|
I started a thread about 240s vs others in snow and Farm Boy mentioned the BMW X5 as great snow car (his post at bottom). I forwarded this to some gearhead friends (most in Europe) and one's reply is below. I'd forgotten about Subarus, which I also had in New England late-1970s. Note that he doesn't mention Volvo AWD - possibly an oversight. And perhaps if my Swedish friend replies she'll say "Volvo AWD w/ snow tires. What else is there to say?"
Driving my 244 in snow & ice for the past few days hasn't been fun but I'm running low-budget all-season tires and the car is loose. On these roads (SE OH) in snow I need more aggressive tires but I still think an AWD car would be a better choice. And my wife got around quite well in the 4WD Toyota Tercel wagon we had for a few years.
Again, for the cost ($500-$1K) 240s w/ snow tires are great winter cars. But if cost were no object it'd be a modern AWD for me. Whatever I could get in a diesel - but that's just my own pref.
====================================================
-----Original Message-----
From: Marc Sent: Friday, December 25, 2009 8:58 AM
Subject: RE: Best snow car?
This is a popular subject in Switzerland, as you may imagine.
In general, lighter cars with good AWD are better than heavy cars in most conditions. From the lighter cars, here the Subarus are probably the favorites among mountain people and farmers, and that tells a lot. ... had one years ago, an Impreza Turbo, it was unbelievable how fast we could go on snowed in roads in the mountains.
From the heavier cars, the better the AWD system, the better the traction, that is the same physics for snow or mud. Looking at the big SUV's, our journalists have again and again voted the Range Rover as best AWD car in all conditions, unless you take into account the heavy duty cars that are significantly less good on the dry street. Then the Mercedes G-Wagen and the Land Rover Discovery get better grades if you look at serious all terrain ability with steep bank angles etc.
In a test lately conducted in by a car magazine, looking at family sized station wagons, the Mercedes 4-Matic got the best overall grade. That's what my R-class has too, plus the R-class rides higher than the E-Class.
Having said all that, my personal experience in truly awful freezing rain conditions was that the Cadillac STS with it's excellent FWD and great anti-slip system performed incredibly well, while outfitted with serious winter tires.
The X5 would be probably half way down my list if cars I'd consider for serious snow use. To go cheap, I'd buy a Subaru, to go in style it would be a Range Rover, as an all year compromise car, the R-Class is perfect for me.
-------------------------------------------
200-series cars in snow - Good/ bad/ just old?
posted by Farm Boy on Sun Dec 20 11:05 EST 2009
20 years ago as my friends and co-workers started driving front wheel drive cars, they tried to tell me that FWD was superior for snow and ice. I just smiled and pointed out that FWD cars exist only because they are cheaper to assemble than RWD. Also, the Sweedes know a thing or two about snow and ice.
It is pretty exciting to drive a stick shift FWD and have the front wheels break loose because you took your foot off the gas. Tricky to get traction back as well.
Now that traction control and AWD have become commonplace, the cold weather handling of a brick had become pretty poor by todays standards, but that is because the standards are so much higher.
By the way, AWD Volvos are good, but the gold standard for a steep, icy or snowpacked roads is a BMW X5. Here in Calif there is a subset of mountain cabin owners who use their cabins year-round for cross-country skiing and such. Those residential roads are steep, snowpacked, don't get plowed very often. In those neighborhoods, the X5s rule.
--
240s: 2 drivers and some parts cars
|
