As some of you may know, I got a AWD Hyundai Oct 2013 and since then had not had a chance to drive it in snow.
Well tonight Glasgow was hit by an absolute deluge of snow and so I got to drive in it, play in it and try some stupid things!
Driving home in the rush hour, the snow was coming down so hard that the place became gridlocked. Trying to get up one slip road onto M8 there was a line of cars slipping and sliding and not making any progress - I was able to just go up the side of them and straight on to the motorway.
Similarly in another few roads with inclines, I was able to get up no problem and take off at the top whilst others were stuck.
That is all I really expected it to do .
However at the side of my dads house is a road, probably a 1 in 3 or something like that and his driveway is half way up it. I drove up and in to his driveway no problem. On leaving I reversed out onto the hill and tried to do a hill start from stationary - nae chance, all 4 wheels spinning away and going nowhere. So had to do a 3 point turn and use the hill descent control to get down safely to the bottom. Turned round and took a run at the hill again and got up it with no wheelspin at all.
So good fun, this was on normal , non-winter, tyres.
Does this make up for the all year round abysmal fuel economy? Absolutely not. Was it fun - yes it was!!
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Welcome to the world of 4WD !
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Are you seriously telling me that you have a AWD, you live in scotland, and you haven thad this thing in a muddy field or up to its axles in a burn yet?
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Yes - last winter the most we got was 2 days of frost.
I ended up having to drive all the way up to Cairngorms one day just to physically see snow and even then everything had been ploughed including the car park!
I wouldn't attempt mud - think it would probably just sink!
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Well Bobby you should think yourself lucky you managed those Man 'oovers and got away with it. 1:3! really?
On the way to a shoot this morning in my van (as the 4x4 needs medical attention) I came across some black ice. I managed to recover a bit of a slide more by luck than judgment and stopped thankfully. In front of me however was one of my colleagues. His permanent 4x4 Landrover (and he is a slow and steady driver) was on his roof with the cab crushed. Just saying.
Are you quite sure about 1:3?
Regards,
MD
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Scottish hills are like country miles. :)
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What you need MD are some Michellin Alpins!!
Hope you had an enjoyable day
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Long time ago I had a Land Rover 90. Predecessor to the Defender. Mixed feelings about its winter capabilities to be honest, sure it was easier to get going from rest in poor traction conditions but it handled like a boat and took a lot of stopping in the same situations.
I prefer a "normal" car in the slippy stuff. Usually lighter and more dynamic if a wee bit harder to get moving from rest.
Land Rovers are ok in fields though.
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Incidentally, in 2 years and 80,000 miles I only "needed" the 4x4 capabilities of my Qashqai the once for about 100 yards and a handful of seconds to help get up an ungritted snow and ice covered hill on a private road.
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Depends on what you mean by "needed". I've used 4x4 capabilities in the UK a lot; Some of those times I needed to and would have not managed otherwise, some of those times it made things more stable and simple but probably could have managed without, and probably sometimes it made no difference at all.
I like having it though.
I've probably used it more on mud than snow in the UK.
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Oh I'm not poo pooing it. Just that unless you're planning on being genuinely off road a lot or you live at the top of a mountain it's maybe not as essential as some might think or want to think. Of course it does make things a bit easier when the going gets tough. Wouldn't begin to suggest otherwise.
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A friend is currently deciding between a RWD 4 series and the Xdrive version. Assuming finances do not come into the equation, I would not have a clue which version to purchase. The Xdrive provides extra grip, probably useful on streaming wet roads, but adds weight, 85kg I think, and slightly reduces mpg. I love the handling and balance of my 3 series and wonder if you lose 'something' of that by having all wheel drive. My two previous lowly powered Legacy estates were confidence inspiring, as was my quattro of many years ago, but without being a racing driver would the average driver (me) really notice in normal day to day motoring?
Has anyone any experience of driving a BMW Xdrive, which seems to be available across the range?
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>>but without being a racing driver would the average driver (me)
>> really notice in normal day to day motoring?
>>
I think you have hit the nail, as Bobby G says up thread he has had little use for 4x4 during his ownership and I have lived without it and not missed it during my driving life. I think in average everyday driving in the UK it is not necessary. Now we have discovered that the climate changes over time its will obviously become a redundant system for a few generations.
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Even with 4 WD I could not get out at the moment. A few homes at the top of a short steep windy road off a small country lane. We had 3" of snow which has frozen hard. It will be interesting to see if any of my neighbours with four wheel drives, there are 4 of them, even attempt it. Nothing grips on ice, except studded tyres.
Glad I walk to work!
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In all my years living in the Moorlands - often with LOTS of snow, I have always managed to do without 4wd.. or winter tyres.
Yes, they would have made life easier.. but given the hills and traffic, other vehicles just block the roads when you need 4wd to progress.
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>> UK it is not necessary. Now we have discovered that the climate changes over time
>> its will obviously become a redundant system for a few generations.
Don't bank on it. We are warming up sure but that also means probably more extreme variations in weather. 4x4s not just useful in snow, we will also have more floods.
Saying that, in 45 years and near a million miles of driving, I have never needed a 4x4.
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4x4 or AWD will be useful in the next ice age if wheels are still in use but I don't think that I will be around for it to bother me. :)
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>> Are you quite sure about 1:3?
>>
I always find it amazing that a hill signed as 1:10 looks almost terrifying, but draw 1:10 on a piece of paper and it seems like nothing.
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>>Are you quite sure about 1:3?
Absolutely not sure at all - and after lots of googling I can't seem to be able to find out for certain, certainly very steep.
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>> >>Are you quite sure about 1:3?
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>> Absolutely not sure at all - and after lots of googling I can't seem to
>> be able to find out for certain, certainly very steep.
Right, get your sorry ass back there and do a survey. We need to know.
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>> Driving home in the rush hour, the snow was coming down so hard that the
>> place became gridlocked. Trying to get up one slip road onto M8 there was a
>> line of cars slipping and sliding and not making any progress - I was able
>> to just go up the side of them and straight on to the motorway.
>>
It's getting around everyone else that I always assumed would be impossible. I got caught in some heavy snow years around Burnley some ago and all the traffic just stopped. The only thing I could do was to turn around and go a completely different way.
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Sitting on the "back step" of the car today polishing off a very welcome mug of mulligatawny in a forest car park after our bike ride, there was a guy in a sort of pumped up Mini 4x4 ( Countryman is it? ). Anyway, it's quite a big clearing in the forest and today it was covered in frozen slush. He was hooning about in his car having a bit of fun. It seemed to be basically FWD but the more he booted it the more he managed to get the back wheels to spin too and hang the tail out.
The MTB lot were cheering him on but the horsey folk were getting a bit sniffy about it. Probably for good reasons of course. Horses wouldn't really be into all that.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sun 18 Jan 15 at 16:49
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The other thing I saw on Friday night was a new Peugeot 208 parked up at the side of the road with its hazards on. No sign of obvious damage at all but something must have happened to it as the side airbags had dropped.
I wonder how much of a sideways slip into a kerb would be needed for them to drop as I am pretty sure that must have been all that had happened to it.
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>> The other thing I saw on Friday night was a new Peugeot 208 parked up
>> at the side of the road with its hazards on. No sign of obvious damage
>> at all but something must have happened to it as the side airbags had dropped.
>>
>> I wonder how much of a sideways slip into a kerb would be needed for
>> them to drop as I am pretty sure that must have been all that had
>> happened to it.
>>
Probably an eccentricity of the electronics....
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Try saying that when you're three sheets to the wind....Pardon!
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Hyundai ix35 ix-onic - Snow - at last!! - R.P.
