Starting to do some thinking. I have plans on just making my civic a straight scca car and grabbing a used Focus, definitely a hatchie style. Just seeing everyones opinions on how it handles in the snow/winter. Tire make/model and size would be awesome if its not too much. Moving up to a state where I have to take winter into thought lol Thanks!

i'd say it handles like any other car on the snow. depends if you get a stick or automatik. sticks are easier to control on the snow IMO.

definitely a stick, i cant stand auto lol

i think my car handles just fine, unless its windy and im driving over 55mph, then it sucks ass

i drove mine through 2 seasons of harsh ohio winters, first winter i had my stock 17s with summer tread and i did fairly well, the tc helped in some occasions. the next season i bought some 16sx6 and did very good. but you will probably just buy a regular zx3-5 without traction control so i think it should be good especially with that 5spd manual.

I would definately grab some snow tires. I drove mine for 3 winter seasons with the stock Firehawks and it was quite interesting. On snow covered and/or icy roads, the car will go wherever it is aimed, but the rear end feels almost like driving a forklift. Quite a strange feeling. I finally broke down and got a set of Blizzak WS50s and the car feels solid as a rock, now. 195/60R15 is the size I'm running and the car has no driver aids. As the others have said, a manual transmission is the best way to go.

It handles predictably; that is, like a front-heavy front driver. Understeers like mad, I've never had the tail go out on me in the SVT, which is safe, just no fun at all.

I've got a set of 205/55R16 Hankook W300 snows on some ZX3 stockers, I'm happy with the tires, definitely a good investment. If I needed a dedicated winter car, honestly, it'd probably be an old Subaru or a Toyota pickup, the Focus just isnt much fun in the snow.

yeah, i was thinking about something AWD. I've never had a car payment before, I've always been a cash guy, so I was hopefully gonna do the same thing with the Focus and buy it outright and get a small loan to do some tinkering under the hood.

the best thing you can do for a focus in the snow is to buy snow tires. i ran pirelli winter carving in 185/65/15 size and they did awesome, i was doing much better than the stupid people in their SUV's around here. . .

GET SNOW TIRES and you will be good 17x7 performance tires = oh shiiiiitttt

Not bad with all seasons, if your not lowered

^ agreed

but like stated before, understeers like a yugo, i need an alignment now
(thats what i get for getting some girl to drive my drunk ass home in my own car in the snow)

^lol that sucks but i would rather pay for an alignment then a dui

i unfortunetly hit a patch of black ice while going around a U turn. just glad that i saw the melting snow onto the road soon enough to brake. fishtailed like a mofo but somehow stayed on road. glad it was just a little spot [:D] lol or i would be replying to the "totaled" threads

I run my factory 195/60/15's on my 05 ZX3 and it does pretty good in the snow. I would not want to try driving in the snow with my 17's. I am not that brave....... LOL

It does ok, about like any other FWD car. It does fine int he flats, but climbing any hills in the snow is a joke (weight transfers to the rear wheels and the fronts just spin) I try to avoid driving in the snow if I can with the focus, and instead drive one of my jeeps. But thats partly because I have a long, steep, and twisty road to climb to my house. I have driven up it in about 2" of snow, it I made it, but just barely. I would have made it fine if I chained up, which I do I have to do if chain requirements go up, and they go up a lot. But for most of the winter, the car stays buried under a few feet of snow.

If you are going to live in the flats, than a FWD car will most likely be fine. If its an area with hills that has chain requirements (all west coast states) then get a 4wd. An AWD car works ok so long as the snow isn't any deeper than 5" or so. Then ground clearance becomes an issue, and you can prematurely wear out the viscous coupler in the t-case.

understeer yes, although due to the focus' relatively high ground clearance (compared to other small cars) the car performs pretty well in the snow imo. get some snow tires or all season radials and you'll be fine. i used to live where it snowed from october till may and i lived on a hill ( a steep one ) i never got stuck (usually 2" - 5" snow) and made it up the hill every time (with some work). as long as you drive reasonably in winter conditions you should be fine. just my two cents, lol

snow tires+ 3 feet of snow= snow plowing focus, my auto focus made it home in 3 feet of snow and it was roughly a 5 mile trip, i was very surprised i got it to move it was so dang deep, i couldnt get my doors open, yet pushed tons of snow up on my hood as i was driving lol

i say the focus does decent in the snow if you have a good driver handling the vehicle correctly

I voted great, but that's mostly because I have a LSD plus winter tires and big front brakes so my Focus handles better than most in the snow. Haven't had much need for it thus far (we've only had one really bad snowstorm even here in the snowbelt), but last winter we had a really bad storm one night and I was easily outdriving four-wheel-drive vehicles on the highway without a problem.

Mine handles terribly!!

we JUST got some snow in Iowa and I had a chance to drive Focus for the FIRST time on the snow. Not bad at all. Mine is a stick so I have better control of stopping and starting without getting the wheels spinning too soon.

First, I'll give you a little bit of background. In 2001, I got my license in Florida at the age of 18. From that date until fall of 2004, I had only ever driven in that climate where the biggest worry was slow drivers, puddles, and hurricanes (the focus was a great car to drive in the middle of a hurricane btw).

In fall of 2004, I moved to Pittsburgh for work. Having never driven in snow before, I decided to roll the dice and give it a whirl. My zx3 has a five speed manual, the stock 15" alloy wheels, and is the barebones 02 focus (only option was a/c). I had no problems in the snow driving that car. Never got stuck, got into a few skids or spins here and there, but I was always able to get myself out of trouble, despite having no experience with the climate.

That said, I would have to say that the focus is an awesome car for snow driving. My wife's 2004 Chevy Malibu, ummm, not so much. When it snowed, we took my car as we were less likely to wreck or get stuck in it.

P zero nero's are adequate in snow.

thats what i have now and i dont think they are much better than my stock conti were

Everyone thinks that all-season tires are just fine for winter driving until they try snow tires...its night and day. Back before I even had my LSD installed the snow tires alone made a huge difference for my car over all-seasons. I stand by the addage that all-season tires are mediocre at best during all seasons.

Everyone thinks that all-season tires are just fine for winter driving until they try snow tires...its night and day. Back before I even had my LSD installed the snow tires alone made a huge difference for my car over all-seasons. I stand by the addage that all-season tires are mediocre at best during all seasons.

this is the truth - all season high performance tires are an oxymoron - like i said before get snow tires- its fun to have great grip in the snow

it fwd....so guess :o))

while I drive and have fun in any snow depth, my friend put his Firebird V8 into garage. [:D]

he's ashamed to talk about it. [:D]

Pretty sure not having snow tires really hurts my performance and the rear end is super light. So if it didnt sit most of the winter thats what I would fix.

man i just got my focus and it being so light and having z rated tires on it .. um its like drving a rear wheel drive car ... other than that no complaints

I've got Z rated Fuzions on 16s right now and I have quite a battle everytime that it snows and gets icy out. The front wheels fight for traction and the ass end always wants to go it's own way. Too many times I've fishtailed the car doing only 20-35mph. I think that having an auto is probably the key problem too. If I had a MTX equipped fofo, being able to drive in the gear that I want to would help out quite a bit.

It handles predictably; that is, like a front-heavy front driver. Understeers like mad, I've never had the tail go out on me in the SVT, which is safe, just no fun at all.

Really? Sure, you can't do those smokin' power-oversteer doughnuts that the knuckledraggers in their Mustangs love to do in the high school parking lot, but steering a Focus with your foot is easy in snow. (You can do it in the dry, too, it just takes more speed to break it loose.) Go in a little too hot under power and she'll plow well enough, but just lift throttle and the rear end will whip around like a sum'bitch; that car will swap ends (YAAA-HOOO!!!) faster than John Kerry could swap position papers!

In the old days, before rally racers routinely were AWD, it was instructive to watch how the old Saab drivers (by "old Saab," I mean the 96 and 99 series back in the '70's) could power-slide around hairpin bends. Stig Blomqvist pioneered and mastered a technique of simultaneous braking and throttle that enabled him to become one of the greatest rally drivers of all time - mostly in Saabs. (By the way, he was driving with the Audi team in the early '80s, in the first AWD rally cars, the original Audi Quattros.) The technique involved going hot into the bend under full throttle - normally suicidal in a FWD car - while feathering the brake with the side of the right foot. Ease on the brake and you got plowing understeer, too much onto the brake would give you oversteer. But just the right balance could achieve a nice neutral drift. Blomqvist would enter with that neutral drift and then - at precisely the right instant - would simultaneously stab the brake and twitch the wheel and WHAMMO!, that Saab's rear end would snap sharply around into position for him to power out of the corner.

His Saabs were underpowered compared to his competition, which caused him to lose ground in the straights, but in the curves and corners, he kicked everbody's ass. And, crucial in rally racing, he kept his cars on the track and racing while the others in their rear-wheel-drive Ford Escorts, BMW 2002s and Datsun 510s were miring down, flipping over or launching off ass-first into the trees.

His cars were fitted with GINORMOUS front brake rotors which glowed brilliant orange-red in the dark from all the abuse he heaped on them. Blomqvist proved that it was possible - with the proper technique - to drive FWD cars very fast indeed.

Many people, including lots of people here at Focus Fanatics, talk about FWD as if it was something a car should apologize for having. From my experience, FWD has its own advantages to exploit in high performance driving. It's just that Americans are typically so street/drag racing oriented that these advantages either go unrecognized or are deemed irrelevant.

Starting to do some thinking. I have plans on just making my civic a straight scca car and grabbing a used Focus, definitely a hatchie style. Just seeing everyones opinions on how it handles in the snow/winter. Tire make/model and size would be awesome if its not too much. Moving up to a state where I have to take winter into thought lol Thanks!
I have no quarrel with the car in snow. But the stock Pirelli P600s (P205/50R16s), which stick like cyanoacrylate to dry pavement, do not grab that well on the ice and snow. Part of it is the tread pattern, but I think most of it is the rubber compound. This tire is billed as an "all-season" tire, but it is definitely biased more toward dry-road, summer temperature performance, NOT for the 15-to-20-below-zero stuff we've been getting here in Wisconsin lately. At those temps, the rubber turns to the consistency of a hockey puck - which is, by the way, RUBBER, and designed to slide over ice with as little friction as possible, exactly what you DON'T want in a tire compound.

If I wasn't so cheap, I would buy a special winter wheel/tire combo. Instead, I drive a little slower, brake sooner, and in general stay in lower gears, allowing me to use more engine braking. As long as I don't drive like an idiot, I'm fine.

It could be worse. When I lived in Seattle, it was not as cold and it snowed less often. But when it did snow, I had to get around going up (and down, which is much worse!) 30%-40% grades! And I did it in my VW Rabbits and Golfs. By comparison, getting around Madison, WI is a cinch!

I snagged some stock 04 alloy rims for 100$ then put some dunlop m3 winter sports on them in 195/65R15 they fit fine with stock height 07

they work great on everything except deep snow 6+" and sheet ice.
sheet ice is ok as long as you are moving.. but forget about it on a hill
(this is where studded helps more)

If its a svt I think 16" is the smallest because of brakes?

^
There are a few aftermarket 15s that a SVT's brakes can fit under, but I have no idea which ones.

Personally, I've been rolling around on Pirelli SnowSport 210s in 205/55 16 for the past two and a half winters. They're great tires, handle exceptionally on dry pavement and are great in the snow. I had to run them over the summer when some low-life stole my 17s after my dad left them sitting out when he had to use my old truck so two of them are pretty much done (I have them on the rears now,) once TireRack stops charging premium prices for snow tires in the spring/summer I'm going to pick up another set in 195/50 16. The size I have now (205/55) only rubs when I cut the wheel to either extreme, but there's a $10 price difference per tire with the smaller profile, and you're supposed to run slimmer tires in the winter anyways.

My ZX3 with Blizzaks does really well.

mine is awesome!


and i can definitely tear up some parking lots with my FWD donuts. hahahahaha. :D

mine is horrible, I have conti extreme contacts which are all season tires but they are average at best in any season

5-speed, LSD, and Blizzaks made for an easy drive when we got our dash of snow and ice. I would have been to work sooner if it wasn't for a cop holding up traffic (flashed his lights breifly as I went to pass)

http://thumbs.vidiac.com/54bf2d5d-ec28-43ff-ae76-98da006f2fb6.jpg (http://videos.streetfire.net/video/54bf2d5d-ec28-43ff-ae76-98da006f2fb6.htm)Click here to see Video (http://videos.streetfire.net/video/54bf2d5d-ec28-43ff-ae76-98da006f2fb6.htm)

Quite well, apparently. :)

like most other fwd cars -- snow tires would help.

I don't know if there is something wrong with my car, but my SVT gets really squirrely when there is ice on the ground. Snow isn't too bad, but the car sucks to drive on ice. And then there is the obvious problem of if there is more than like 4 inches of snow on the ground or high drifts clearance becomes an issue.

^
Most cars are pretty bad on ice...even with studded tires or chains. Not much you can do about ice aside from hoping you don't lose control.

Yeah, that and poo yourself if things get too squirrely. No, but seriously, my car was in service for most of the last winter storm and I had an 06 Taurus as a loaner. The Taurus did way better in the ice than my Focus does. I think there is something screwy with my tires or the car may need an alignment.

up where i live it get a bit extreme. a few weeks ago it was +11c. in 2hrs it droped to -35c... top that geat stuff, wind chill was -47c. we get weather like this all the time. i love my focus mostly because it only takes 2kms to not. everyone i know (all diif cars) max out on 3 fan speed. when i turn it to 4. to say the least it really blows!

when stock w/ 195/60/15 ran like any aother front drive but w/ motor mount ,
and konis w/tc turned off it goes n snow well almost great..no lsd yet+ i c snow fly off both wheels.mostly off left though.suspension solves understeer for most part.if u push it hard it willkick the rear out on command or just push to limit of traction.so predictable.my front tires do have more tread than rear.and its my daily beater/autoxer..just make sure u dont bottom out...damn shouldve got coilovers.[spank] lol FF

mine handles good just had some snow 2 weeks ago and it did great have the Zx-3 with the 5 speed and it was great still running the stock tires

http://thumbs.vidiac.com/54bf2d5d-ec28-43ff-ae76-98da006f2fb6.jpg (http://videos.streetfire.net/video/54bf2d5d-ec28-43ff-ae76-98da006f2fb6.htm)Click here to see Video (http://videos.streetfire.net/video/54bf2d5d-ec28-43ff-ae76-98da006f2fb6.htm)

Quite well, apparently. :)

HAHA! Good one, but I don't think that counts. [hihi]

I used to have a 93 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX. It was a killer winter beater heh
btw, I think my focus handles just about average in the snow. no big problems

its ok

we had a sudden fierce snow storm (rare where im at) hit so.oregon. i was zipping right around most cars. im impressed with its performance in the snow.

Im running on pirelli all season p6...handling in snow is decent...but i will say that 2 years i have been driving it,its never gotten stuck in snow,i have always gotten out of a parking spot even with a substantial amount of ice& snow...so on second thought....its pretty good

Eibach sportlines+Fuzion tires=baaaaad times.

My car sits about 3 inches off the ground (if that) and have summer rubber, i thought i was going to die.....the back end was all over the place, and nowhere near where i wanted it to be, of course there was 3 inches of standing snow and glare ice under it......wisconsin snow patrols suck

listen up! i've driven many types of vehicles and my svt is hands down the most enthusiastic fun driver i've driven, so i understand other owners love for the car!, but... without "SNOW TIRES"(or at least all-seasons) you're askin for it!! i.e. in a ditch!

I think the TC and ABS are fantastic in bad weather. It is night and day compared to the 01 ZX2 and 04 PZEV Focus I previously owned. They weren't equipped with either.

Either get some 15's or keep the stock 15's on if you have 'em...with the taller sidewall associated w/ a 15" wheel (as opposed to a 17") you'll be able to "carve" through the snow instead of floating on top.

The Focus is awsome in the snow (best if you have a manual IMO) and since its so light-weight you don't really need to spend the money on TC or ABS.

I run with the Yokahama Ice Guard snow tires (set of 4) and the 15 inch steelies from
December till mid March, never a problem in ice or snow for the last two years. I drive mostly interstate 100 miles per day round trip. Gas mileage really drops off due to the increase of wheel weight and the low inflation of the snow tire (only 32 psi).

In my experience - the focus is awesome in the snow. Both my old 02 zx3 and my new 07 have been great in it. However, both had the same size tire (195/60/15) and the manual transmission. That said, it's the winter warrior when there's snow on the ground. It's far easier to control the car if you have a manual than an automatic. Then again, I couldn't stand any focus I've driven with the automatic - they were no fun and not as easy to control in the snow.

For a dedicated snow car, the focus is pretty great. I learned to drive in winter with my 02 (moved to pittsburgh from tampa in that car).

GET SNOW TIRES and you will be good 17x7 performance tires = oh shiiiiitttt

*LOL* SO FRIGGIN TRUE!

One season on those 17's was enough for me to make a choice... do I buy life insurance and funeral arrangements, or snow tires?

Blizzaks make my ride a BEAST. I love passing yuppies in their 4X4's

My ST does pretty good for the snow at least here for OK. I remember though that I did slide done a hill and hit my rims on a curb (there were some words that were R Rated). But that was because I lost alot of tread on my tires at that time.

Most of it, I think, relies on the driver. There are plenty of SUV's that I see stuck or overturned here when the going gets tough. ie.

http://bonzermedia.com/misc/carnage06/carnage1.jpg
God bless Texas


Its all about planning ahead and paying attention. Also helps to be able to predict what the j@ck@ss in front of you is going to do. If you see plates from some fair weathered state, stay away! Sorry to you folks out there, nothing personal but whoever you have representing out here are piss poor drivers in bad weather.

uh well 2 feet of snow yesterday, made it home not a problem on all seasons, snow would been nice, only thing is my brakes drivers front seem to free when we get more then 2 feet at a time, but eventually i break them loose

overall its good inthe snow, on icey its a lil wierd and a lil nerver racking but even in my jeep it sucks to drive on ice

I loved my SVT in the snow with my 16 inch winter wheels and Bridgestone Blizzacks. I felt like a rally driver, less grip but plenty of control and WAY more grip even than the SUV's running around with their pathetic all season tires. I was e-braking around corners like it was no-bodies business!

yeah the 16's are key, been on my list for a while. but I have gotten around ok out here in CO with all seasons, just gotta pay attention and not get too silly.