Just Reading you comments about the ESP thingy, I thought the 4x4 was pretty poor in snow with it enabled, in a slippery situation applying opposite lock seemed to do sod all and then all of a sudden the gubbins decide to transfer power to the rear wheels and flash the orange triangle (just in case you missed the fact you are now travelling sideways..) then car suddenly started going where I pointed it by which time I was half way across someones front lawn.

Does turning the ESP off make things a bit more predicatable / controllable as this was not what I was expecting !

While not on the 4x4 but on my RS the ESP was odd...once I'd figured out it was doing stuff on top of what I was doing which explained the nice slewing action I was in it was better...

Never really played with the esp on my 4x4 in snow...but I know it caught me a few times in heavy rain/cold spells. I never knew when it was 4x4 or not except on a few very rare occasions.

the key seems to be detach what your you want to do and point it in the direction you desire, the ESP seems to get it right then, try and do an instinct action on top of it and it will then have to counter that, then agin and you end up making

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patterns. Which might be fun.

While not on the 4x4 but on my RS the ESP was odd...once I'd figured out it was doing stuff on top of what I was doing which explained the nice slewing action I was in it was better...

Never really played with the esp on my 4x4 in snow...but I know it caught me a few times in heavy rain/cold spells. I never knew when it was 4x4 or not except on a few very rare occasions.

the key seems to be detach what your you want to do and point it in the direction you desire' date=' the ESP seems to get it right then, try and do an instinct action on top of it and it will then have to counter that, then agin and you end up making

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patterns. Which might be fun.[/quote']

Agreed, you need to let it counter to a certain extent... although I found in really thick snow a touch of opp lock assisted it...

Ahh... So its a case of unplugging any advance driving techniques and let the car get on with it, Just need some snow to practise on

Too many years of driving RWD oversteer happy motors with NO ELECTRONICS, having being used to applying opposite lock then Hold On and see what happens, but this method never put me in the middle of next door's lawn.....

Ahh... So its a case of unplugging any advance driving techniques and let the car get on with it' date=' Just need some snow to practise on

Too many years of driving RWD oversteer happy motors with NO ELECTRONICS, having being used to applying opposite lock then Hold On and see what happens, but this method never put me in the middle of next door's lawn.....[/quote']

I don't know how many times I can say this and retain my sanity ! SWITCH IT OFF IN SNOW / RUTTED ICE & SNOW !

Exactly the scenario that you are talking about happened to me three times over - except that I was on the motorway (see above). The car was going seriously sideways because the electronics were confused and the power kept being cut and shifted. If I hadn't opposite locked, I would have crashed or been crashed into.

That's me done, but you were warned

It really does sound like one of your ESP sensors was faulty... or mine is... I'd had my car 1 day when I first drove it in snow.. seemed entirely natural!

Ian

That's what I thought at the time, as with ESP off I didn't have a 4th near-spin.

I had the car checked over and they said it was OK. When I wrote to Skoda, they checked with their technical team and the advice they came back with ... well you know the rest

Rob

ESP seems OK in slightly slippy conditions (e.g. wet road) but I think the electronics is too slow / too clever to figure out whats going when all hell (and 4 wheels) break loose.

I'm still not that impressed when a lump of silicon decides to apply one brake just because it feels like it. ESP will now be switched off in snow !

Shall we move on to the 'fook where's my brakes gone, aw my god there they are' senario which seems to afflict driving on motorways in heavy rain with grit on the road? I haven't been impressed by the 4x4 on that one either!