Last weekend we had a chance to put the Escape Hybrid awd up against a 2003 Outback. The challenge was a steep old logging road, climbing from below to above the snowline. I was really looking forward to the comparison.
I went up first and eventually the Outback vanished from the rear view. I waited for a while, then continued up into heavy snow with frozen slush/ice as a base. Past a couple of snowmobilers unloading from their 4x4 quad-cab pickups. The second generation awd Escapes have predictive slip&grip system, and also have throttle cutoff to prevent excessive wheelspin that would overspin an electric motor. I ground to a halt with wheelspin and then no throttle. I backed down about 6" onto the little bumps behind the wheels. This gave enough momentum that I was able to go forward and resume climbing. Soon, however, it was obvious I wouldn't make it much farther so I turned around and parked.
Unfortunately the Outback was a manual and so has a minimum "stall" speed on steep grades. It had been slipping the clutch on the steepest hill and had to be parked. So I didn't get to compare traction. Then a 1st generation CRV came up the road. They got almost as far as I did, but had to put chains on to get to where there was room to turn around, in my broken tracks.
This was the first time I'd had the Escape Hybrid in extended challenging snow driving, and I was happy with how it did.
Now, other people in the party own an old Subaru Loyale wagon. The Outback owner had a Loyale wagon for many years before the Outback. He maintained the Loyale wagon was the best vehicle for using in shallow snow ever built. No exceptions, including the Outback, he insisted. However, on two occasions our Suzuki Grand Vitara has done far better than one of these two Loyale wagons. In one case, the GV broke trail in almost 2' of heavy damp snow, without chains. The Loyale, even with chains, had to be shovelled and pushed to get into the GV's tracks. The other time, the Loyale was unable to follow a trail broken in deep snow by the GV, even though the GV was without chains and the Loyale was chained up.
And on winter highway driving, the Coquihalla "Highway Tru Hell", the GV has driven confidently in the unplowed fast lane, past all manner of vehicles going much slower in the plowed slow lane. The only people traveling faster had a Murano and a Quattro wagon. The diciest moves are when you change lanes, transitioning over the snow berms. The GV is pretty good at that.
Something interesting for winter driving is that hybrids use the massive traction battery and one of the large electric motors for starting, and therefore have a vastly more powerful starting system than non-hybrids. I'll be trying mine at about -25 Sunday morning.
Edit: I mistakenly used "Legend" when I meant to say "Loyale", so I've corrected the post.
