Am from sunny California and am moving to Boston soon.

[bronsin]

When you drive across the country you will be able to watch the weather every night at the motel. So you'll have a pretty good idea of whats ahead. Its pretty easy to just drive around any problems!

Good luck and tell us all about it!

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bronsin

When you drive across the country you will be able to watch the weather every night at the motel. So you'll have a pretty good idea of whats ahead. Its pretty easy to just drive around any problems!

Good luck and tell us all about it!

^^^^^ So true! I didn't realize this until I moved to the Houston area. I'd always previously lived around mountains. Now, as you illustrate above, I notice this while traveling.

[Slanoie]

Hi!

New Yaris owner from Quebec.

Been reading for some time to find some info about my Yaris and found this thread.

My old car (but I don't have less snow since I have my Yaris) :



That picture means a lot of fun to me so, like the others said, yes, you'll be fine with your Yaris in Boston!

[Kal-El]

The large majority of people in the north drive front wheel drive vehicles with no snow tires (just all seasons) all winter. I find it amusing that some people (not referring to here) believe that an AWD/4WD vehicle is required in northern states. I live in MA and there's like 10-15 days a year that you'll be driving in snow. Then when it does snow, it's plowed and salted very quickly.

With that said, I am one of the few who use winter tires. They are more important than having AWD. Yaris feels unstoppable in snow with them. All season tires are fine but winter rubber does add lots of confidence and fun to winter driving. They're worth the price if they save just one fender bender during the life of the tires.

As far as a cross country trip? The Yaris can go cross country 50 times with no repairs. My Yaris has done the equivalency of that (150K).

My road trips include MA > FL > MA and MA > TN > MA. Nothing to it.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

The large majority of people in the north drive front wheel drive vehicles with no snow tires (just all seasons) all winter. I find it amusing that some people (not referring to here) believe that an AWD/4WD vehicle is required in northern states. I live in MA and there's like 10-15 days a year that you'll be driving in snow. Then when it does snow, it's plowed and salted very quickly.

With that said, I am one of the few who use winter tires. They are more important than having AWD. Yaris feels unstoppable in snow with them. All season tires are fine but winter rubber does add lots of confidence and fun to winter driving. They're worth the price if they save just one fender bender during the life of the tires.

As far as a cross country trip? The Yaris can go cross country 50 times with no repairs. My Yaris has done the equivalency of that (150K).

My road trips include MA > FL > MA and MA > TN > MA. Nothing to it.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

I live in MA and there's like 10-15 days a year that you'll be driving in snow.

How many days per year (re driving) = have to worry about ice ?

[DebbyM46227]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

How many days per year (re driving) = have to worry about ice ?

I stay home when there is ice on the road, even on work days. I call in and say I'm not coming.

[bentjazz]

Government job, Debby?

[DevilGirl]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

How many days per year (re driving) = have to worry about ice ?

There really is no good vehicle/tire on ice. It's the nastiest stuff.

[nookandcrannycar]

Debby and Devil Girl,

I visited Mentone, Alabama (up on Lookout Mountain) toward the end of my trip last month. There is a small ski area there (the 'southeasternmost' downhill area in the U.S.). I had to see it, even though the season hasn't started. The area is owned by a family. I talked to the daughter of the founder for a couple of hours. She lives down in the valley (closer to Chattanooga) and comes up occasionally when other members of the family, who are there most of the time, cannot. She drives a rear wheel drive car (a 3 series BMW). I asked her about driving in snow and she told me about that. I then asked her about driving on ice, especially re Lookout Mountain. She said, you don't. Not how to...you just don't.

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by DevilGirl

There really is no good vehicle/tire on ice. It's the nastiest stuff.

It time for a story!


I have a Honda ST1300 sport touring motorcycle. Its capable of going 100 mph all day long like sitting on your sofa.

I ride it to work all year here in NJ.

On e day in November there was a 10% change of RAIN so I rode to wrok.

We got one inch of ICE during the day!

People we leaving work for home at noon. I planned to stay until 5 or so and have my wife come get me when she got out of work. By 3pm traffic and road conditions were so bad people who had left at noon were not home yet and they lived six miles away!

But then at 4 second shift John came in and said "Paul its not that bad. The ice has melted a lot." I live about 6.5 miles away but I can go home on the freeway or city streets. I figured I would take the city streets. I figured the people with the problems were on the freeway.

So at five I got out to my motorcycle prepared to leave for home. Sure enough the parking lot was clear.

Just then my wife pulled up. "Paul Kneisl GET IN THIS CAR RIGHT NOW!"

I said "Follow me!"

So we left for Westmont NJ down the city streets of Camden NJ, Murder Capatal of the World. (drugs!)

Sure enough John was wrong and my wife was right, the streets were coated with an inch or ice outside the parking lot.

But... I have a lot of eperience riding a motorcycle and Id ridden on ice before but not very far.

The streets were deserted of traffic. Everything went fine until I came to a red light and stopped and put my foot down. It slipped right out from under me and over the bike went. It weighs 700 pounds but is designed to tip over and not be dammaged.

I have a bad back and a repaired disk in my neck. Picking up the bike was out of the question. My wife got out of her car and said "Now what are you going to do? These people are all drug dealers around here!" (maybe!)

"Well we'll just ask some of the drug dealers to help!"

There were no cars but lots of people on the street. I didnt have to ask anyone to help a bunch of them came right over and picked up the bike for me.

My wife said "LEAVE THE BIKE HERE AND GET IN THE CAR!"

I said "Follow me!"

The rest of the way home I didnt stop for red lights just slowed down to check for traffic. I went about 15 mph. I didnt use the brakes just let off the throttle. I had to make a couple of left and right hand turns too. There were few if any people out driving.

We got home without further incident!

[NEexpat]

^Fortunate.

My niece got her license a year ago, and got herself a car at the end of last winter. I told her that first time we get any kind of appreciable snow this year I will take her to the big parking lot and the industrial park and we will practice in the snow.

I think new/young drivers get what new pilots get - Goitis, gotta go no matter what. Trust the equipment, trust the machine, trust the technology, absolutely. However nothing beats experience and time in the seat. (Well how do you get time in the seat if you don't go?) Thats it right there, knowing when.

I think as you get older you're/me are less inclined to go. Leave earlier, go slower, if you must.

In my hometown there is no ryhme or reason to it, sometimes the my street gets plowed every couple of hours, and sometimes not once, I'll drive on fresh snow all day long, it's usually the second day after the sun has hit unpaved streets and then the temp drops, winter ice festival/demolition derby.

There are some steep, very steep hills here that all seem to end at a stop sign or light, in the winter I avoid them at all costs, driving out of my way in order to do so.

I guess I'm getting old.

Now get off my lawn!

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bronsin

It time for a story!


I have a Honda ST1300 sport touring motorcycle. Its capable of going 100 mph all day long like sitting on your sofa.

I ride it to work all year here in NJ.

On e day in November there was a 10% change of RAIN so I rode to wrok.

We got one inch of ICE during the day!

People we leaving work for home at noon. I planned to stay until 5 or so and have my wife come get me when she got out of work. By 3pm traffic and road conditions were so bad people who had left at noon were not home yet and they lived six miles away!

But then at 4 second shift John came in and said "Paul its not that bad. The ice has melted a lot." I live about 6.5 miles away but I can go home on the freeway or city streets. I figured I would take the city streets. I figured the people with the problems were on the freeway.

So at five I got out to my motorcycle prepared to leave for home. Sure enough the parking lot was clear.

Just then my wife pulled up. "Paul Kneisl GET IN THIS CAR RIGHT NOW!"

I said "Follow me!"

So we left for Westmont NJ down the city streets of Camden NJ, Murder Capatal of the World. (drugs!)

Sure enough John was wrong and my wife was right, the streets were coated with an inch or ice outside the parking lot.

But... I have a lot of eperience riding a motorcycle and Id ridden on ice before but not very far.

The streets were deserted of traffic. Everything went fine until I came to a red light and stopped and put my foot down. It slipped right out from under me and over the bike went. It weighs 700 pounds but is designed to tip over and not be dammaged.

I have a bad back and a repaired disk in my neck. Picking up the bike was out of the question. My wife got out of her car and said "Now what are you going to do? These people are all drug dealers around here!" (maybe!)

"Well we'll just ask some of the drug dealers to help!"

There were no cars but lots of people on the street. I didnt have to ask anyone to help a bunch of them came right over and picked up the bike for me.

My wife said "LEAVE THE BIKE HERE AND GET IN THE CAR!"

I said "Follow me!"

The rest of the way home I didnt stop for red lights just slowed down to check for traffic. I went about 15 mph. I didnt use the brakes just let off the throttle. I had to make a couple of left and right hand turns too. There were few if any people out driving.

We got home without further incident!

Wow. When I was a kid, my dad worked for a jewelry company based in Camden for a couple of years (was a West Coast rep). Every time he'd come home from a business trip to Camden, he'd shake his head. My dad was just about the opposite of a wimp. He was 6'7'', and an ex-Golden Gloves boxer. In 2006 (or might have been 2007) I was trying to get back to where I was staying in Maple Shade and found myself driving in Camden. I remember asking for directions at a gas station and was amazed that the guy had lived there for 10 years and didn't know his way around more than just a few blocks away from the gas station. I drove through some of what must be some of the worst parts of Camden. I've been in awful parts of NYC, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlantic City, Houston, Mobile (AL), Miami, San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Oakland, Dallas, Memphis, Richmond (CA), Holyoke (MA), Tucson, Albuquerque, and other cities. The only places (in the U.S.) I've seen that are as bad as the parts of Camden I saw during that journey are parts of Cleveland, and parts of Detroit.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by NEexpat

Leave earlier, go slower

I think this is helpful in all climates. I see people driving like a bat out of h***, and I shake my head. I also shake my head at my younger self. However, some people never learn. I don't think my mother was ever on time in her life, and she didn't get that from her parents, nor from my father. My mother was a very genteel person, yet she failed to grasp how rude it is to be late. My uncle (my mother's sister's husband) and I have a running joke (but it really is the truth) that we both have to fight to keep from being early. The most embarrassing moment of my life was at my father's funeral. My uncle (my father's brother) had made the funeral arrangements (hundreds of guests, mostly there out of respect for my uncle/hadn't seen my father in decades) at a church in a hard to find location in San Francisco where some relative of my aunt (my uncle's wife and mother of my cousins) was way up in the hierarchy of the church. My mother was running late. I couldn't leave her.....she had no idea how to get to the church. We arrived at the church. I opened one of the two huge doors to the church. Hundreds of heads turned around, almost in unison, to see the only child and only wife (ex-wife, but still only wife) this man had ever had late to his funeral....and we were the only people who were late.

P.S. Read this after posting,. Thought some might think my mother = a crazy driver. I don't think my mother ever went more than 5 MPH over the speed limit, nor ever got a speeding ticket in her life. She was usually already late before she left ( in a way that one only can with a parent).

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

Wow. When I was a kid, my dad worked for a jewelry company based in Camden for a couple of years (was a West Coast rep). Every time he'd come home from a business trip to Camden, he'd shake his head. My dad was just about the opposite of a wimp. He was 6'7'', and an ex-Golden Gloves boxer. In 2006 (or might have been 2007) I was trying to get back to where I was staying in Maple Shade and found myself driving in Camden. I remember asking for directions at a gas station and was amazed that the guy had lived there for 10 years and didn't know his way around more than just a few blocks away from the gas station. I drove through some of what must be some of the worst parts of Camden. I've been in awful parts of NYC, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlantic City, Houston, Mobile (AL), Miami, San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Oakland, Dallas, Memphis, Richmond (CA), Holyoke (MA), Tucson, Albuquerque, and other cities. The only places (in the U.S.) I've seen that are as bad as the parts of Camden I saw during that journey are parts of Cleveland, and parts of Detroit.

I work in downtown Camden and there it is quite safe. However you enter the neighbohoods at your own risk! Sometimes the main road into Camden (The Admiral Wilson Boulevard) is closed due to flooding or traffic so my "escape route" is 27th street to route 38 or 70. One of my friends at work who lives in the Cramer Hill section of Camden, when she heard I sometime drive down 27th street, said "Dont go there. People get shot there!"

Me? Shoot me? As nice as I am?

Its like people from the west and midwest going to NYC for the first time. Its got a reputation as a "badass place" so its kind of thrilling to see it!

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bronsin

I work in downtown Camden and there it is quite safe. However you enter the neighbohoods at your own risk! Sometimes the main road into Camden (The Admiral Wilson Boulevard) is closed due to flooding or traffic so my "escape route" is 27th street to route 38 or 70. One of my friends at work who lives in the Cramer Hill section of Camden, when she heard I sometime drive down 27th street, said "Dont go there. People get shot there!"

Me? Shoot me? As nice as I am?

Its like people from the west and midwest going to NYC for the first time. Its got a reputation as a "badass place" so its kind of thrilling to see it!

Yep. But the NYC of today is pretty different from the NYC of the past....a much cleaner and safer place than it used to be.

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

Yep. But the NYC of today is pretty different from the NYC of the past....a much cleaner and safer place than it used to be.

I know...they ruined it!

[bronsin]

I have another "Camden Story" for you!

I had a friend at work named John. One day I noticed scars on his neck. I had just had a laminectomy which is a repair of a ruptured disk that is performed from behind. Some operations for the problem (called fusions) are done from the front. I asked him

"John did you have a fusion operation done on your neck?"

(oh I forgot to mention John grew up in Camden)

He said

"No. One night when I was a teenager I was walking home. Four black guys jumped me before I got there. (um...he did not use the words "black guys" he used something else which is unprintable)They thought I was somebody else they had a problem with. Three of them held me down while the fourth cut my throat. The left me for dead but I managed to get to my house and was taken to Lday of Lourdes where they sewed me up. They missed the juguler."

I shit you not!