Winter driving questions for my Ontario friends

[svr21]

Hey guys! I'm from Vancouver but this winter I will be living in Waterloo, Ontario. I can either bring my 1st gene r8 over or the m4. I know the Ontario winters are quite rough but I am leaning towards bringing the m4 as it's more of a "beater" for me.(also r8 is manual while m4 is dct). I would surely put the cars with winter tires but I don't know if winter tires are enough to keep me on the road with the m4's rwd. I guess my question is: Can I daily the m4 in Ontario winter? If so how hard is it? Would the r8's Quattro do significantly better?
Thanks!

[Maitre_Absolut]

If you were downtown Toronto I'd say no problem with DD either. Think Waterloo gets alot more snow though

[2kaccordocoupe]

Agreed. For the GTA you can 4 season daily both of those cars.

I slap on pilot alpin pa4 for the winter on my m4 and it's a stable beast. No issues going to blue mountain all winter.

The only limitation is deep snow due to the obvious ride height.

[justus4]

I'm in Kitchener and I've done one winter with the M4. My DD before the M4 was also a RWD coupe. I would say you can get by with good winter tires as long as you are mindful of deep snow and hills. My biggest struggle was backing up onto my driveway and driving up the small hill my house is on. Other than that, I haven't gotten into any trouble in the past 7 years that I'm in Ontario.

[maul3d]

Is the R8 a V8??

[325iExecutive]

Dedicated winter tires and you will be fine. Keep a light foot and drive according to the conditions.

I am in the GTA but daily drive my 6MT F80 with winters. Never had a problem.

[al_bundy]

I know you said your M4 is more of your beater but if you plan to keep your cars for a moderately long time, perhaps you can venture into getting a cheap beater, put winter tires on and drive it through the winter. After winter, just drive the beater into the lake (ok, I meant sell it). In winter times, salt is a certainty and once that salt gets into the car which it will as long as your car is on the road, there is no turning back and the car will eventually rust. Secondly, pot holes ..... they can even screw up forged rims so I will leave it here. You are from the west side so you may not need to deal with salt and pot holes so you may have overlooked these.

If you have already considered these and don't mind them then I suggest taking the M4. Ride height issue does cause concerns for you in Ontario and with some accumulation, some curbs could be covered up so the M4 gives a bit more cushion than the R8. Plus I am sure you will not just keep yourself to Waterloo and you probably will come to Toronto from time to time. An average Toronto driver is actually not very average and I don't think you want to risk the R8.

Just my $0.02.

[tyau]

Not trying to hijack this thread.
What kind of Winter tires do you guys use?
I am wondering what is the narrowest / smallest you can fit.
I searched tirerack and I think the smallest is 245/45R18 square.
Anyone attempted to use 17"?
Thanks.
Tommy

[svr21]

Originally Posted by maul3d

Is the R8 a V8??

yep

[svr21]

Originally Posted by al_bundy

I know you said your M4 is more of your beater but if you plan to keep your cars for a moderately long time, perhaps you can venture into getting a cheap beater, put winter tires on and drive it through the winter. After winter, just drive the beater into the lake (ok, I meant sell it). In winter times, salt is a certainty and once that salt gets into the car which it will as long as your car is on the road, there is no turning back and the car will eventually rust. Secondly, pot holes ..... they can even screw up forged rims so I will leave it here. You are from the west side so you may not need to deal with salt and pot holes so you may have overlooked these.

If you have already considered these and don't mind them then I suggest taking the M4. Ride height issue does cause concerns for you in Ontario and with some accumulation, some curbs could be covered up so the M4 gives a bit more cushion than the R8. Plus I am sure you will not just keep yourself to Waterloo and you probably will come to Toronto from time to time. An average Toronto driver is actually not very average and I don't think you want to risk the R8.

Just my $0.02.

Thanks for the input, I will think more about it! Definitely gonna remove the front lip if I drive the m4 in winter.

[pokerface]

Originally Posted by tyau

Not trying to hijack this thread.
What kind of Winter tires do you guys use?
I am wondering what is the narrowest / smallest you can fit.
I searched tirerack and I think the smallest is 245/45R18 square.
Anyone attempted to use 17"?
Thanks.
Tommy

18s already pretty tight. I don't believe 17s will clear the brakes

[pokerface]

Originally Posted by al_bundy

<snip>perhaps you can venture into getting a cheap beater, put winter tires on and drive it through the winter. After winter, just drive the beater into the lake (ok, I meant sell it). In winter times, salt is a certainty and once that salt gets into the car which it will as long as your car is on the road, there is no turning back and the car will eventually rust. Secondly, pot holes ..... they can even screw up forged rims so I will leave it here. You are from the west side so you may not need to deal with salt and pot holes so you may have overlooked these.
<snip>

I echo this - cheap AWD SUV beater. less stress esp when normal driving rules are adhered to even less in snow storms.