Owning an 86 in Alberta?
 

Hi guys, im thinking of leasing an 86 (manual) once my current lease is up. 86 has been a dream car but having two cars isn't viable (for at least 1-2 years) for me and my partner. Problem is I would hate to buy used later on. I also definitely want this gen and manual. So another thing I'm concerned about is how easy it will be to find even a used one that is dealership certified.

I'm wondering how viable it is to drive an 86 in Calgary winters for say 2 years? I mean that including getting out of a hilly garage back road. Although this car has been my dream car, and I'd much rather have it new, and it must be manual/this gen (I'd rather not buy it otherwise), im also trying to be realistic given our experience being stuck in doors because our corolla Im (albeit with no winter tires) couldn't make it to a main road.

Thanks!

Not from AB, but in the 3 years I had mine, it never gave me any issues in the winter with winter tires installed.
This included a few major ice storms, and a winter of bi-weekly commutes between Toronto and London (albeit in a year where snow didn't seem as bad).

Of course, Toronto (well, most of Ontario) is pretty flat, so take this datapoint with a grain of salt (ha!). But my condo has an inclined driveway of about 50 meters in length, which I've seen other cars struggle with, that my manual BRZ had no issues with.

I purchased mine new in 2015. Daylied it for two Edmonton winters without issues on winter (Blizzack WS80) tires. The car is quite capable in the winter, as long as you drive accordingly to the conditions.

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this car is capable on all-seasons, and literally a 4x4 when equipped with snow tires.

i think you're going to have bigger issues finding one.

I thought I was taking a big risk having my 2014 FR-S be my only car in Ottawa. I still have it, and it's on its 7th winter right now.

With winter tires, I'd say it's roughly as good as any FWD sedan. The equal weight distribution is an advantage, along with the rear LSD. I've only ever gotten stuck in snow that any non-4x4 would also get stuck in.

My experience is that you can survive if you really have to but even with snow tire, you are at a MAJOR handicap during the Canadian winter.
I have to drive very very slowly and carefully (maybe that's not a bad thing), or the the car would skid. And yes, I have 4 Michelin snow tires, bought new last October. Meanwhile soccer moms in Civics and Camrys are overtaking you left, right and center. If you don't mind that, then it's ok. I dread stopping at an incline. This was not a concern at all when I had my Mazda 3.

LOL
So nobody drove RWD cars in the winter?
Between around 1911 and 1980 when FWD became common they used to just park them when the snow fell?
Depending on your age your mother, grandmother, great grandmother and possibly great great grandmother used to get around just fine in the winter with RWD. That was on bias ply tire, power nothing and no assists. Hell, half of the cars didn't even have real defrosters or wipers.
Now all of a sudden they are hard to drive?

You have the same car as me (i've got a Scion iM) ...and live in AB...and experience winters...
And im planning on getting an 86 GT (waiting for used to show up or better pricing/deals on whatever 2020's are left...and if im still waiting by the time the 2022 shows up, i'll get a peek at that one too)

Get winter tires, that is the key to component to winter driving. Any wheel drive can deal with winter if you have a good set of winters. AWD obviously has the best advantage due to...awd.

With an 86 you'll be lower to the ground than the IM so expect the car to be a snowplow at times. I havent gotten stuck at all, but i also try to drive according to the conditions and I usualy try to avoid hilly areas. It doesnt matter what wheel drive you have, if the hilly area is icy and slippery, everyone will slide on it.

With RWD you can use that old trick by throwing a sandbag or something in the trunk for some extra weight on the back wheels.

So in conclusion (doesnt matter what car you have) get winter tires.

My recommendation is to get ice tires. Yes they're chunky and noisy but they'll grip through snow like crazy. Snow tires are still pretty hairy in this car.

so my brothers work at dealerships that routinely get traded in trucks during the winter months that have sandbags in them. they usually toss them as part of the cleanup process. so i've had access to obscene amounts of sandbags for free.

my experience is that tires are the biggest difference in traction. one winter, i loaded up 400 pounds worth of sand in the back of a ranger to attempt to improve it's traction. it really didn't change that much. if there were gains, it was offset by the losses and increased braking distance of dragging around 400 pounds of additional weight.

i don't even bother running sandbags anymore, despite the fact that they don't cost me anything to get.

Pickup trucks are designed to be light on the rear so you can carry loads. They are usually around a 70% front to 30% rear ratio. They need several sandbags in the rear to bring them closer to 50-50 to have traction but still steer properly.
Old FWD cars also carried the majority of their weight in the front at about a 60% to 40% ratio. They benifited from having a little weight in the back to make them 50-50.
The twins are damned near 50-50 already. Adding weight to the back will have very little efect on traction. What it does do is change the weight bias to a point where you lose some steering control. It also throws the balance off enough that if you do start to swing the back end out the extra mass just keeps it going making it much harder to regain control.
Adding weight to an already balanced car actually has a worse affect than leaving it alone.

All I do in winter is try to keep the gas tank full and never let it drop below 1/2.

That is a good plan with any vehicle in the winter!

Something I highly-recommend if you do get the car (beyond getting good winter tires):
Whenever it snows, find an empty (curbless!) parking lot, turn off traction control, and have at it.
You'll learn a lot more about counter-steering, how the car behaves when steering or under heavy braking in low traction, all of which will help you when you're on the road.

Plus it's just damned good fun.

Just make bloody sure there are no curbs or big heavy chunks of wheel well ice frozen solid to the ground!

Tis' merely a fleshwound...
Hopefully the snow is just enough to be fun, and not enough to be a bother for you (Toronto roads are clear already - God, I miss RWD in the winter)

Been nasty here. The 401 has been a mess for three mornings in a row. Been bad enough I have been driving the company truck instead of my car. Not so much that I don't trust the car or myself but I am a tad leery about many of the other drivers on the road! Both yesterday and today I got to watch a semi jackknife about 10 cars ahead of me since they figure they can still manage 110 when everybody else is doing 80.

Be safe!
I do think that a lot of people (myself included) have gotten worse at driving during the pandemic, possibly because we've gotten rusty what with all the stay-at-home orders. So it absolutely makes sense to be leery of what everyone else is doing!

Couple late points
 

I'm in Calgary and before that was running my frs in regina. Biggest thing for moving to the bigger snow drops here was getting studded snow tires as then you grip like crazy.

I have a hill to climb coming out of my loop's approach but haven't had much problem as long as I have traction control and vsc off so I can spin right through as needed.

Had one time in Regina where she was real slippery when first learning the car and thought I better leave the controls on for added help on stability but when I started to slip on the snow it killed me dead and I sunk deep down in the snow whereas with controls off I could have pinned it right through the snow and made it. Lesson learned.

Completely right about not adding weight to the back which would throw existing weight balance off.

Also I wouldn't sweat picking up a slightly used 86 with low km and not from a dealer. I got mine with nothing done to it at 26km from a guy here in Calgary been absolutely great even with all the mods I've done. Still got lots more tuning to finesse this spring with latest changes I have done.

Also what's to hate on the new gen? I'm not much a fan of the wrx'ish taillights but I have a bit of hope on what could be different on the new 86 which hasn't released.

Scary high compression but jury isn't out yet on still boosting the new 2.4. Just don't know how far you can go though.

You have more power and stiffness out the gate on the newer gen release and more functional interior. Not all bad, and I have a feeling Toyota will make there's a little more edge to fill the role of the supra's little brother

From experience (completely stock with winter tires), ground clearance usually becomes an issue before grip does -- watch for snow ruts at intersections.