Snow and best cars for coping (non-4x4s and cheap)

[demographic]

Depends...
If your from the south and work as a reporter for the BBC apparently you will need a bloody half track and snow chains on the front
On the other hand if you live up in the north and blat about in a cheap car with skinny tyres you should manage by using a gear higher than normal, not hammering the crap out of the brakes and not driving like a complete charver.

 

[rancid badger]

I live a couple of hundred metres up, on the "rural fringe" of Tyne & Wear. We quite often have snow when the rest of the county is clear.
From 1991 Until 2008, no matter what car I owned, I always used to have a spare pair of wheels with soft compound mud/snow tyres for the winter. First sign of snow, on they would go and stay on regardless till about the back end of March.

I would get about 3 winters from a pair, that's apx 12 months on the car in that time.

I stopped using winter tyres in 2008 when I bought a new Fiesta,with low profile wheels and tyres, surprisingly okay in bad conditions including last winter, when we had 2-3 feet of snow for weeks on end.
I did invest in a pair of "snowsocks" but these were mostly only used to get me in and out of the estate, with one morning coming off night shift, where I fitted them at work and drove the full 9 miles or so, through horrendous conditions-max speed 30mph but never got above 20 that morning.Mind you, I also walked in to work a few times when I decided it would be too dangerous to take the car-a fantastically satisfying if tiring experience!

I'd say that if you want a good standard, basic car for the snow, you want a small, diesel engined front wheel drive, with fairly skinny tyres.

My brother had a small collection of 4x4 Pandas, indeed they're still there, though they'll never run again. He kept one going from the other three, all more or less scrappers, and he eventually ended up using the Panda very much like other folk might use a quad bike, collecting wind blown logs, hay bails, animal feed, etc etc, around the small holding.

 

[Paul_B]

The way I drive all through the year is to feel the way the car is behaving. It comes from the days I had a 1 litre Fiesta on skinny tyres that slipped around bends like it was riding on wet fish. That was on good Michelins or Pirellis too. I learnt to feel a slip happening and control it. Actually I learnt that on a proper mini even before that.

Anyway I never think of myself as a good driver but I haven't had an issue with snow so far. I just slow down, take any change in direction steadily and basically try to drive as smoothly as possible. Also I drive off in 2nd gear in snow. Switching my car to diesel was a good move I reckon. Even if the local cheap garage is 9p more for diesel than petrol.

 

[Andy BB]

I do remember in my youth regularly driving over the Woodhead and Snake Passes in my 850cc Mini, despite the roads being officially closed, and having relatively few difficulties in thick snow. Actually, apart from ground clearance, the Mini had all the right attributes - light weight, fwd, skinny tyres, decent (limited) power delivery.

Nowadays, the trusty ancient Ssangyong Musso TD in 4wd does the job nicely

 

[789987]

Depends...
If your from the south and work as a reporter for the BBC apparently you will need a bloody half track and snow chains on the front
On the other hand if you live up in the north and blat about in a cheap car with skinny tyres you should manage by using a gear higher than normal, not hammering the crap out of the brakes and not driving like a complete charver.

this - never had a problem with driving in snow at all. take your time and anticipate where youre going, using the cars momentum if youre going uphill. the only problem i ever had was last year when the snow was two feet deep and the car didnt have the clearance.

the slipping and the sliding add to the fun and break the monotony of an otherwise routine journey

 

[Neumo]

This is true of all peoples lives, 4.0 is the only way to go!

Yes I had a 4.0 Wrangler on Holiday before Christmas for 10 days & loved it. Every time I see one I get reminded...

 

[mark]

Living in the north of Scotland there are certain times of the year when pretty much the only vehicles moving on the roads are 4wd and vehicles fitted with winter tyres. My wifes cars have always had winter tyres (one car was run on them all year round) and it makes a massive difference. There have been times in the past where her car would move and mine wouldn't. I now have a 4wd X-trail. Driving style has a big part to play, but the tyres certainly make it easier. Cars with narrow tyres tend to fair better than those with wide low profile tyres.

 

[Emdiesse]

I find my little 1.25 fiesta is an honoury off road vehicle. Managed to tackle all the hills last night with no problems at all, with standard tyres, whilst others were all over the place. A taxi span out in front of me (the one time you don't want rear wheel drive!) another (front wheel drive) car (or should I say driver) decided the best approach to tackling a hill was to slow right down before even tackling it to take it slowly from the off.... Needless to say, all momentum lost, they lost traction and that's it.... back at the start. I just picked up a little speed and kept it going, no problem at all. I notice cars with broad tyres also struggle as it seems they just sit on top of the snow and ice and get no traction. My little festa with its puny tyres my just cut through the snow and ice down to the road beneath. Great little car!!!

The taxi that span out had a colleague of mine in, it took him an hour an twenty to do a 20 minute journey... It took me the same time to do a journey usually an hour long!

Went scuba diving on sunday and we had to dig the transit and the minibus up out the hill... Who was the only guy who had a shovel in his car prepared for the snow!

This bushcraft and survival larky must be the influencing factor here.... I'm probably the only one out of the lot who had waterproof boots, trousers and jacket in the car also; I bet on here I am just one of many!

 

[BillyBlade]

The 245 35 19 sport tyres on my motor are next to useless in the snow, any slight hill and I'm stopping without momentum. 220bhp and a big fat turbo to the front wheels doesn't help either.

I'm seriously considering a 4x4 for sake of a week of snow once a year.

Thats what I did. My M3 is no use whatsoever in the snow. It was as cheap to get an old 4x4 as it was to get a set of all round winter tyres and wheels for the car. So, thats the road I went.

 

[Emdiesse]

It was as cheap to get an old 4x4 as it was to get a set of all round winter tyres and wheels for the car.

Interesting! What a perfect excuse!

 

[BillyBlade]

You can get a perfectly usuable 4x4 with low range etc for between £500-£1k. Get in

 

[EdS]

You can get a perfectly usuable 4x4 with low range etc for between £500-£1k. Get in

once you have spend £1500 abnd about 200 hours welding and rebuidling

 

[Gill]

once you have spend £1500 abnd about 200 hours welding and rebuidling

Mega offroaders no need for welding and rebuilding !
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/mitsubish...0836600?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item3371b23578

 

[BillyBlade]

once you have spend £1500 abnd about 200 hours welding and rebuidling

Not always. Mine cost me £400. Hasnt needed anything but a mini service, and I did put a timing belt on it myself though.

I guess I must just be lucky.

 

[Yorkshire]

Its 90% driver 10% not having anything too powerful and no grip ha ha

 

[Trunks]

My first car was a 1969 VW Beetle, rear wheel drive with skinny tyres. When it snowed me and 3 mates used to head off up Blubberhouses, near Menwith Hill and mess about driving through snow drifts & sliding round the carpark . There was a good few inches of snow and never had a problem. We passed dozens of abandoned cars and came back into Skipton to find a police road block closing the road! They were amazed we'd been bombing about up there. Nothing like messing about in snow to learn how to drive in the stuff

Now I have a 7 seater fwd Toyota, with winter tyres on the front. Last weekend, I was the only non 4wd car to get up to my house in Haworth, I would still love a 4wd though


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[Steve13]

Having had Mercs for many years and fed up of getting stuck last year I bought a Hyundia Santa Fe during the summer

Last weekend we had around 8" of snow in a few hours and I was one of teh few cars to make it onto my estate without any problems

The car was in 4wd with good tyres, switched into manual, traction control off , keep the revs up ( not silly ) but keeping momentum going

Very impressed with the car and able to switch back to 2wd auto as soon as snow cleared a bit

 

[harrisp]

There is no substitute for a 4wd, I was towing people up hills that nothing else could get up without even the slightest wheelspin when we had bad snow the other day
A lot of it is the driver and people seem to think going balls out at it will get you through but it just doesnt work.
If you dont want a proper 4x4 my parents have got a subaru forester which is excellent in the snow even on road tyres, subaru legacy is also AWD and I bet you can pick then up for around £1k.
I like my disco though

 

[demographic]

My first car was a 1969 VW Beetle, rear wheel drive with skinny tyres. When it snowed me and 3 mates used to head off up Blubberhouses, near Menwith Hill and mess about driving through snow drifts & sliding round the carpark . There was a good few inches of snow and never had a problem. We passed dozens of abandoned cars and came back into Skipton to find a police road block closing the road! They were amazed we'd been bombing about up there. Nothing like messing about in snow to learn how to drive in the stuff

Now I have a 7 seater fwd Toyota, with winter tyres on the front. Last weekend, I was the only non 4wd car to get up to my house in Haworth, I would still love a 4wd though

Not a million miles from where my parents were from, Queensbury.
That area gets a bit more snow than the surrounding as its higher.

 

[Trunks]

Not a million miles from where my parents were from, Queensbury.
That area gets a bit more snow than the surrounding as its higher.

Yup, we always cop for it, but Denholm & Queensbury get it worse.


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