My 2cv was awesome.. I put a few paving stones in the boot and the thing would get through most stuff.
I do really miss that car, I ought to get another.
I've been disappointed to see the Tesla i normally pass in a morning still on its driveway the last few days, would have been genuinely interested to see how the autopilot coped with the weather.
Two examples for me this morning.
Kid who stays round the corner had misjudged the T-junction at the end of our street causing him to end up in deeper snow. Cue the neighbour across from me (who I have been having some problems with) and me digging and pushing him out. I'll put this down to inexperience on the kids part.
Second one 100m up the road at the next T-junction, Octavia with summer rubber bands spinning furiously. Again get out to help and the dude asks me where I got my collapsible shovel, eh it's winter and it's always in the car! After getting him moving he just disappears not even waiting to see if I could get past the bit he was stuck at!! Maybe he could see I was a driving God! Although the combination of Volvo D5 and Cross Climates does seem to help.
Only two slight issues for me this morning, not getting up enough momentum to get up a slight incline, remedied on the second attempt, and forgetting to clear the snow and ice from the inside of my alloys. Which caused a bit of speed wobble.
Stay safe everyone it'll all be over by next week!
collapsible shovel
Has gone to work with the wife, in the boot of my car, which is a diesel Avensis with Snow & Mud tyres, and which hasn't yet failed to get through.
Her car is on the drive; as it's got 6000 miles we thought the tyres weren't that worn, and last winter it was mild. D'oh.
Edit: Edinburgh bus driver speaks
Polis call them "tank commanders"
Don't hink I will be driving anyway today. I have another 1/2 mile of this to go before I even reach the (untreated) valley road. It is still snowing intermittently and drifting constantly. More forecast later today too.
[img] 
[/img]
<div class="bbp-reply-author">ratherbeintobago
<div class="bbp-author-role">
<div class="">Subscriber</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="bbp-reply-content">collapsible shovel
Has gone to work with the wife, in the boot of my car,
</div>
You keep your wife in the boot of your car? That's pretty extreme...
I used to like driving an old-type bacofoil berlingo in the snow, iight so little momentum and skinny tyres cut through nicely. But as this thread is about total numpty drivers, I think the two stupidest things I did in it, that winter we had a lot of snow a few years ago and on essential (surf related) journeys, were:
- trying to make it up a steep hill (150m of climbing) just about room for two cars. But snow had frozen to ice and been nicely polished, including by the audi something or other that was stopped in the road ahead. No other traffic and frankly I don't think there'd be many daft enough to try it. Decided to turn round and head back down. Got out of the car to assess the situation wrt verges/ditches with a view to attempting a 37 point turn. And then the car started to slide gently downhill. Hey ho. Managed to grab the door handle before it picked up too much speed and gently spun it to the verge.
- failing to make it over the snowdrifts at the top of boulby bank, turned the car round to head back to staithes where I'd been snowed in. At some point ploughing down the steepening hill into the dip, I realised I was no longer driving, I was sledging. Banked road so I wasn't worried about going over a cliff or anything. Had there been any traffic I might have been in trouble. Funny thing is that I was able to steer to keep the thing on the road even with zero traction. Not in a hurry to try it again.
You keep your wife in the boot of your car? That’s pretty extreme…
It's certainly quieter.
Good point on the shovel - was just up the loft finding the yeti gaiters for my boots (google) and should have grabbed the snow shovel while I was up there. I guess I'll grab it before I go out.
my personal favourite are the driving heroes who demonstrate that they feel you should be going faster by tailgaiting you in lane 1, without actually being brave enough to venture into the slushy snow in lane 2
Funny thing is that I was able to steer to keep the thing on the road even with zero traction. Not in a hurry to try it again.
I had this this when I used to live in a village above Bethesda in Snowdonia. Long steep hill down to the A5. Gently ease over the top. Speed builds up a little bit. Dab brakes and get immediate kick back from the ABS. Still building up speed, so use brakes and let abs chunter away. Kept it to a steady 5 mph or so, but no way to actually stop. Given the A5 had traffic as I approached, was expecting to have to gently punt it into the ditch. Thankfully a gap opened up and I slithered into the A5 and then slithered down there to Bangor.
Snow wasn’t that deep and wasn’t compressed. Whilst ABS did allow me to remain in control, I couldn’t stop. Being able to lock the wheels and dig in would have been preferable. That was a Mk3 Mondeo estate, so bordering on HGV length!
Down from Sling?
☺
tailgaiting you in lane 1, without actually being brave enough to venture into the slushy snow in lane 2
I assume they're the same folks who can't change lane in good weather,
barrel up a lane at 90+ (usually lane 2 on m/w but occasionally 1, especially on 2 lane roads).
Meet slower moving traffic in lane, slow down behind said slow traffic despite lane to the right being completely empty.
Sit there for 5 minutes inches behind the slower vehicle until it pulls off/in then instantly floor it, up the same lane passing any accumulated overtaking traffic on the left until they meet another slow vehicle and repeat.
Meet slower moving traffic in lane, slow down behind said slow traffic despite lane to the right being completely empty.Sit there for 5 minutes inches behind the slower vehicle until it pulls off/in then instantly floor it, up the same lane passing any accumulated overtaking traffic on the left until they meet another slow vehicle and repeat.
Probably on the phone.
Update: The Range Rover Sport got halfway round the estate then got stuck in a snowdrift on the outside of a sharp right, the C2 has moved about 4 feet. The M4 has no snow on it but has obviously had an attempt at moving as the wheels are about a foot to the left (down the camber of the road) and the rear alloy is gouged out from spinning against the kerb!
I'm going into work this evening, it's only 4 miles across town but I'll take the hardtail I think. The car can stay where it is!
Lest you think it is a uniquely British thing, there is a video doing the rounds on Facebook* showing a pile up in snowy conditions in Iowa. Unsurprisingly it looks like the biggest issue was people driving like utter tools: going far too fast and then being surprised when stationary cars appear out of the gloom and they can't stop in time.
* (naturally, as it is Facebook, the post claims it is footage from the M62)
Most inappropriate vehicle? Smart ForTwo - rear engined and big slick rear tyres makes it a bit tail-happy - it was fun the last time we had any decent snow. I have a 1974 VW camper which will be staying under cover for a while yet.
Down from Sling?
Nope, Rachub. That hill near Sling would be lethal in ice. It's bad enough in the wet given how muddy the road can get.
Our driveway in London is very short but quite steep and it was interesting to see how our two cars here coped with the snow on it (only an inch or so). The SLK was a nightmare although I did eventually get it out after clearing a fair amount of the snow and using hot water to melt what was under the wheels. The front drive A-Class on the other hand didn't have any issue at all.
Driving the SLK in any decent amount of snow would basically be suicide! Annoyingly I think I've got a set of snow socks that will fit it but they're up in Edinburgh, as is my 4x4!
Also, unless theyhe been given F1 like brakes and throttle response it’s been greatly sped up for effect.
Ok so I've joined the bell end driver club. Deserted site at 3pm, I might have just been having a little bit of Tokyo drift time in the site forklift, very interesting what with 4 wheel steer. I shall hive myself a toolbox talk immediately however. 😶
My Volvo XC70 4x4 with just gone 1/4 million miles has just been written off for a second time after a numpty slid into the side of it in the January snow up here in Scotland. Both doors on one side of it took a hit, low down.
Just been given the money yesterday but not sure if I can be bothered getting doors from the scrappy, may just keep it as a ruggedly handsome sort of thing.
Says a lot about Volvo that it can be written off twice and still be on the road performing admirably.
We’re all doing it wrong 
My off road motorbike (a 250cc Gas Gas Pampera) is surprisingly capable in the snow - it has proper enduro tyres on it (pretty much as agressive as you can get for road legal tyres) and they seem to find a lot of grip. When we had heavy snow in Scotland a few years back I used it to commute from Edinburgh to Livingston on the back roads and was able to do that when lots of 4x4's and even tractors were stranded.
it’s been greatly sped up for effect.
It does have that weird WW2 newsreel feel to it. But might just be because it is a wide lens or there is a frame rate mismatch.
Look at the snow is falling or the folk walking about and it doesn't appear too far off normal speed.
Regardless of what speed they were actually going, the results suggest it was too fast!
Funniest vehicle I have ever used in snow was my sidecar outfit. Stamp on the rear brake it spun. Open the throttle it would spin or drift if you caught it with the steering. You could actually end up driving it along crabbing. Most amusing
Had to go out in our SLK again and without about 1cm of uncleared snow on the roads it's not far off undriveable. Not fun! Left plenty of room and started slowing very early for any junctions so no real "eek!" moments on that front. Main issue was when some pedestrians stepped out into the road thinking I'd be able to avoid them (I did, just, given I was doing about 15mph) or when other cars thought I'd left the big gap to the traffic in front for fun and decided that pulling out into that space then going really, really slowly was a good idea.
Quite a few examples of people driving fwd suv type stuff not realising they are for 4x4.
coming back from work down a short stretch of duel carriageway I sa doing about 40 in the clear lane, cumquat comes past me in the snow lane (been up my chuff for about 5 miles) realises 40 was about right and slams on the brakes, next thing I see her in the rear view mirror pirouetting across the verge!
On way to pick new car up with dealer guy in 4x4 Kodiak, and another car in front. Backcountry lane, snowdrifts etc, **** overtakes us both. Pulling back in to snowy road.
Unfortunately doesn't end up in a ditch.
The snows melting here on the Solent, I expect the roads to be very busy indeed.
My neighbour, who drives a landrover softroader (something modern in white) has been happily trundling about all through this weather (Devon) he's very impressed with it, said it's been faultless despite having regular summer tyres. He's collected friends from various stuck cars and cancelled trains without any bother. He's a sensible Brexit voting 70yr old guy, not the type to wheelspin and nob about. That said, it does have a hell of a lot of electro-gubbins driver assist.
Yestereve, in the village, I spotted one of the rarer species -
A fish-tailed twonker truck.
This one was in full plumage: snorkel, raised suspension, monster truck tyres, rat-black, Coch+Weimble tuning/ECU.
The state of play was night, snowing, and the high street mostly empty of moving traffic yet busyish with pedestrians. Quite a few of us shopping for rations, ambling to and fro across the now white street. The odd car I spotted would be crawling along. As was (at first) the dark-plumed 4x4 Landy pickup. I'm first aware of it as it trawls slowly around the village island, 'put put rumble put'.
Then, it sees the green lights on the crossing, clocks the handful of people milling around outside of the co op and Chinese takeaways, and - put-pop BLAAAAT!!! LOOKATMELOOKATME! (Fishtails the short length of the shops and lights)
I've no doubt that accelerating into a dark, busy, snowy village is as twittish as it is dangerous.
I am Grumplestiltskin, and this was last night's weather. Does crank length matter? Because I've been cranky for 50 years now.
He’s a sensible Brexit voting 70yr old guy,
Oxymoron ?
I was talking to my Father-in-law yesterday. In 1982 round here, S Wales, the snow was epic, he's a farmer and used to put a couple of churns of milk on the tractor drive into the village and people would collect it in jugs, bowls and saucepans. One day he thought he was driving on the road until there was a dip in the snow drifts and he realised he'd been driving along the side of the road on the row of parked cars. Suprisingly there was almost no damage, one slightly dented roof was all
