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how bad/good is your car in the snow


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Without winters the Fabia is 'interesting' through to 'we're going to die' if it meets ice. It is currently on 195 Turanza.

The Octavia has only met snow once since we began using winter tyres and it is great whereas before the back end easily went on corners.

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But i already have perfectly fine summer tyres.

So i'd have to buy another set of wheels and tyres. I need 19" wheels to clear brakes, having a quick look on ebay winter tyres are going to be ~£800 a set. Then find some alloys.

 

What size BBK have you fitted?

 

Stock 312mm vRS front brakes work fine with 16" rims.

 

345mm BBKs usually work with 18" rims - depending on the spoke profile.

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My favourite all year tires ContiWinterContact TS850.

 

Never had problems in Austrian Alps

 

I used chains, in Scottish Highlands, on Yoko A.Drive - who drives on summer tires over winter ;-)

 

Funny noise from passenger side is ESP/ASR/ABS/EDL *******s - I always switch it off because it slow and never helps.

 

Otherwise, it is just FWD with open differential - every car is as good as its weakest part (usually driver).

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I got stuck last week in my vrs estate in light snow 3 inch deep on a not too steep gradient at 5am - yet a 53 reg passatt estate came sailing past me as I was testing out my new snow shovel.

 

he probably had winters on :)

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As said above, no worse than any other of my cars without winter tyres on. Snow on the road is pretty rare hereabouts. Winter tyres are not compulsory in the UK- unlike continental Europe where the car insurance can make it so.

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So,

I popped up to Belfast yesterday, quite unpleasent on the Boucher Road and Westlink during evening rush hour, visibility in the swirling snow being the main issue.

Stopped with the daughter in North Belfast, left the city  about 19:30 ish.

Again quite unpleasent about Sandyknowes, mostly due to the strong wind buffeting the car about and the lane markings being mostly obliterated.

BUT

Only when I made it the length of Ballymoney, did I be surprised to discover that it was probably one of my fastest runs home.

Simply because less to no twits needlessly occupying and blocking the "fast" lane.

btw

When I was overtaking on one stretch of dual carrigeway, in undisturbed slush.

I actually lost headway, substantially, and had to gently apply a surprising amount of throttle to overcome the extra slush-caused rolling resistence.

N.B.

I had pulled out well back from the other cars to test traction before proceeding to overtake.

Never once a squirm, twitch or whimper of instability, nor the slightest flicker from the traction control/ESP light.

 

Simply stupendous.

 

Smooth IS fast.

 

Circumstances permitting.

 

Regards,

M

Edited by dieseldogg
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3" of snow today on untreated road, -4C. New summer tyres.

 

Car did fine. Wouldn't want to do a hill start but no dramas

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Unexpected wrong kind of snow today in Chesterfield. My summer tyres failed to cope this time and I nudged a kerb. I'd to abandon my car for a few hours. Lots of women shouting at each other on the hill and thoroughly getting in the way. Yes, compulsory winter tyres after what I saw..

Later on I recovered my sister in laws automatic Yaris and it went very well in the snow with little or no wheelspin.

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Loving the grip in the snow. But really scared of every car behind me now.

Found myself looking for snow to test.

Nokian WR A3 on 16" steelies.

Another benefit is you can take your time polishing the alloys in the garage!

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In the extreme winter a few years ago the problem I had with my Octavia was that it wouldn't heat up or demist properly so it was a drudge to use. The last straw was when the screen froze up while driving home. I had to abandon the car in a local farmyard. My wife was following in her old 95 Corsa and she collected me.

 

I was so disgusted, I didn't bother collecting my car for a while. The Corsa has a great heater and we drove it every day...temp was down to -13 from memory and we never got stuck, passed lots of modern cars stuck because of low ground clearance/ wide tyres, including 4 wheel drives.

 

Snow wise, many problems are due to other motorists blocking those who know how to drive properly. We still have the same cars but if it's very cold or if there's heavy snow forecast, we don't use the Skoda and that's a pity, as it would be so much safer in the event of an accident.

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In the extreme winter a few years ago the problem I had with my Octavia was that it wouldn't heat up or demist properly so it was a drudge to use. The last straw was when the screen froze up while driving home. I had to abandon the car in a local farmyard. My wife was following in her old 95 Corsa and she collected me.

 

I was so disgusted, I didn't bother collecting my car for a while. The Corsa has a great heater and we drove it every day...temp was down to -13 from memory and we never got stuck, passed lots of modern cars stuck because of low ground clearance/ wide tyres, including 4 wheel drives.

 

Snow wise, many problems are due to other motorists blocking those who know how to drive properly. We still have the same cars but if it's very cold or if there's heavy snow forecast, we don't use the Skoda and that's a pity, as it would be so much safer in the event of an accident.

that's interesting sir - we have usually -20deg C winter in Alps and never had such a problem.

 

Perhaps leave your car wide open over summer to ged rid of moisture?

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Another vote for the Falken Euro All Season AS200. I use them on my Scout. Very happy.

I have Hankook Winter Icept Evos on the vRS at this time of year.

I have the Hankooks too - nearly as good as the Nokians I had before but they were awesomely good - I parked swiftly once and only realised I was on sheet ice when I found myself sitting on the ground dazed after slipping up immediately I exited the car.

 

P.S. I think it is a very bad idea to deflate tyres for the snow - I would really struggle with the logic of that. For sand I would, snow is different - I am generally more worried in the UK about slipping on snow rather than sinking in it.

Edited by TsvRS
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Usual winter conditions for a couple of weeks now.....

 

DSC02877_zpso0wqu8na-1.jpg

 

Lots of cars stuck on the Lecht road (the "C*ck Bridge to Tomintoul" of radio traffic bulletins) including several posh German 4x4's with big wheels and drivers with big right feet.  Scout on a set of Quatrac 5's breezed past with zero drama - as did a wee Fiat 500 with a guy who knew exactly how to drive it on snow over ice conditions.

 

 

DSC02878_zpstpraryyu_1.jpg

 

Did get a few strange looks when I stopped briefly at the ski centre to let the plough come up - wrong choice of toys perhaps!?

 

Kind regards

 

Ian

Edited by mountainandsea
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In the extreme winter a few years ago the problem I had with my Octavia was that it wouldn't heat up or demist properly so it was a drudge to use. The last straw was when the screen froze up while driving home. I had to abandon the car in a local farmyard. 

 

dude - your car is broken, you need to get it fixed.

 

i've driven mine in very cold weather, -12 is the lowest i've seen on the display..  never had a problem with the heater or defrosting/demisting.  

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dude - your car is broken, you need to get it fixed.

 

i've driven mine in very cold weather, -12 is the lowest i've seen on the display..  never had a problem with the heater or defrosting/demisting.  

 

Could this be the difference between petrol and diesel? Cars with diesel engines are notoriously slow to warm up from cold unless they have some additional system to provide warmth to the cabin while the engine is warming up - makes demisting in the mornings a right pita. Cars with petrol engines, on the other hand, generally warm up even when idling.

 

Shockingly, I seen the temperature gauge on our (diesel) Octavia start to drop after being stuck in a queue for a long time ....

Edited by AnotherGareth
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Could this be the difference between petrol and diesel? Cars with diesel engines are notoriously slow to warm up from cold unless they have some additional system to provide warmth to the cabin while the engine is warming up - makes demisting in the mornings a right pita. Cars with petrol engines, on the other hand, generally warm up even when idling.

Shockingly, I seen the temperature gauge on our (diesel) Octavia start to drop after being stuck in a queue for a long time ....

The diesels certainly are slower to warm up. However in the winter of 2010 we had one night when it got down to-16 here and even then my 2.0 TDI, although slow to warm up, still managed to demist and defrost the windows. After a 20 mile motorway journey the temperature gauge was only showing around half warmed up but the heater was still putting out a reasonable amount of warmth.

For one to be so bad that it can't be driven in cold weather does suggest a more fundamental problem like a sticking thermostat perhaps?

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It definitely sounds like something is wrong if the car is freezing up inside during a journey after it's warmed, I agree with the posts above that while my diesel Octavia took a while to get warmed up once it had reached that point it kept warm without issue.

 

I found the Octavia to be not bad in the snow and certainly better than I was expecting as it had the wider 17in tyres compared to my previous Seat's 16in tyres.  The traction control seems fairly hands off compared to other cars where it can cause a lot of problems in the snow by intervening too quickly.  I didn't use winter tyres on the Octavia as I don't use the car that often nor do I rely on it to get me anywhere, I prefer the bikes at winter as there's no need to defrost them before use and they have no issues in the snow.

 

John

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Good news! It finally snowed, quite a bit as well last week, or the week before I cant remember.

 

So I was out driving about, a inch or so at most, and the winter tyres were fine.

 

However as no one else around here puts them on your stuck behind cars, so wtf is the point.

 

nil, yes if you live in the sticks, fling them on, but if you live in a place that has snow once maybe twice a year, I wouldn't bother your arse.

 

anyone who says that its dangerous having summer tyres on is a ****ing tard.

 

I wonder about the calibre of driver on here at sometimes. When people say making progress, id love to see what they mean.

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 why do countries like Swizterland and Germany require them by LAW?

 

Mike

As I mentioned earlier, winter tires are not  require by LAW in Germany, you can drive all year long with summer tires, BUT if something goes wrong and you'll involved in some car accident you take ALL responsibility and  your Insurance will cover NOTHING! Even if someone crashed in you with winter tires :D

Road Safety and attitude must coming from person itself, not from law!

 

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