Driving on ice

[dandog]

Hi Folks, first of all, best wishes for the season to all the posters, and thanks for your interesting posted information. The roads here were terrible last night. In central Scotland very little snow, but heavy ice everywhere and no grit on the road. Really slippy could hardly walk on it. No sign of council gritters. Good news was that Octavia drove very well, oviously helped by FWD, and a big heavy diesel engine over the wheels, when slipped TCS kicked in really easy to use in these terrible conditions.

I bet the scout with M&S tyres would be almost unstoppable.

[gregoir]

little snow, but heavy ice everywhere and no grit on the road

Much the same in the Peak District. Even with the optional 17" Pallas wheels and tyres the traction seemed to be Ok. Stopped on an icy slope outside of work and it set off without any of the expected symbols lighting up. Must try harder next time.

[moox]

Snow not too bad down my way, but my road a tad icy. vRS managed fine, although nearly taken out by an old man driving like a loon, luckily his skid took him into the curb rather than my rear.

[bomski]

Came out of drive this morning, Council not gritted road; let the torque set the car off in 1st... added the slightest amount of throttle to get it into 2nd...

Car went broadside; corrected that but ran out of road and slammed into a kerb...

Dropped it off at Skoda Dealer...

Sheared bottom arm and needs 4 wheel alignment... £460...

You have been warned!

Merry Christmas!

[VRS Doug VX]

Bad news about the bump! :'(

I wish my Skoda had arrived...I went out in my VX this morning...very exciting!

Fat Tyres, RWD & a 780Kg kerb-weight don't work too well on snow & ice...the plus side is the steering (I can feel EVERYTHING), so it becomes second nature to feel the steering go light & ad 'a dab of oppo' almost before the slide happens & it's great fun steering with the throttle!

It was a little embarassing having to have 3 atempts to get over a speed hump in the car park though!

[SUTTS]

Well I'm not going out at all today........... :no:

[London Les]

I live in a hilly bit of SE London, and our local roads had about 4" of snow and pretty icy underneath - no sign of grit. I came away with mixed impressions of the grip available.

I have an Elegance estate, but fitted 17" Zeniths, because I like the look of them and newish Michelin Primacys. On one hand, TCS and EDL worked well on the level and it was possible to feel the drive shifting from wheel to wheel. Got moving without any drama, compared with others I saw spinning away.

On the hills - once stopped it was hopeless getting started - but I guess that is normal. You get the idea from the pics of the last snow:

One hill I slid down with just the ABS & ESP controlling the rate of skid and direction - quite impressive.

But generally, don't expect much from 225/45R17 Michelins in snow!

Les.

p.s. don't forget your parking sensors won't work if covered in snow.

p.p.s. yes I wish I had a Scout!

Edited 18 December, 2009 by London Les

[Brimma]

I thought with that thread title that someone had dreamed up a new reality TV programme :no:

[kumquat]

you can pretty much guarantee Cheshire won't get much snow....now that i've got a Scout

here's hoping...

[Dolla]

Been a few weeks since was last here nice to see the site back..I was washing the car yesterday afternoon and about an hour afterwards the snow came down pritty heavy,but not snowed since then just a little icy.It's great now i am on holiday too and don't have to get up for work ohhhhh i can stay in a nice warm bed

[dan_the_v8man]

my vRS was soo useless last year, had to get towed up something that couldn't even be called a gentle slope. After that I finally got home and then it had to stay parked up at the bottom of the road till the snow thawed. My old focus diesel on the other hand, I couldn't tell it was snowing!!

Hopefully this year the quattro should get me home

[ednmra]

Well this is the "South of France" climate promised us by the global warming "experts", so enjoy. Like all governments statements, just expect the exact opposite.

I took 8" of snow off my car roof yesterday and I'm on the south coast!!

The TSi behaved remarkably well, but I wouldn't like to be living up a hill in the wilds of Ungrittedshire. Interesting to see the various ESP warnings flicking on an off. But overall pretty good - would have to go 4x4 to get much better.

Perhaps I'll take it to my daughter's place in Miami where it was 87 degrees (mind you, they were expecting a tornado yesterday!!)

Edited 19 December, 2009 by nmraed

[Abarth Moose]

Well this is the "South of France" climate promised us by the global warming "experts", so enjoy. Like all governments statements, just expect the exact opposite.

I took 8" of snow off my car roof yesterday and I'm on the south coast!!

The TSi behave remarkably well, but I wouldn't like to be living up a hill in the wilds of Ungrittedshire. Interesting to see the various ESP warnings flicking on an off. But overall pretty good - would have to go 4x4 to get much better.

Perhaps I'll take it to my daughter's place in Miami where it was 87 degrees (mind you, they were expecting a tornado yesterday!!)

Snow - what snow?? I'm on the south coast as well and I haven't seen any snow that's settled

[ednmra]

Snow - what snow?? I'm on the south coast as well and I haven't seen any snow that's settled

What part of the south coast? It can't be anywhere near Brighton!!!

[kentishman]

I'm waiting for delivery of my Octy 1.8 tsi maybe this year or maybe next!. Here in W Kent we had a good fall y'day and my present 9 yr old Subaru Forester Turbo happily soldiering on and makes me wonder whether I will miss the AWD (no traction control or esp) in present snowy conditions - not that happens very often nowadays altho' we've had more snow in the last two years than several previous years put together!

Actually it'll be interesting to compare the road performance of the old Forester and new Octy as the Forester 2 litre with a standard small turbo has a similar quoted power output to the 1.8tsi with abt 177 bhp and 245 nm as against 160 bhp @ and 250 nm for the Octy which is some 40 kg lighter kerb weight. Hopefully the Octy will improve on the Forester's 25 mpg running around or might do 30 on a run if I gramp it along and it likes Shell super petrol as well.

[Abarth Moose]

What part of the south coast? It can't be anywhere near Brighton!!!

Just outside Southampton - it's cold, but no snow here. They might have had a little in the city, but from what I saw it wasn't much.

[ednmra]

Just outside Southampton - it's cold, but no snow here. They might have had a little in the city, but from what I saw it wasn't much.

Ah, that explains it - many parts of east Sussex got 8" dumped on them over Wednesday night. This morning, at about 9.30, it was -2.5 degrees C but no further snow so far.

[dekka48]

Hi All - just a quick update on the Scout in snow and ice. We've just had about 4 plus inches of white stuff dumped on us, on top of the existing stuff, this afternoon from about 4pm. Mrs D. was out shopping at the Gateshead Metrocentre and came home in the blizzard. Sadly the road home snarled up pretty quickly with skidding vehicles and minor shunts. We live up quite a hill which has to be ascended from the valley, with a couple of tricky descents on the way. Despite the road being difficult to negotiate with vehicles stuck on the hill Mrs. D reports the Scout took it all in its stride and was steady as a rock. She says she even got a round of applause from a few drivers standing by their vehicles as she sailed by! One guy she was behind got stuck and was slithering all over the road so she waited to give him some space until he gave up and got out. As she went past he asked if she was sure she would manage OK.'Oh yes', she said and then pulled away with no trouble up the snowbound hill. Evidently his face was a picture.

I may have some difficulty prising the Scout from her in the future. I suppose there's always the bus

[vrsadz]

just one thin to say about driving on ice u have to be a good driver not to crash

[vRSLen]

just one thin to say about driving on ice u have to be a good driver not to crash

No, you just need to take care and think ahead

[darrenw]

No, you just need to take care and think ahead

Sadly it's the other idiots who don't.

[icarusi@hotmail]

All seemed to be OK for me in my 1.4 TSi S. The only doubt was a steep downhill with a sharp left halfway down. I would have probably selected 2nd in my previous car but knowing this car doesn't have much engine braking, I used 1st and luckily there was no traffic coming the other way so I could flatten out that bend. The only other hiccup was when I got behind a bus which stopped to pick up passengers and I couldn't pass it, but when I tried to follow my wheels spun and the dash showed the skidding car icon. I think that's when the good low rev torque bites back.

[skippy41]

Well spent the last 2 days working in it, never got stuck once, up and down hills no problem, as you cannot get out of our town without going up or down.

The trick for going down is select 1st move off then only use the accelerator to control the car, if you depress the clutch that's what causes any potential problems as you will loose drive control

When going up hill select 2nd and use very gentle acceleration

[foo]

Well, one impetus for getting a Scout was trying to get around in last year's snow in a powerful, light RWD car.

And the swap has paid off already. Dropped Foo Jnr. off at the childminder this morning, I don't think she was expecting anyone to turn up!.

I even managed to get up the road and on to my drive without any drama.

I guess my only surprise is that in my old (V Reg) A3 Quattro I could hear the Haldex (I assume it was Haldex) doing it's thing (springs twanging, clutches engaging etc.) but in the Scout it is noiseless. I quite liked to know when it had gone 4WD so I knew things were getting sketchy.

I am obliged to say that the 1.8TSI seems as good a match to 4WD as any petrol is likely to be, so long as you are in the right gear it has enough torque to keep going without having to pedal down and spin out.

Today, I am a happy Skoda driver.

[martziniuk]

The Mk2 octy is a terrible car in the snow, Its even worse than the mk1! Show it a slight incline and your fooked.