Comparison of RT vs OTHER in snow, personal experience only!

LoudLowNslowLoudLowNslow Band Wagon
in General Civic Wagon Discussion
Whats up guys.. I'm still searching for a clean rt, stick shift. My only worry is how it will handle snow. My current winter beater is an 89 Jeep Cherokee. This thing is an absolute animal in the snow, I love it. Its old, rusty, has 242k miles, but that 4.0 is dead on reliable and the 4wd is incredible. Only problem, I get consistent MPG's of 13.5-14. This is why Im looking for an RT civic.. I like honda's alot, and miss my 92 eg hatch.

So, How do these RT's do in snow, realistically? I'd like input on how they do, compared to other vehicles.. People with input who have actually driven other 4wd vehicles in the snow.. I live in MA, we typically get a few good storms every year, and Im in NH and VT quite a bit and they get alot of snow.. Thanks for any help! -Paul

Ive searched, "snow" "winter" "RT4wd". Im looking for comparisons from personal experiences, an RT vs another 4wd vehicle.

PUBLIC APOLOGY

Sorry for the other (now locked) thread. Theres alot of good info on this site and I'd like to stick around. Just trying to decide if an RT would suite my needs, as I've never driven one. Im not a n00b to forums, I have browsed/searched. Sorry for any prior hostility.-Paul

Comments

  • ragenasianragenasian Moderator
    If you really want to know how well they do in the snow go on youtube. There are plenty of vids of some of our members killing the snow. There is more than one place to do your homework.

    To answer your question though I have a Cr-V, the RT, and a Mitsubishi Delica (lifted 4wd mini-van) and they all perform about the same. The only difference is that the RT isn't full time 4wd but when we had some deep snow here in Germany it didn't miss a beat. When the big BMW's and Mercedes were all in the ditch the little RT was powering up the hills with no problems. There is something nice about having something relatively small and 4wd vs big, bulky, and 4wd.
  • LoudLowNslowLoudLowNslow Band Wagon
    Thank you for the input, this is what i'm looking for. I was looking at cr-v's, but I like civics and would rather something rare like an RT wag. Ive driven several 4wds through snow, including a Suburban, Ram 1500, subaru legacy, Cherokee, and a few chevy pickups. The subaru I guess would compare the most to the civic, or atleast with the ground clearance. But like I said ive never driven an RT so I cant compare the two..
  • pyroskater6912pyroskater6912 Wagonist
    i know its not exactly what you're looking for, as its not 4wd, but i just got my first chance to drive in the snow since picking up my rt (i'm the mountains of western PA so we get a good bit of snow) and in comparison to my other car (saturn ion) with studded snow tires, and the rt is 10x better. i wasnt sure about it, but it stays planted on the road and my unplowed parking lot, and no problems with tires spinning in the snow
  • LoudLowNslowLoudLowNslow Band Wagon
    Again, thank you for the reply! That info is helpful! The winter beater I had last year was a 92 eg hatch.. I had snow tires on it, and it handled snow pretty well. I'm going to sell the jeep in spring and start my search for a clean rt.. Seems that with snow tires they do pretty well.. Any comparison for an rt to a cr-v? I was considering one of those too, but
    It seems like the rt will get me better MPGs, and they're a lot cooler than a cr-v..
  • superhatchsuperhatch Moderator
    I have yet to drive my RT in the snow (down for the winter for a motor build) but I have driven many, many other Hondas in the snow and they have all had a good set of snow tires on them. I always do as well as, if not better than, most AWD/4WD vehicles with all seasons, and I can only imagine that an RT with a nice skinny 185/60 snow tire would just kill it.
  • 91civicZC91civicZC Wagonist
    I’ve driven Rwd trucks, a few jeeps and plenty of civics and FWDs in the snow. Currently the RT Wagon Civic is still my favorite.

    It doesn’t have the clearance for going through huge piles of the stuff, but on snowy roads/parking lots with proper snow tires, the wagon really seems to be the most controllable I’ve driven. I get enough feedback that I know exactly what’s going on, and the car remains quick to respond to steering controls. In jeeps and trucks the reaction always feels slow, and you feel too disconnected from the road.

    That’s just my 2 cents.
  • Dave_MatthewsDave_Matthews Band Wagon
    Here in Northwest Indiana, South Bend to be exact, we get plenty of lake effect snow - The RTAWD wagon is unstoppable.

    We took it to a great alignment guy who does race cars last summer. He said it had three limited slip differentials on it, one in front, one on the rear and of course the front to rear kicks in when needed.

    I've never seen references to this being the standard setup, but this guy is wonderfully qualified and he seemed impressed with it being limited slip all the way around and completely stock.

    I've tried to test it by flooring it on ice hard snow, sand and pure ice... no wheel spin what so ever... seems to be limited slip all the way around to me... :)

    The thing is so stable in the snow and ice it's dangerous. The girlfriend thought the roads weren't bad one day, then noticed three big 4WD trucks in the ditch out on the country roads - she was having no problems!

    Dave
  • nwWagoRTnwWagoRT New Wagonist
    It's all good until you start braking. You gotta remember that even though you can go better than other cars on the road you can't stop any better.
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