not an expert on the topic. What I gathered is when the snow actually falls they tend to have this regulation in effect because it is impossible to keep all the roads clear of snow. That is pretty frequent during the winter period