#Manual vs automatic in snow manual

Although if you are driving slow enough you can select 2 on the shifter and it keeps it in second gear, preventing unexpected shifts and as B&B mentioned puts it into a 50:50(front:rear) torque split. If you are decelerating down hill around a corner on ice and the transmission downshifts it can change the traction slightly.

#Manual vs automatic in snow manual

I've driven both in the snow, I have driven the manual a lot more and it's amazing, I haven't pushed the limits with the automatic as much so it's hard to compare but I haven't had any indication that the auto is any less capable.įor me there are rare times when driving on an icy road that I don't like the automatic as much because I don't know 100% when it's going to shift. The OP was asking about a SF Forester, the SF automatic does not have VDC or a CVT it's a 4EAT with a MPT center coupling. The main concern with winter conditions in Ottawa, is the traffic gridlock that accompanies it. The 8.7' road clearance combined with AWD does remove a lot of the drama usually associated with winter driving. My 2011 4EAT (with snow tires) handles the Ottawa winter driving conditions very well although the most challenging conditions it's been through is going through the snow bank left by the plow at the foot of my driveway so I wouldn't say I have driven in it in real challenging conditions. Lots of YouTube videos on this and it's amazing to me how much wheel spin has to happen before the VDC kicks in.Īs noted by Asleep, winter tires work best for winter conditions and most videos I've seen of Foresters struggling in the snow are a direct result of not having snow tires. The auto transmission cars have VDC which will engage to individuals brake a spinning wheel so torque can be sent to the wheel on the other side. The manual transmission applies power 50:50 front/rear all the time whereas the 4EAT auto transmission in the SH can vary the power transfer depending on conditions however manually placing it in 2 will apply the power 50:50 front rear similar to the manual.

While a manual transmission is more likely to 'chatter' when going slow the auto will not which is why the auto is preferred for off road which may require inching ahead slowly at times which is something you may also encounter in deep snow.

I've come to generally prefer modern ATs in the snow, and hope my '15 XT with CVT comes through this coming winter as I live in a town that gets more then 90 inches most years, which is fine by me because I like to play in the stuff.Īny choice of transmission will perform way better with decicated, true winter rated tires in real snow, and the AWs that Subaru has been putting on Foresters for years don't cut it in my book. It's not pretty/graceful, but it works, sometimes. You can sometimes do a modified rocking maneuver by using the brakes to hold the vehicle at each end of the rock until the transmission catches up, but that doesn't work if the thing slides back down into the rut while you're waiting. There's a built in engagement delay when shifting between forward and reverse that seems to vary from mildly annoying to extremely frustrating, particularly(?) with the high-torque CVT used in XTs. Click to expand.Don't plan on being able to rock a Subaru CVT the same way you can with most conventional ATs.