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Hi everyone,
Have you seen the weather? Well I hope I’m worrying unnecessarily but I’ve got a BMW s-drive 18d ready to collect, just before Christmas hopefully.
I hope I don’t regret not getting the x-drive!!!????
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Forgot to say, I live in Huddersfield so it can get particularly bad in winter. However, I got pensioned off from my Nursing job by NHS due to ill health. I don’t need the car for work anymore, just getting out and about. My current car and car before that had 4-wheel drive.
As you know Rachel, ours is 4WD, but I wouldn’t be going out in that! Both our elderly mothers are still alive, plus we have two adult children that live away from home and I like to have the ability to get out safely in the event of any of them having an emergency, but snow never lasts for long (even ‘up North’ ?) so it’s best to stay tucked up in the warm. I always take the view that I might know how to drive safely in those conditions, but many people don’t and it can sometimes be impossible to avoid them!
4 wheel drive, AWD, doesn’t really matter, I’ve just been out in my front wheel drive with all season tyres on in the same thick snow and no problems at all, it’s all about the tyres.
Thanks Glos Guy and Vinalspin, I intend to stay inside today but have to take my daughter to college Monday to Friday on a 20 mile round trip near Ainley Top (for those of you who know it). She’s learning to drive but hasn’t passed yet. Hopefully third time lucky!
My current car is good in the snow and I like to think I’m a fairly confident driver. It’s just the other idiots that you have to look out for ha ha!
I think the front wheel drive BMW should be as good as any other front wheel drive car. I know my rear wheel drive BMW refused to go out in the snow – the slightest incline became a massive hurdle!
Enjoy the snow!
Skoda Enyaq Race Blue
Yes, cheers DumfriesDik, I should be fine I think, well at least if I’m sensible! I bet you’re used to the snow if you’re in Scotland?
My son has a 6 year old BMW 1 series and that’s rear wheel drive so I think he may struggle getting to work!
All about the tyres. Check out bjorn nyland in his 2wd kona electric taking on the Norwegian winter. Car passed that test with flying colours.
agree on the rwd bmw’s lol. Once got so stuck I had to be towed!
Funnily enough, it does snow in Scotland from time to time!
My first was the rear wheel drive 120d coupe and it was such a hoot. Ah the memories come flooding back to me now.
Have you tried it out in the snow at all? Zoom zoom
Skoda Enyaq Race Blue
4 wheel drive, AWD, doesn’t really matter, I’ve just been out in my front wheel drive with all season tyres on in the same thick snow and no problems at all, it’s all about the tyres.
Not entirely. Whilst it is indeed the case that tyres make a massive difference (at the first sign of snowfall people always trot out the videos of stopping distances in a 4WD with summer tyres and a 2WD with winter tyres), having traction on all 4 wheels does make a difference. Having had front wheel drive, rear wheel drive and four wheel drive cars I know which I would rather have in winter conditions.
Rear wheel drive cars are hopeless in snow, especially on inclines. Scary in fact. Front wheel drive is certainly better with the weight of the engine over the driven wheels, but can still struggle in certain conditions and you have to be very careful with the throttle. Four wheel drive, whilst not foolproof, does give you an extra degree of sure-footedness. You still need to have your wits about you, but you get far less scrabble when pulling away and better traction cornering and manoeuvring.
Our previous Tiguan (which, I should stress, I didn’t like) was great in the snow. In the work car park where every other car (FWD and RWD) was struggling to get moving I was able to park, manoeuvre and pull away with no fuss at all (other than the shouts of ‘show off’ from colleagues ? )
you cant beat a good old landy lol. used to love going out in one in germany when the snow came down, now that was proper snow.
All about the tyres. Check out bjorn nyland in his 2wd kona electric taking on the Norwegian winter. Car passed that test with flying colours. agree on the rwd bmw’s lol. Once got so stuck I had to be towed!
I’m no expert on EV’s, but I think I read that they do have an advantage in snow as the very heavy battery is in the bottom of the car and generally between the front and rear axles, so you get a good spread of weight in an already heavy car.
Whilst I love BMW’s, and the last 5 Series that I had was the closest to perfection of any of the several hundred cars that I’ve driven, it was cr@p in snow. Like you, I got stuck in a car park once!
you cant beat a good old landy lol. used to love going out in one in germany when the snow came down, now that was proper snow.
I’ve never driven a Defender (although we are seeing loads of the new ones around here) but I have driven Freelanders, Evoque and Range Rovers on off road courses at Land Rover experience events, as well as on the road. As you say, you can’t beat them on the rough stuff. The only reason that I’ve never bought one is that I have always found that the peerless off road performance (which I would never use) always seems to result in a compromise on the road, and that’s where I spend my driving time!
My father had a Series III Land Rover LWB which he changed from a 3 door to a 5 door and made many modifications to, he drove it from London all the way to Sudan, nothing could stop it! I loved the fact that you could change it easily into a pickup, 3 door, 5 door, single cab, dual cab.
Humanity is only humanity when all are treated the same regardless of their skin tone, religious beliefs and geography!
My father had a Series III Land Rover LWB which he changed from a 3 door to a 5 door and made many modifications to, he drove it from London all the way to Sudan, nothing could stop it! I loved the fact that you could change it easily into a pickup, 3 door, 5 door, single cab, dual cab.
That’s not all that you could convert them to Masquerade. Friends of ours converted one to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and drove it from the Isle of Wight to Australia (obviously the last bit was on a ship). They wrote a book about it called ‘Port Out, Starboard Home’.
Traction control isn’t too bad with the X1 but tyres are the real way of keeping going. The cheapest way is to get a set of snow chains to keep in the car without going into buying winter tyres.
I love my landys, I’m lucky enough to have 3, a 1963 series 2a, a 1979 series 3 which really is a bit rough and a 1998 CSW 300tdi Defender, the most I’ve had at one time is seven. I’m also lucky that driving off road was my job for a number of years in the 90’s from teaching to expedition leader taking folks overland to Africa, Iceland and Europe and general green laning in the UK.
You still need to have your wits about you, but you get far less scrabble when pulling away and better traction cornering and manoeuvring.
While the rest is correct, the latter part is nonsense, and i’ve told you before. Four wheel drive does NOT increase traction while cornering or manoeuvring. That’s absolute nonsense. In fact, depending on the AWD, traction in corners and manoeuvring gets considerably worse – but never better.
Again. Driven rear wheel do not, under no circumstances and in no situation, increase lateral grip on slippery surfaces at the front wheels.
All you could claim is “accelerating faster out of the corner on snow”, which i personally couldn’t care less for since i tend to drive careful on snow either way and don’t need to rally my way to asda.
https://www.autocar.co.uk/opinion/anything-goes/myth-about-four-wheel-lateral-drive
I’m no expert on EV’s, but I think I read that they do have an advantage in snow as the very heavy battery is in the bottom of the car and generally between the front and rear axles, so you get a good spread of weight in an already heavy car.
Yes and no. Certain EVs have an advantage, others have a disadvantage. It’s correct that the batteries/weight help a lot, but only if the car is rear wheel driven – if it’s front wheel driven, you lose all advantage and fair worse than rear wheel driven cars. Much like RWD cars, in FWD EVs, the weight isn’t centred on any axle – except that under acceleration in an RWD car the load at least shifts the weight to the traction axle, in an FWD EV the weight shifts away from the (already not loaded) traction axle. There’s a few videos on youtube about that topic, was quite interesting.
Traction control isn’t too bad with the X1 but tyres are the real way of keeping going. The cheapest way is to get a set of snow chains to keep in the car without going into buying winter tyres. I love my landys, I’m lucky enough to have 3, a 1963 series 2a, a 1979 series 3 which really is a bit rough and a 1998 CSW 300tdi Defender, the most I’ve had at one time is seven. I’m also lucky that driving off road was my job for a number of years in the 90’s from teaching to expedition leader taking folks overland to Africa, Iceland and Europe and general green laning in the UK.
My father used to take part in the East African Rallye with an Austin 1100, way back in time and funnily enough he drove a Morris 1300 2 door from London to Kenya in the 70’s.
Humanity is only humanity when all are treated the same regardless of their skin tone, religious beliefs and geography!
Strange then that this morning pulling out of a car park with a slope entrance/exit I had to drive on the wrong side to get out as the line of cars were stuck including an X1, Tiguan and a Q5, all slithering about and getting nowhere.
But what do I know!
I guess I’ll just make do with my fwd all season shod car.
Strange then that this morning pulling out of a car park with a slope entrance/exit I had to drive on the wrong side to get out as the line of cars were stuck including an X1, Tiguan and a Q5, all slithering about and getting nowhere. But what do I know! I guess I’ll just make do with my fwd all season shod car.
You are making the incorrect assumption that most people do, that anything that looks like an SUV must be a four wheel drive. The reality is that the majority nowadays are two wheel drive, so have no advantage over any other type of car
Winter tyres clearly make a massive difference to any type of car, but most people wouldn’t be prepared to go to the expense given how rare snow is in most of the country. It certainly wouldn’t be worth my while so, on that basis, on the very rare occasion that we have snow I’m pleased that if I have to drive a car with all weather or even summer tyres that I have 4WD.
No assumptions made, all 3 were 4 wheel drive, I could see quite clearly as a drove past them.
I was talking about all season tyres vs summer tyres (not winter tyres) so no more expensive to fit and of course 4 wheel drive will have a greater advantage over 2 wheel drive on the same tyres, but that’s not what I said!
No assumptions made, all 3 were 4 wheel drive, I could see quite clearly as a drove past them. I was talking about all season tyres vs summer tyres (not winter tyres) so no more expensive to fit and of course 4 wheel drive will have a greater advantage over 2 wheel drive on the same tyres, but that’s not what I said!
Appologies – I misunderstood
How can you tell if tyres are all season as opposed to summer? Do they have a specific code?
Very good question. While the 3PMSF (Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake symbol) means they have been tested to a certain effectiveness, it’s not compulsory to have this symbol on the tyre to call it ‘all season’
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