Boy I miss our explorers (93' and 97') this time of year!
Our 06' Honda CR-V can't touch the Explorer(s) 4X4 capability in the snow!!!
We've only had 2 decent snow storms and I got stuck in driveway BOTH times! It's a trade off, gas milage good, 4x4 bad.
Enjoy your Explorers!

 

I didn't even know CR-Vs were 4x4, I always thought they were just FWD. I'd drive my rolled 91 Exploder before a CR-V, even if it is 4x4.

 

A CR-V is an suv? I thought it was just a tall minivan

 

hmm i think CR-V is a curse word here

 

I'm cursing it's preformance in the snow.
It's just a tall civic with Honda's "Real Time 4 wheel drive".....it should just be called "enhanced front wheel drive".
Our 97' with bfg's on it was unstoppable!

 

How do you like the CR-V other than its unimpressive snow performance?

 

We like it's efficiency, getting 22 (winter) and 26 (summer), and it's solid (little) 2.4L 4cyc. It's easy to park but a little small inside. The rear door is a pita, since it opens left to right, the wrong way for US roads, and not up like we're used to.
It's good, bought for wife and kids.....but we didn't get much snow this year at all, so I see some long winters coming up.

 

Is that city mileage or highway? I get 19mpg on a good day at 70mph in the explorer in the winter with a peak of 22mpg this summer at the same speeds.

Glad you like the truck. What kind of tires are on it? Some nice snow tires or A/T tires should definately improve its winter performance as well as adding a little ballast in the rear.

 

Rural city driving and a little highway. It came with Dunlop Grandtrek All-Seasons.
Our explorers were a little worse at 20 (summer) to 14 (winter) mpg

 

Weight should help. You'd probably need to drive a ton of miles to make up the small difference in gas efficiency to pay for a second set of (snow) tires (with installation at each seasonal change, etc.), or is my math way off?

Mike

 

Snow tires aren't all that expensive, around $120 each depending on size of course. Mounting and balancing for a set of tires is around $40 depending on where you go. He could always buy a second set of wheels for cheap and put the snow tires on those.

 

i had all season radials for my subaru awd legacy and it would go most places during a heavy snowfall.

bought a set of wheels and mildly used snow tires off a subaru wrx and now it will go up the side of a building if i pointed it that way.

snow tires make a huge difference.

 

OK, I guess my math was off a bit. When we're paying $60 to fill the Explorer tank again this summer, it should only take a few weeks to make up the cost of the snow tires.

Of course, you're still driving a small car and not an Explorer...

Mike

 

*shudders* I hate to think about filling my tank this summer.

 

Speaking of filling tanks, the CR-V's only got a 15gal tank, so max crusing range is same.

Comparing our 06' CR-V at 24.2mpg with our 97' Explorer ave mpg 17.2mpg
Cost savings in gas at 17k mi/yr and $2.50/gallon
Is $714/yr or $59/month.

A savings...but you lose having real 4x4, a real truck in the winter.