My dad's got a 15 year old Disco 300 TDI auto. It laughed at last winter.
Reliable too. A split fuel hose, lazy starter motor, and a leaking shock in 4 years of hard use. 150k on it now and still chugging away happily. Starting to rot, mind.
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>>My dad's got a 15 year old Disco 300 TDI auto. It laughed at last winter<<
I should have kept mine then, a quite desirable white 300 TDi XS auto and a delight to drive.
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>> I should have kept mine then, a quite desirable white 300 TDi XS auto and
>> a delight to drive.
This is an "Arden" in metallic green. It is also a delight to drive. Not quick, but feels gutsy and unstoppable, and the autobox is very smooth. Alarming body roll aside, it's a lovely, comfy old thing which just feels pleasantly "lived in" rather than worn.
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The article is nothing to do with the best 4x4 for winter use, it's only about the reliability index.
There's no doubt in my mind that the best 4x4 for winter use I've ever had is my Panda Cross fitted with Vredestein Quatrac tyres. Unstoppable but small and light enough to control if things start to go a bit wrong.
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Most 4x4 drivers are useless in snow.. judging by my experieince in the past 2 winters.
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>>The article is nothing to do with the best 4x4 for winter use, it's only about the reliability index<<
de acuerdo.
I bought my Discovery when we lived up on Bodmin Moor but I soon realised I would only require it's capabilities for one or two weeks per year.
My old Honda Acty van on very narrow tyres coped admirably with the Winter weather, I used to throw it around on ice & snow with gay abandon!
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Having driven a Forester in snow ( with proper tyres ) id certainly love one again for winter, very surefooted.
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If any thread will tempt Alanovic back it will be this one:)
Pat
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Ha ! Bronze medal for my ole bus !
I would have been quite happy with a 2 wheel drive version, though. I didn't buy it for it's off road capability.
I believe the Jimny's good as well....spiritual successor to the SJ410/413.
Ted
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>>If any thread will tempt Alanovic back it will be this one:)<<
Hahaha! - I was thinking exactly the same all but 2 minutes ago :)
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>>Having driven a Forester in snow ( with proper tyres ) id certainly love one again for winter<<
Absolutely ideal in snow etc., like my Discovery was, but ya need to dig deep if it goes wrong (and they do)
Plus the fact that y'all be lugging around a 4 b 4 4 the rest of the year where as a smaller more economical car would be better suited to the job.
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Id have another Forester in a heartbeat if I wanted to spend a fortune on petrol but im on target for 20k this year, which makes 30mpg expensive.
That said, my wife is fully intending to get a Forester at the end of next year as she only does 7k a year now so it wouldnt make much odds for her on fuel cost, she still misses the one we had before.
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Ideally I'd have 3 cars - a Toyota Rav4, a VW Golf for day 2 day use, and a TR5 4 fun :)
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According to that Terrorflag article, the Honda HR-V is the most reliable out of that lot,
I wonder why I don't see more of them on the road then ~
www.exchangeandmart.co.uk/used-cars-for-sale/honda/hrv/14103705
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An Imprezza with winter tyres must surely be the most fun, followed by a Legacy, and fun 12 months of theyear - so the heavy 4x4 stuff is "worth" dragging round.
Driving a non-4x4 is so dull in comparison. (And as for driving a Forrester which looks as though it has room for a wheelchair unless you actually need it...)
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Wed 26 Oct 11 at 17:02
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I was out and about most days last winter in the 4x4 diesel auto Qashqai. It had "normal" tyres on it but nothing stopped it and it never felt unsafe. Having said that I've been out and about every winter since 1975 in all manner of vehicles and never been seriously stuck.
Ground clearance is the really critical thing. If the snow is deeper than the clearance between the underside of your car and the snow and soft enough to let your tyres sink in you are more or less stuffed no matter what you are driving if you lose momentum.
One of the worst "snow" cars I ever owned was a Land Rover 90. I bought it when I knew I would spend a winter at the Scottish ski resorts thinking it would be ideal. In fairness to it, it would get going when other vehicles wouldn't but stopping the thing on snow and ice once it was moving was an act of faith and prayer ! Weight and low friction surfaces soon prove a conflict of interest.
Best was a 2wd Mk 1 Panda. Low power, low weight, skinny tyres, high ground clearance and negligible value added up to lots of fun !
It'll be interesting to see how my low slung, automatic RWD with watchstrap 265/35/18s on it will fare it has been a decade or maybe two since I tried anything remotely similar on the white stuff. I used to know what to do...
:-)
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>> Ground clearance is the really critical thing.
The front spoiler on my Avensis is very low, too low for my liking. No doubt it is good for aerodynamics but I've scraped a few high kerbs already. If we get much snow it'll be interesting to see how it copes regarding ground clearance.
This quattro doesn't do too badly though
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rNvXGc79aY&feature=related
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Had a Forester Turbo through the last 2 Scottish winters - could go to houses a regular car would have no chance reaching - 8" ground clearance makes all the difference on uncleared snowy roads.
260bhp not required however....
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>> 260bhp not required however....
Sounds like unreasonably good fun though...
:-)
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The best 4X4 I ever had was a Panda 1000 fire 4X4 with M+S tyres. Had it 20 years and it was brilliant in snow, you could really throw it about and drive at 50-60mph in snow a foot deep. It was so light and agile.
My Landrover is good with all the electronics in snow mode but Panda was tops by far.
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>> The best 4X4 I ever had was a Panda 1000 fire 4X4 with M+S tyres.
These were, in their time. the second car of choice in the villages round the edge of the dales.
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There is something about the current Panda 4x4 that I really like - don't know what it is but if I had a second car, then I think it would be that
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The Lada Niva got a thumbs up from Jonny wothisname on 5th Gear the other evening. A company will import one for you for something like £11k
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Which reminds me why I never watch 5th Gear these days.
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I enjoyed the Lada report which was filmed on muddy green lanes.
The crew's camera car - a Discovery - got stuck.
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There seems to be a recurring theme on this thread - keep it small, light and on skinny tyres in snow,
As I mentioned earlier, my micro-van Honda Acty was ace in Winter weather, when others had given up,
The replacement little Suzuki van was just as good (but better to drive)
Then along came my larger Colt L300 van - hopeless, and that was just in the wet weather.
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...As I mentioned earlier, my micro-van Honda Acty...
I did some part-time delivery work in an Acty.
Great fun, you could thread it through gaps in traffic almost like a motorbike.
I exited a supermarket car park via a narrow ramp for wheelchairs, just because I could, and left a golf course car park via a path for golfers and their trolleys.
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A few years back I used to drive to ski resorts in a VW Golf Mk4 1.6 petrol fitted with 165/85 winter tyres. When was the last time you saw a car with 85 section tyres? It would happily drive up icy roads which I discovered afterwards I had difficulty walking on, and we never once resorted to using the snow chains we carried in the boot.
Similarly unstoppable in snow was my wife's Ford Ka on its mighty 155/70 R13 winter tyres.
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My Suzuki Carry van was blinking awful in the snow, too much weight at the front so back end traction was terrible and mine swapped ends on a dead straight road on account of the slightest dip in the road.
Im looking forward to seeing how the Iggy does as its got these spangly new tyres and its only 900kg or so I think, so in theory, it should be pretty reasonable.
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>>My Suzuki Carry van was blinking awful in the snow, too much weight at the front so back end traction was terrible and mine swapped ends on a dead straight road on account of the slightest dip in the road<<
Ah, mine had a sun motor tester over the rear wheels to hold it down, but when I moved up to the Colt L300, I got a BIG sun 1080 motor tester, and that seriously affected the breaking/handling!!
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Our old PD engined mk4 Golf was a peach through the snow last winter.
Heavy engine over the front wheels.
Relatively skinny, high profile tyres.
Engine which will happily move the car from rest at idle.
Never got stuck once, although clearly ground clearance, summer tyres, and 2wd would have meant fairly low limits if we'd really pushed our luck.
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Replaced my Subaru Outback with a Hyundai Santa Fe so I'm interested to see how part time 4wd (with lock if needed) compares with full time AWD on snow, slush and ice.
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I've got a Legacy diesel that runs on Summer tyres as it's a company car with a 'summer tyres' only lease contract.
Last winter nothing stopped it from getting traction, it just kept on going forward irrespective of how slippery it was underneath. However that brought about it's own problems. Although it would get traction, steering and braking was just as bad as any other 'normal' car but it lulled you into a false sense of security because you had no dramas pulling away.
I'd really like winter tyres on it for the braking and steering.
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The best Chelsea tractors 4 (x4) Winter - DP
