We brought home our first Volvo today. It is a 1993 940 station wagon non turbo. It has 4 new all season radials. We had about an inch of snow when we brought her home. My wife drove and I followed in our truck. Our problem is the tires break lose very quickly. I have the led foot, she doesn't. Is this normal? Do we need snow tires or weight? If weight, how much? Thanks for any help. Matt

I too am a lead footed driver and found that keeping a hand on the gearshift knob works wonders. As soon as one wheel breaks loose, I shift to neutral. After control is regained, I put it back into drive with just a little bit of throttle to make it smooth.
Better to buy 4 mounted snows. Keep your nice wheels out of the salt.

Klaus
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98 V70Rawd(101Kmi), 95 854T(85K mi), 75 164E(173K mi)

I hate to tell you but that's pretty much normal. It's something you've gotta get used to. The cars handle very well in the snow but being a rear wheel drive car traction on the drive wheels is just lousy. A decent set of winter tires will make a huge difference.
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'93 945 turbo. A big comfy box.... and a '90 Mazda 626 GT turbo, 16psi on upgraded turbo and a bunch of other mods.

"inch of snow"

I have two volvos in my household and live in Montreal canada
We have a few feet of snow and ice.

The cars are very good, need to be driven the right way though.

Firstly YES to snow tires and YES to all four wheels. Studs? Sure if you want.

Weight? It depends where you drive. For highway, I would say no to weight. for city, parking, uphills, etc I would say yes. You can accomplish fine with two 20k bags of gravel from Home depot at a couple dollars.

On my cars I never added weight. Not needed, wife has no problem.
she drives the 940 with limited slip diff which helps acceleration. I drive the 240 with non-limited slip and have no issues either.

Thing is, easy on the gas if you feel the wheels spin, and easy on the turns.

In many way rwd gives more (but harder) user control of the vehicle. with fwd you lose your steering when you spin the wheels. With rwd you lose your rear end. I personally prefer the latter option.

Enjoy! Drive it like a rwd car and you will love it.

Greg Mustang
Montreal
Canada

Put a full set of studded Nokians on all four and throw a couple of sacks of kitty litter in the back and drive.
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-------Robert, '93 940t, '90 240 wagon, '84 240 diesel (she's sick) , '80 245 diesel, '82 Mercedes 300SD

My '94 940 wagon also has all-season radials (Sigma Premiere generics from Merchants Tire). I loaded three large boxes full of old books into the rear cargo area last week to put more weight over the drive wheels. I haven't experienced a bit of slipping in the two snowstorms we've had in DC over the past few days, even though my neighborhood streets haven't been plowed and are slippery to walk on, and I've seen accidents along my route to work.

Somehow we all got through the first 60 or 70 years of automotive history in the United States without benefit of front-wheel drive--or even all-season tires--in the winter. Heavy snow areas probably do need winter tires. So far in DC, I have not. Depends on where you live. Don't knock rear-wheel drive. The most expensive cars in the world still use it.

Normal: these cars DO NOT do well in snow with all-season tires. Buy some winter tires for it. Good spots to buy: tirerack.com, greendiamondna.com

Thanks for the replies. I should've known the answer to this. I have two 2 wheel drive worktrucks that I do the same for. When the snow gets to deep, 10" plus, I use tire chains. I think it was the excitement of getting our first Volvo. Matt

My 97 965 isn't too bad.
Last season I had a full set of GISLAV (Volvo dealer recommended snow tires) tires on, and it was great (well...pretty damned good) in the snow. I have these 5 gal barrels we used at work for gum arabic, and I will take four empties and fill em with water to add weight in the back (8.6 lbs per gallon of water), and it helps. Also, you are not stuck with 200 lbs of sand come spring.
The GISLAVs are shot to shit (thats what happens when you ride em on dry pavement too long), and I got a pair of all seasons for the rear this year. Not bad. They ain't no real snow tires, but not bad.
The old street radials I had 2 years ago were the pits. Tires really make a difference.
Anyway, I got me a second car. HONDA CRV 4wd in 03, so I can rest easy. Great car BTW.