Winter reared its ugly head in NY in earlier this month. It was a nasty storm that started with sleet and ended with about ten inches of snow. Initially, I was undaunted by the prospect of a lengthy cleanup because FedEx delivered my new boots literally right before I planned to clean my driveway. Then I discovered Eddie Bauer sent me the wrong pair. Not cool! Fortunately, a new down jacket was also part of the order, and it ended up being amazing. Otherwise I almost certainly would have been the grumpiest person on the East Coast, at least for a couple of hours.
I was on my way back from returning the boots when I encountered this lowered Silverado.
East Coast light duty truck owners rarely use their pickups for actual work. They’re commuter vehicles purchased by people who think the trucks will come in handy when the snow begins to fall. This Chevy is a bit different. It’s probably near useless in inclement weather. It might not even be able to haul much in its bed, since the suspension doesn’t have nearly as much travel as it used to. I was simultaneously horrified and impressed by its height. My Focus was at most an inch or two shorter than it. Seriously. Lowering a car makes a bit of sense, but I really don’t see the point in making a truck the height of a sedan.
The title of this post was inspired by Dwight Schrute of NBC’s The Office. Regional Manager Michael Scott catches wind that Dwight, his formerly loyal underling, is trying to oust him from his position. Michael makes several attempts to get Dwight to admit his wrongdoing, then pretends that he is in fact taking over, just to see how Dwight would react. Things finally unravel when Dwight refuses to take the keys to Michael’s corporate car, an early 2000s Chrysler Sebring convertible, which he deems unsuitable for winters in Scranton, PA. Similarly, I think this truck is almost equally as useless.
I’ve lived in Southern/Southeastern Ontario for most of my life and winter driving conditions are often overrated. Since the 1970s, the frequency of winter blizzard-like storms of 8 inches (20 cms) or more has dropped dramatically here. We just don’t get the severe winter storms with heavy snow, drifting and frigid weather the way it used to be so common before the mid 80s and late 70s. Excluding lake effect or mountain snow of course.
If Vince C. sees this comment, he’s welcomed to chime in. As this is my anecdotal POV. But from my experience we get far more sloppy weather of freezing rain or daily light snow falls that make roads greasy. While at the same time, the use of road salt has skyrocketed here. But we don’t get the heavy paralyzing snowstorms as we regularly did in the past. And as a regular weather observer, I think this is the case for many parts of the continent. Regional exceptions of course. Other than the severe 1998 ice storm, we haven’t had anything like the famous blizzards of 1977-1979 than affected the Northeast US and Eastern Canada decades ago.
And many drivers (often younger) get major kicks out of driving on greasy roads with less than perfect traction. Fishtailing is a winter sport for many. For this, legislating mandatory winter tire use does make it safer for everyone.
Of course I don’t recommend a lowered pickup like this for daily driving. But for the vast bulk of the winter in Eastern Canada and the Northeast, roads are bone dry, and white with salt. With regional exceptions of course. Snowfalls throughout the winter of course. But the volume and regularity of genuinely dangerous driving conditions is dropping quickly.
December 15th here used to regularly mean absolutely frigid temps and significant snowfalls by the end of the month. Both are much less of an issue. Rare in fact. The pics above of bare, bone dry winter roads are now very common.
I’m from the same part of Ontario as you Daniel. I have also noticed that the winters are getting easier to commute. I don’t know if it because we all drove rear wheel drive cars back in the day, with bias ply tires and snow tires only on the rear. Rear defrosters were optional and mostly only a two speed fan. No heated side view mirrors or snow tires all around in those days. I made a run up to Collingwood earlier in the week, got my fill of snow squalls for the month.
Jack, I’ve lived in Ottawa at various times since the 70s, and winters are *much* less harsh here. We don’t get blizzards of any kind as determined by Environment Canada’s measures. We did up until the 80s. And frigid weather used to last from December to the start of March. Wait a week or so now, and the temps always climb above freezing with a melt. Bare roads are the norm.
My city has many, many daily winter bicyclists, even on days with snowfall. The city in fact takes many measures to accommodate and make it safer for these riders. A big reason they can do it, is the really frigid, treacherous winter-long weather is pretty much gone.
Winter bike riding may seem more dangerous than this lowered pickup, but it has skyrocketed in many Canadian cities since the start of the 2000s.
Daniel, I travel the province pretty often and I would agree that winters in Southern-Western Ontario and the GTA are not as severe as they used to be. There is definitely a lot more green these winters and the roads are typically bare. The salt use, seems to have gone through the roof, which is good for road safety, but hard on vehicles. I find brakes rust out before they wear out. On my daily drivers, I have to dissemble,clean and lubricate the brakes at least once a year if I want to ensure proper even wear of the brake pads.
I used to frequent Eastern Ontario quite often growing up, as I my parents lived there when I was young and even after we moved away we had lots of family there. But I don’t go there much anymore, so I can’t really comment on the winters there today. The Ottawa area used to have much more severe winters than the GTA, with much colder temperatures and more snow. Closer to what North Eastern Ontario got than Southern Ontario.
While the south has gotten less severe, I’d say things in the North part of the province haven’t. I have family in Sudbury and the winters there are still long, cold and have lots of snow. The biggest difference is there seems to be big temperature swings, going from above freezing to -20C in less than 24 hours now.
I live in a small rural community and my road is almost always snow covered all winter long. There is mostly sand use on my stretch of road so, it never gets down to the bare road unless there is a long melting period. That said, once I hit the bigger regional roads and the highways, they are loaded with salt and better maintained. I have noticed that since the highway maintenance switched to private companies, the highways around here are not nearly as well maintained as they were in the past. I’d say my commute has actually gotten worse over the past 15 years, and a good winter vehicle is a must for me.
Northern and Central Ontario remains harsh, and conditions fluctuates often. Especially where there is lake effect. Right now, at 2pm ET, it is -16 Celcius (3 degrees Fahrenheit) in Thunder Bay. Sudbury in winter is similar to what Ottawa used to be decades ago. But consistently frigid winter weather and any blizzards (with bitterly low temps, drifting, and high snow volume) each winter, are a pretty much thing of the past for Ontario, the Northeast and the Midwest. Or very rare. Dry roads, aided with high volumes of salt, are so routine for the higher volume highways. Bad driving weather is now the exception.
Indeed, since the MTO downloaded much of the highway maintenance to local municipalities in the late 90s, service is more erratic. Often affected by local budgets and priorities.
Thank God that the winters are getting less severe in Southern Ontario. The quality of the drivers moving into the Greater Toronto Area is also much lower than it was in the 70’s and 80’s.
Between the dirt roads and potholes and other road imperfections this truck wouldn’t do so well in Tompkins County either. If I was going to have a lowered vehicle in the Southern Tier of New York I would want one with adjustable ride height and steel wheels. Surprised to see one of those Chevys still on the road, they were getting thin on the ground when I left earlier this decade.
I never understood the mental gymnastics necessary to lower a truck to this degree. I can see a 1 or two inch lower – a “sport truck” as it were. But this is basically a rough riding show truck. Maybe it has hydraulics like they do in LA with old monte Carlos and other GM vehicles!
I’m also in the GTA and travel frequently to the Kingston area – winters are much less severe than they used to be. A couple of years ago I was still washing my van in the driveway in December! However, it seems that winter goes deeper into April than I remember, so maybe the season got shifted somehow.
My only trips to Toronto from N.E. PA were in winter, where it was actually noticeably warmer then upstate New York.. it was about -9 degrees C (15 F) outside Buffalo, and about 0 degrees C in Toronto
I used to swear by SUV’s years ago, but with the weather lately, I’ve found that even my Subaru Impreza, with all of eight inches of ground clearance, is more than enough to get through on most days. On the days it isn’t, my job isn’t that critical that I can’t use up a vacation day instead. It gets much better gas mileage than my old jeep, and is much better built…
Agreed about the Impreza – excellent cars with great quality. I run a Honda Odyssey with snow tires – no probs at all in winter.
Used to have a girl friend in Lake Carmel
To the degree that it affects me as a fellow road user, I’d much rather that a dude lowers his truck by a foot than raises it up by a foot… He’s not blocking the view, his headlights aren’t blinding, and if he runs into you he might actually make contact with your bumper.
That truck is way more useful than this article is.