Motors Recommend a good all round car that can handle snow & slush

I agree that its really all down to the driver, I have had experience driving in bad conditions in poor vehicles which taught me how to get by in most situations. I did struggle getting into my estate with the last bad batch of snow we had back in March 2010 as we are at the top of a winding hill which the council won't grit at its classed as a tertiary road (ie we don't give a feck, you're on your own and thanks for your council tax, we blew it on a pointless display of coloured lights and curvy boards up at the local shopping centre) and it was really slippy - even with traction control off. However my main issue is that I'm not the one who is doing most of the driving, its my wife and she isn't that great at bad winter driving. Mind you it doesn't really help that some dumb asses abandon their cars in really awkward places and/or can't handle (or even worse ignore) the conditions.
My main logic behind asking the question was to find out other peoples opinions on what helps when driving in bad weather and yes I know that the UK doesn't get really bad snow when compared to other countries but there in lies the problem. Our local authorites don't have the resources to deal with really bad winters (some might even argue they can't cope with mild ones either) so if we do get bad contitions then things just grind to a halt. A perfect example was when the really bad batch of snow last winter hit England and missed Scotland almost completly, Heathrow ended up getting closed and it was reported on the level of a national disaster. Trains were cancelled all over the place and it was all over the news at what seemed to border on hysterical levels.

Anyway, thank you all for the tips, as my starting point I'll invest in a good set of all round tyres rather that the standard stuff they stick on cars in the showrooms.

 

Just out of curiosity, why switch off traction control? The purpose of the system is to apply brake to a driven wheel that is spinning faster than other driven wheels - used to good effect on a few landrovers not to mention numerous other 2 wheel drive manufacturers.

 

I turn it off because I don't like having an electronic nanny overrulling what I'm trying to do in unusual circumstances. I always leave it on for general driving but I can handle snow, ice & slush better than it can.

My traction control doesn't have different settings for weather condidtions/different surfaces so it will not understand that I'm dealing with slippery condidtions better than it can. Plus I want the car to do what I'm telling it to do rather that making a request to an electronic committe that only has a very narrow set of paramaters to work from.

 

traction control will slow a wheel down when it senses it is Slipping to enable it to get traction (under normal user conditions, wet surfaced, cornering etc) .
This may not be the best scenario in snow & icy conditions. as you may loose overall momentum by loss of power to the wheels.

 

My Golfs ten years old and the traction control goes nuts in the snow. Even trying to get going from parked if it senses a wheel spinning it cuts in and you go nowhere. The newer systems may cope with it a lot better and if you a specific snow setting then I would definetly leave it on. My experience from driving my cars is turn it off and rely on your own ability. Be sensible, keep off the brakes as much as possible, maintain momentum and keep the wheels turning in the direction you want to go in and you will be fine in most situations.

 

+1 Traction control is garbage.

 

Last winter we got a lovely dumping of snow





Not once did I get stuck or lose traction (that's wasn't me having fun) in my saab



My misses is a nurse, 15 miles down the road and was on a evening shift the evening it snowed, the 1st picture is before I headed out at 8:30pm to pick her up, in two hours it had dropped 5in of snow, with it still falling.

The biggest problem I faced was backing out drive, as there was no snow under the car, but 8in snow drift behind the wheels, nothing a broom didn't clear whilst I cleared the whole car off.

Rest was simple, the whole drive was on mid-range all season tires, its all in the manor of how you drive. Never ever let the car stop rolling in tricky area's and never blip the throttle coming out of a junction.

I did however pass two stuck BMW 3 series on the return journey just outside Huntingdon on an up hill climb. If I had stopped chances are I wouldn't have got going as they had polished the surface trying the gas and scream method..


So can't wait for snow again this year!!!!

EDIT: would also like some winter tires for next summer, if your a gearhead and understand tyre compounds then that's nuff said.

 

Cheers...300k miles & counting without hitting anything on the roads in any weather (we don't talk about maneuvering in tight spaces though ) Worst thing that has happened to me so far was one of the wipers shattered on my Disco a while back when I was driving through freezing fog on the A9 northbound, only -12 (ignoring the windchill) & had to limp 12 miles back to Perth with the heaters on full to keep the windscreen clear.

I'm sure the more recent incarnations of ABS derived traction control are a closer match to the more primitive LSD or viscous couplings than they used to be, I've never yet got stuck anywhere but came close in my old Rover 25 on ice, only one driven wheel had traction and the other was spinning out - I wished for traction control that day as once I lost momentum I slid backwards, downhill & round a corner. The more advanced traction control systems now are smart enough to simply even out the power distribution in rapid cadence rather than simply brake all wheels. Certainly no complaints about my Mini last time all the heavier cars blocked up my street - and yes, the traction control did help a little.

Something to consider if you should lose control & decide to steer into the slide.... (I actually learned about this on a rally track day, and didn't entirely believe it till I experienced it first hand)

 

Pff. Just buy cut slicks, 888's or AD08's instead. Overheated rubber != good.

 

Most Land Rovers handle the snow quite well, if I'm not mistaken?

 

Only if stopping in a hurry isn't part of the equation! Sadly I had to let the landy go, 28-32MPG stopped being funny when I could no longer fill the tank on £100......