There seems to be very little really good simple advice regarding the use of the off road button and the snow mode.  The only videos seem to be of people driving round track with music playing and no basic instruction, as you would get on a 4x4 course.  When in snow should both off road mode and the snow button be in use, and what actual effect does that have on the vehicle its self.  Or is there  a good instructional video out there in English as you can find for Land Rover/Toyota/Jeep G wagen Ect.  I know it is not a vehicle with their abilities, but knowing what everything does is always better than not knowing.

This was quite a good video from about six months back. The actual off road/snow bit is about half way through. 

 

Westie38.  Thanks so much for the video just the thing I was looking for.  Weather at 700 feet in N Wales can be a bit tricky at time.  All I need now is the winter tyre tests which are usually around this time.  Shame that they put 18 inch wheels on the SEL as my current winter tyres are off the Octavia SEL and 17 inch and they have only done 500 miles.  Goodyear Gen i 225 45 17.

None of it is complicated. 

Just winter driving, and heavy AWD vehicles without much ground clearance on wide tyres even Snow or Winter / All-Weather tyres still get into tricky situations that a light vehicle on narrower summer tyres has less issues on even if no ground clearance as long as roads have been ploughed or treated.

You are easy on the throttle, stay off the brakes. 

Use the gears to decelerate without losing traction. With a DSG going down to 'S' to slow down can help, and to 'D' to accelerate easily.

 

Climbing can be easy with the right tyres descending even on the same tyres not so easy as you can still lose traction.

So you think about going down slopes with ice.

Is there a safe run out, is the road off camber, will you be able to stop or slow down and what about people behind that maybe an not stop.

For comparison, my Ateca on 235 winters was pretty bad starting uphill on snow.  It's only a 1.0 so very light on the driven axle, the tyres (and wheels, both from a previous car) were wide and a few years old.  Turning off the ASR helped massively, especially when an update made it more obvious in the menu.  A button would be even better.  On tarmac though the tyres behaved exactly as expected - better than summers, despite their age.  There are no driving modes on the quite basic Ateca SE spec with 1.0 FWD so pulling away on snow is more technique and peseverance.

I notice that snow mode does not allow the DSG to move into S.  Doing instruction in a Landcruiser 80 series  was much simpler, shame I do not have a centre diff and lockers on the axles.

4 hours ago, Channel said:

Westie38.  Thanks so much for the video just the thing I was looking for.  Weather at 700 feet in N Wales can be a bit tricky at time.  All I need now is the winter tyre tests which are usually around this time.  Shame that they put 18 inch wheels on the SEL as my current winter tyres are off the Octavia SEL and 17 inch and they have only done 500 miles.  Goodyear Gen i 225 45 17.

You could keep your 17” wheels and fit the recommended size 215x55x17 tyres and sell the tyres you’ve got.

28 minutes ago, Kenny R said:

You could keep your 17” wheels and fit the recommended size 215x55x17 tyres and sell the tyres you’ve got.

Or use the wheels and tyres from the Octy and accept that the speedometer is a bit off in winter.

Bit tricky to keep the 17" wheels as they will be on the Octavia for part ex on Tuesday week

2 hours ago, Channel said:

Bit tricky to keep the 17" wheels as they will be on the Octavia for part ex on Tuesday week

Then sell the silly 18"ers with the tyres on them and buy 17" wheel with  225/55-17R Michelin CrossClimates and be done with all that changing wheels and/or tyres.