nigel dabster Posted December 22, 2010 Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 To be fair I nearly got stuck 4 times in an hour when the snow came down on saturday last and I bet 90% of the bm drivers haven't read the manual . There are 3 settings on one button which give different levels of traction control and even the almost off setting is pants. My missses has refused to drive the thing and i think shes right this time. having said all that we had a subaru sportwagen a few years back and with the low profile tyres that wasn't much better even with 4wd. Bet there was a button on that I didn't know about on that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Posted December 22, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 'nuff said Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atomant Posted December 22, 2010 Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 (edited) I had a Volvo XC90 a few years ago. AWD system on that was useless but driven in lots of snow in the Audi S5 Quattro and never got stuck once. The Subaru is nifty of course but for the more refined, you get an Audi Quattro Edited December 22, 2010 by AtomAnt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shercoman2k8 Posted December 22, 2010 Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 Our TT's a quattro, brilliant drive train, so was the a4, epic in the snow... The tt however, light and on very wide wheels - utter *****, but fun I guess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ham2 Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 im not so smug now - don't have it anymore but, it is a good demonstration of how impressive the audi quattro drive train is Hard to bear old boy..those A5 quattros are the real deal from what I recall ; North /South engines (so no traditional Audi front overhang,nose heavy-ness),proper Torsen quattro drive not the inferior east/ west engines with the VW Haldex 'after the event' drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
copemech Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 Get a Jeep! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoot Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 I'm sorry to have to say this but 2WD and 4WD doesn't matter that much its more down to the tyres and the driver. Many 4x4s these days come with wide sport patern tyres which just don't work well in snow and ice. A couple of years ago I was driving home and got to a steep up hill with a tight bend half way up. There were cars and 4x4s everywhere. One 4x4 driver coming back down after failing stopped me half way up and said it was impossible. I smiled pulled off again(from the steep bit) drove around all the other cars and disappeared over the top. God knows what they must have thought. I was in a Honda Civic. Now, I live on a hill side in North East Scotland and have driven in deep snow all my driving life so I know how to drive. I also have a pair of snow tyre on the front. Not the studded type just normal tyres with a slightly different patern and high silicon content compound. If you haven't driven on snow tyres you just won't understand how good they are. It doesn't need to be snow and ice either. These things work better than a standard tyre when the temperature drops below 7 deg C. They cost less than most insurance excesses and you can use them for a few years if you change back to the normal tyres again in spring. I bought a soft road 4x4 last year just as the snow started and found it almost undriveable. I bought snow tyres for it within days and have them on again this year. Nothing's stopped me yet and I've had to plow through up to 2-3 feet of snow on the roads in the past few weeks. It's easy to look at online video and comment of the cars but we don't know which tyres they have on or how good the drivers are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slapshot 3 Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 I'm sorry to have to say this but 2WD and 4WD doesn't matter that much its more down to the tyres and the driver. Many 4x4s these days come with wide sport patern tyres which just don't work well in snow and ice. A couple of years ago I was driving home and got to a steep up hill with a tight bend half way up. There were cars and 4x4s everywhere. One 4x4 driver coming back down after failing stopped me half way up and said it was impossible. I smiled pulled off again(from the steep bit) drove around all the other cars and disappeared over the top. God knows what they must have thought. I was in a Honda Civic. Now, I live on a hill side in North East Scotland and have driven in deep snow all my driving life so I know how to drive. I also have a pair of snow tyre on the front. Not the studded type just normal tyres with a slightly different patern and high silicon content compound. If you haven't driven on snow tyres you just won't understand how good they are. It doesn't need to be snow and ice either. These things work better than a standard tyre when the temperature drops below 7 deg C. They cost less than most insurance excesses and you can use them for a few years if you change back to the normal tyres again in spring. I bought a soft road 4x4 last year just as the snow started and found it almost undriveable. I bought snow tyres for it within days and have them on again this year. Nothing's stopped me yet and I've had to plow through up to 2-3 feet of snow on the roads in the past few weeks. It's easy to look at online video and comment of the cars but we don't know which tyres they have on or how good the drivers are. +1 We live at the top of the hill between Stonehaven and Banchory, bout 800ft up. We've had two pretty horrendous winters and despite one minor off a couple of Sundays ago that I'd challenge anyone to get out of, I've never had any problems and it does come down to tyres. The difference is massive on winter tyres, when I drove her car the other day it really showed how much difference there was. When we were in Germany we had winter tyres fitted from October to March, they don't clear or grit/salt roads over there and you quickly learn how to drive in poor conditions, maybe our governments should follow suit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoot Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 Donald, I put my ones on about mid October and take them off around April. I've told anyone who will listen that they really should try it. As you'll know, unless you've tried them yourself you just wouldn't believe the difference and unless you really, really push it in warmer weather you wouldn't notice a big different using them all year round. They just wear out about 10% faster. My wife didn't get round to changing her ones back this year and is still using them fine in this year snow and ice. She done about 16K on them since the last snow of early 2010. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
axulsuv Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 BMW = Brain May? Work ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ham2 Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 (edited) I'm sorry to have to say this but 2WD and 4WD doesn't matter that much its more down to the tyres and the driver. Many 4x4s these days come with wide sport patern tyres which just don't work well in snow and ice. A couple of years ago I was driving home and got to a steep up hill with a tight bend half way up. There were cars and 4x4s everywhere. One 4x4 driver coming back down after failing stopped me half way up and said it was impossible. I smiled pulled off again(from the steep bit) drove around all the other cars and disappeared over the top. God knows what they must have thought. I was in a Honda Civic. Now, I live on a hill side in North East Scotland and have driven in deep snow all my driving life so I know how to drive. I also have a pair of snow tyre on the front. Not the studded type just normal tyres with a slightly different patern and high silicon content compound. If you haven't driven on snow tyres you just won't understand how good they are. It doesn't need to be snow and ice either. These things work better than a standard tyre when the temperature drops below 7 deg C. They cost less than most insurance excesses and you can use them for a few years if you change back to the normal tyres again in spring. I bought a soft road 4x4 last year just as the snow started and found it almost undriveable. I bought snow tyres for it within days and have them on again this year. Nothing's stopped me yet and I've had to plow through up to 2-3 feet of snow on the roads in the past few weeks. It's easy to look at online video and comment of the cars but we don't know which tyres they have on or how good the drivers are. Hmm, you weren't driving the old style Civic ?(the one Rover copied ?)'cos I had a similar experience in Weardale one year when a 4x4 blocked my way,barring me from a slope, for my 'own safety'!!Then I just pootled past him,no sweat.That car was unstoppable. I have to disagree about the general usefulness of 'most' 4wd vehicles as their ground clearance is a major asset when the snow gets deep and frozen....speaking as someone who has ripped the a*** out of the bottom of 2 cars in 1 year When the snow is so deep my car can't push through the sheer volume of white-stuff then I wish I had a bit more ground clearance. As an aside ;I reckon riding a trials bike has a lot to do with your competence at snow driving (I'm not bragging about either)....dropping the tyre pressure helps enormously as well...I'm stunned at how many people don't do this! I have friends and neighbours who ride road-bikes ,test drive for Nissan (not you Colley !) yet they can't get out of the street? I've got neighbours who are on their final warning for failing to get into work this calendar year so it's not as if they haven't been trying. I realise that I'm preaching to the converted here Edited December 23, 2010 by HAM2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoot Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 Hmm, you weren't driving the old style Civic ?(the one Rover copied ?)'cos I had a similar experience in Weardale one year when a 4x4 blocked my way,barring me from a slope, for my 'own safety'!!Then I just pootled past him,no sweat.That car was unstoppable. I have to disagree about the general usefulness of 'most' 4wd vehicles as their ground clearance is a major asset when the snow gets deep and frozen....speaking as someone who has ripped the a*** out of the bottom of 2 cars in 1 year When the snow is so deep my car can't push through the sheer volume of white-stuff then I wish I had a bit more ground clearance. As an aside ;I reckon riding a trials bike has a lot to do with your competence at snow driving (I'm not bragging about either)....dropping the tyre pressure helps enormously as well...I'm stunned at how many people don't do this! I have friends and neighbours who ride road-bikes ,test drive for Nissan (not you Colley !) yet they can't get out of the street? I've got neighbours who are their final warning for failing to get into work this calendar year so it's not as if they haven't been trying. I realise that I'm preaching to the converted here I agree about ground clearance but this thread was showing 4WD cars on very little snow. Your point on tyre pressure is also a good one. If you ever get really stuck let the tyres down a bit at a time. As long as ground clearance is OK and you have a pump you can let them right down to a few PSI and even bald tyres WILL grip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ham2 Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 I think driving a 4wd in rural parts of the country is a little different to driving one in the suburbs, here the biggest problem (after actually finding traction) is diverting around the other bozos who could never find traction in a month of sundays. I saw a newspaper photo of a snowy,grid-locked M25/4/5? this week (4hr jam)and counted no less than a dozen 4wd vehicles stationary, just waiting for the 2wd lorry to clear out of the way...must have been so frustrating. Apparently even the great Lord Humongous Jezza Clarkson got caught out in the snow in a Scoobie doo this week and had to be rescued..his comments were along the lines of: '...the car was epic but I'm still not allowed to barge the stranded traffic out of the way..'?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highland lassie Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 +1 We live at the top of the hill between Stonehaven and Banchory, bout 800ft up. We've had two pretty horrendous winters and despite one minor off a couple of Sundays ago that I'd challenge anyone to get out of, I've never had any problems and it does come down to tyres. The difference is massive on winter tyres, when I drove her car the other day it really showed how much difference there was. When we were in Germany we had winter tyres fitted from October to March, they don't clear or grit/salt roads over there and you quickly learn how to drive in poor conditions, maybe our governments should follow suit. Problem is trying to get them - I've been trying to source them for my wee Corsa (which admittedly has an unusual tyre size for the car...or so I'm told every time they're not in stock!) since late October and Inverness has been completely sold out. My garage has even been trying to source them from elsewhere but no joy! Fortunately the other half's car is a whizz in the snow, so I just take the easy option and hitch a lift on bad mornings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigel dabster Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 Problem is trying to get them - I've been trying to source them for my wee Corsa (which admittedly has an unusual tyre size for the car...or so I'm told every time they're not in stock!) since late October and Inverness has been completely sold out. My garage has even been trying to source them from elsewhere but no joy! Fortunately the other half's car is a whizz in the snow, so I just take the easy option and hitch a lift on bad mornings. what size i have a mate in the trade who is thinking its time to offload as the weathers warming up here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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