2009 Infiniti FX50 AWD: When Rain Comes to So Cal

So there really ARE people who think they need 4WD because there might be a few puddles on the road. My Mini only has FWD, which probably explains why I hit a tree every time it rains. Gee, if only I had bought a Hummer...

Rain in So Cal is like a joke...

that awd is so reassuring that you need to get 6000lbs going from .1 to 15 back down to .1mph

its just amazing how much work that awd system does in those conditions.

Seriously, give me the keys to the G8 - I'm sure my average driving skills will keep it on the road during the inch or so of rain that's expected over the next week.

AWD is not necessary until you're driving through 4+ inches of snow or when paved roads end.

weak blog entry.

If you people can't handle driving on a freeway when it rains, please do me a favor and stay the hell away from Utah this winter when it is snowing. I'd hate to see how you reacted to actual hazardous driving conditions.

FWD is usually enough for most non blizzard conditions. It was raining like hell here in norcal this morning. The usual idiots in there AWD vehicles going like a bat out of hell thinking "I have AWD and anti lock brakes I can drive the same as when it is dry out"......I saw a Blazer on its roof and an Escalade on its side within tow miles on 99 this morning. I just hid in the slow lane and watched the morons drive by at 75 MPH in 30 mph winds and a downpour.

I know you guys have to be a little paranoid about not crashing any of your LT cars but this a new level of madness.

Don't ever come to the southeast. It rains. Sometimes a lot. Especially Mobile, AL. They are usually competing with Seattle for the most rainfall in a year.

OMG not rain! thank god for AWD. I feel bad for all those poor suckers out there with RWB cars, they must end up in trees every time it rains.

Seriously?

And here I thought PA drivers were bad.

"Nothing turns the California freeway system into a spinning, sliding, jacked-up mess like a couple of raindrops"

No, careless driving does that. The slick roads just give those types of drivers much less room for error....

Rain in SoCal is genuinely more trouble than you guys might think. I’m from the San Francisco Bay Area and whenever I go down to LA during a rainstorm it’s pretty bad.

But I’m not even talking about the drivers. The drainage along those freeways is abysmal – they clearly weren’t designed for rain. You end up with a lot of standing water, huge rooster tails, and of course the infrequency of rain means that grease and oil has time to accumulate on the road between storms.

The drivers are pretty bad in the rain too, I’m not denying that. I’m just saying that even if they were good rain drivers, the infrastructure would still make it difficult.

Hahahahahaha
Oh southern california, what a silly place

what they said...

That AWD is soooo helpful when it comes to stopping to avoid an accident.

I was shocked when I moved down here from NorCal. On night after dinner, my in-laws were like "are you sure you want to head home? It's __raining outside__. You could just stay the night".

Me: 0_o ?

Just to celebrate our first rainy day, I lit up the rearend after backing out of my driveway. RWD FTW.

Oh no!! RAIN! Run (or drive) for your lives!!! Is rain a real safety problem there?

AWD + snow = drifting fun @ slower speeds without eating up a set of tires every 5 minutes (i see many SUV's in the ditches each winter -- those owners hopefully have realized that AWD/4WD are not "safer" in bad weather)

AWD definitely helps you shoot for first from a green light in rain/snow, which is fun for New England driving -- all the Massholes who try to make a left when the light turns green (without a green turn arrow) and beat the oncoming straight-going traffic sometimes would stop if you are going straight and get into the intersection before they do ...

Carlisimo is right on the money. LA is a truly frightening place to be when it rains. The roads become ponds and all the oil built up from months of dry conditions make things a real mess. The drivers are still terrible, but I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and have more experience driving in rain than just about anyone, and even I can get the back end to break loose in an LA rainstrom if I'm not careful (the fact that it rains really hard doesn't help). The difference is that I know how to control it.

Holy crap guys... you should ease off some. I have also experienced rain in L.A. and can attest to the fact that it's not great and the drivers make it less great. As someone who used to live in DFW, rain wasn't that big of a deal but in So Cal and alot of the west it seems to be a different ball game. Maybe it's the lack of rain and people forgetting what those drops are, but just the crazy drivers alone take it up a notch on the danger scale.

As far as the AWD comments... I'm assuming most of you have never even owned an AWD or driven one in compromised conditions. All it takes is avoiding one idiot driver who just spun out in front of you or slammed on his brakes in a cluster of traffic to realize how much AWD "can" help especially when you aren't exactly sure if the person behind you will stop in time. No AWD doesn't make a difference in helping you stop (unless you downshift quickly to slow down in slippery conditions) but in an AWD (4x4 that you have to shift into doesn't apply here) car you can get out of some sticky situations by planting your foot into the gas and swerving to avoid people in front of you and behind you. The first time it happened to me in my Subaru I was shocked and now our family car will probably always be an AWD car. Especially with my wife who is not a race school graduating expert driver, the AWD can make it easier for her in those situations. Try that in a FWD car and you will plow into something and a RWD and you'll end up backing into something.

I drove a FWD and RWD cars for years in the DFW, but after owning an AWD car that has the ability to transfer power and such, it really can save your butt in the worst of conditions. Obviously really good and safe driving plays a role and you have to do the math on whether it makes sense and the quality of the AWD system all play a role, but don't start discounting AWD just because you don't need it or have it. To me Kelly was more pointing out that she was glad to have that little extra stability of the AWD... especially in a vehicle that is RWD without it.

Lighten up a little!

Carlisimo covered why rain actually is a big deal in socal. One more point to add, half the cars are on bald tires.

+1 mercedesfan and carlisimo

I live in LA and I can tell you that the roads get pretty slick with all the oil that has built up between rains. Yes a FWD or RWD car can handle it fine if you accelerate slowly and are gentle with the throttle, but when it rains I always find myself wishing I had AWD. The rain wouldn't compromise my driving as much. It's definitely not a necessity, but it is useful.

Ah Southern California. A quarter-inch of rain and we get "Storm Watch 09!" plastered all over the news, with its own theme music.

I am from the Netherlands, lived in Kenya for 5 years and the rain here in SoCal is a joke. Dutch weather is like the English weather in that it rains just about all the time and nobody feels that they need 4WD to cope with it.
In Kenya there's rain seasons twice a year and they pretty much flood the place and turn roads into mudslides. Out there, 75% of the vehicles is 2WD.

What were we talking about again?

scoby. Good tires will get you away and around just about anything. I dont see how awd will steer you around anything.

If most of the real world see's you s.cal people as wimps because drops of rain = "need" of awd drive.

Then maybe you should listen to them.

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