Agreed. Based on the performance of the stock tires, the Blizzaks must be amazing. I'll keep that in mind for next winter.

Original Tires with about 500 miles on them. The car impressed me in these conditions as it was going through snow deeper then the ground clearance. And I used the X-mode to descend the hill into the driveway. That works really well to slowly crawl down a hill. I traded in a 2007 3/4 ton Dodge 2500 (diesel) quad cab 8 foot bed on this. And this is much more practical and so far just as capable.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. After 15 years and 230,000 miles I'm retiring the Dodge Durango. It's been a trooper but the ever more frequent repair bills are starting to mount up. I've narrowed my choices for a new vehicle to the Outback and the Jeep Cherokee. Each has their pros and cons. My big thing is a 50 mile commute to work each morning (and 50 miles back in the evening) taking me over some typical West Virginia mountains. So "snow capability" is going to be a big factor and ride quality another. It was nice to see some "real world" footage of the Outback in the snow. I appreciate you posting it. (by the way, 12 inches in Durham? That probably had some folks freakin' out). Take care and thanks again.

I had some trepidation about trading my Dodge Ram 2500 for the Outback, but after a couple of snowy storms here in NC (which did have a bunch of folks excited), it really performed better then I expected. The X-mode also helps with downhill descents in slippery conditions to slowly descend very slippery roads. We used this coming into our driveway a number of times.