Hey folks,
I bought this 2005 estate wagon back in late September of 2013 because not only is it a cool looking wagon, but because it had AWD and that is a handy feature here in Maine during the winter.
So far I have driven the car through every stormy day we have had this season. We have had a lot of snow & ice recently.
The wagon has great capability and is more stable in these conditions than some 4WD pickups that I've owned. ('88 Jeep Wagoneer, '90 Chevy 1500, '87 GMC S-15, and a '97 Isuzu Rodeo)
I live on a dirt road that is fairly steep - every one of these vehicles has had trouble on this same hill, mainly the Chevy 1500 with new Firestone tires. That truck couldn't grip to save it's life.
This same hill is no challenge to the X-Type wagon on wet glare ice.
Maine had an ice storm a couple of weeks ago and then we have had sub-zero cold, another rain storm, and even more sub zero cold to pack the ice on my road pretty bad. Last night and today it rained on top of it all.
This morning I went up and down this unpaved road , then grabbed my camera from the house and went back down to the bottom and took a video.
My tires are rugged all-season with about 50% tread remaining. (see pictures)
Since I've joined this forum I've seen several threads about people who want to know about the snow & ice ability before they buy one. Hope this helps.

I'm guessing that the heavy wagon's weight and stability/traction control design is the main reason it performs well. The indicator light tells me when it is doing it's job, and you can feel it distributing the front & rear drive output.
Oh yeah, my check engine light is on too, you'll notice that. I'm waiting for this miserable winter to be over so that I can fix the o-ring vacuum leak in the manifold.
The video on the line below is less than a minute long.

Hill Climb - One Minute Long Video by highlandlake | Photobucket


Enjoy!
Tom

 

Great post thanks for sharing......

 

Good job! Thanks for posting that!

 

Thanks for the video, we live on very similar roads and I couldn't get up with any of our cars Saturday morning even the Ford truck struggled until I sanded the hill. Maybe an X-estate is in our future.

 

Thanks for the comments.

I can imagine that if I had four studded snow tires or even full tread on my current set - I would have been able to do the hill with no slip at all.

Tom

 

Cool vid. Looks like your check engine light is on, though. Known issue?

** Edit: I didn't read your post first. My bad. **

 

Thanks for posting! I would LOVE to have an Estate! Good luck!