MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
The best snow car I've ever driven in a G plated Peugeot 205 1.9d. Utterly basic, but just keeps going. With winter tyres I swear it'll drive to the south pole.
Horrible nasty drafty, under powered little pile of shite the other 363 days of the year though!
Renault Megane Scenic. Absolutely F'king lethal in snow.
Comparing a Mini Cooper, Citroen ZX, Audi A3, Mondeo, MX-5, BMW 320, Peugeot 406 and various company Rovers the A3 was by far the worst. Diesel too, so no excuse.
The ZX (1.9 TDi) was easily the best of that bunch followed by the Ford (2.0 140 diesel).
The MX-5 was definitely the funnest and not too bad once you realised that a) it would slide or power slide (your choice, but those were the choices) and b) just because its sliding didn't mean you couldn't make it go in the direction you wanted (admittedly often sideways, but is that really a problem?)
The BMW has winter tyres so that's cheating, but still ok in 4" of snow (with a gentle right foot)
Best = my old Citroen 2CV (except for the icicles on my fingertips and having to start it with a crank handle).
Worst = ah anything modern that doesn't have quattro really, with daft big wheels and wide rubber .
E30 Bmw, but not too bad 😉
never had to drive my E class auto in snow
Without the winter tyre on the Focus is a nightmare, even with them the anti stall doesnt allow you to creep anywhere. Best have been a Nova and an Escort van.
Civic 2.2 diesel
Crap on standard turanzas , great on winters
Seems Hondas are generally not great snow cars
Worst, in a "this is the end" fashion would be the current one. It's RWD and fairly rapid, but I certainly wasn't driving like a loon. Heading up to Aberdeen, bit of fog but nothing untoward, and then whiteout just past Montrose. Conditions changed from damp road to couple of inches of snow in about 200 metres. I was pottering along at about 45-50 mph, hit the snow, and then spent the next 1/4 mile snaking along the dual carriageway hoping the lorries and cars behind were going to be able to a) stop before they hit me, and b) pull me out of the verge once I came to a halt. Somehow managed to save it, parked up in the hard shoulder and sat it out.
I've got the train to Aberdeen ever since.
Porsche 911 - we'd had about half an inch of snow overnight so I thought I'd put the car in the garage, got about 10 foot down the driveway before the rear wheels started spinning. God knows what it would be like to actually drive on the road - it never got that far.
My Merc coupe is awful in the snow without snow socks but ok with.
[i]I reckon it's 95% tyres and 5% car. [/i]
You missed out the driver. 😉
I reckon it's about 50% the car, 20% the tyres and the rest comes down to the dickhead with his foot on the pedal.
Honestly. I see cars that would be good in small amounts of snow getting nowhere because the driver simply can't work out that spinning the wheels faster and faster won't make him go forwards.
[i]Seems Hondas are generally not great snow cars [/i]
I'd disagree. I have a 2.2 diesel accord which I find absolutely fine in heavy snow and sheet ice. The back end is a bit twitchy on the corners but it is as long as an oil tanker so that's to be expected.
Worst would be my old Saab 9-3 HOT. Mad as a box of frogs, but with skirts in 2 foot deep snow it became very, very pointless! When it was going it just torque steered all over the shop (actually it did that in the dry too).
Sometimes I actually miss that car.
Best... probably the Vitara I had before the current Outlander. That was actually really quite capable.
