S3 makes sense...

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Essflee

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I know this has been chatted about before but how great is the S3/A3 Quattro in these wintery times :)

I've been out and about today and although the roads have been seriously dangerous and icy the S3 has taken it in its stride, while most other road uses are spinning here there and everwhere, struggling with hills etc the S3 has just plodded on :)
:rockwoot:
 
Tell that to the poor sod behind me yesterday in his 02 S3 who was seriously struggling. I was in a rear drive BMW and was fine, so I'm guessing there was a problem with his quattro system.
 
OK so how is everyone driving the S3 in the snow/ice, traction control on or off??

Any particular techniques???
 
I've been driving with the ESP on, I know in the book it's says to switch it off but I've been fine with it on. I have turned it off a couple of times for fun but find myself going side ways...lol at least with the ESP on the car continues in a forward motion, though to be fair I haven't tackled any major steep inclines, if the engine power was cut right back and I started to struggle then I'd have to turn the ESP off...
 
im quite gutted , sold my s3 a week ago .
would love to be out there.as for the esp ,its
one of the first things i turn off when i start her
rain , snoww or sun esp is a pain in the ***
 
ESP is a big pain when you want to have some fun but for normal driving it's a brilliant safety aid I think...
 
yeah i agree, couple of times my back end comes out on 1 particular roundabout with a negative camber in the wet...ESP stops that

Amen to the quattro brother leggy....altho it has to be used with sense, we still have crappy low profiles which are not the order of the day in snow ;)
 
mines been great, been to london to cov back to london and back to cov all in about 12hrs. s3 has always felt sure footed and planted.
 
Wish I had quattro :-(
Went to pull away from a kerb this morning, got a bit of tyre slip which caused the revs to jump so then turbo kicked in and it all went a bit pear shaped...
All happened so quick I didn't have time to change into second and stop it hanse I looked like a bit of a chav so I high tailed it out of there!
 
i had a bit of trouble getting up the kerb onto the drive wheel spin etc, think tyres have something to do with it an esp, on yokos, don,t recommend them in this weather
 
Someone says they have been fine in the back of a BMW while an s3 was strugling hmmmm! Firstly I would say he had fulty haldex not working pre pump controller or etc.. Secondly even if it was only front wheel drive it would do better than a BMW as the are rear wheel drive and have little whightto put the power down. Thirdly I was in my insurance polo 1.2 fwd managed to calim up some hills in Kent yesterday while Mercs and BMW driveres were leaving thier cars behind and walk as they would strugle to move.
 
All our performance tyres are for summer use only. Im the winter they just act as sledges.

The awd certainly gives you more grip during accelleration and more overall control.
 
deffo esp off and the S3 works well in the snow, can slide to the side on bad cambers when setting off with low profile tyres on.

oh and I bottomed out when I was the first up our road in 8inch of snow but after I made it up everyone used my track for the rest of the day lol that was last years snow havn`t had much this year :(
 
I have to say i was stuck in the mad traffic from basingstoke yesterday, where i saw brand new golfs going sideways down the road the s3 held amazingly, i managed to get up some steep hills smoothly while others were rolling backwards! fantastic in the icey weather! as for BMW, saw a 1 series yesterday and it got stuck about 3 times, it was useless! nearly bought one too, glad i didnt in this weather or i may have never made it home!
 
I got fed up of sitting in traffic last night, dumped my car and took the train! IT took me 2 hours to travel a mile! I was ok but its everyone else, and I didn't fancy getting hit.
 
Mines been OK so far...touch wood not had any 'moments' in the ice.

I think a lot of it comes down to knowing how to drive in snow...put a moron in an S3 and they'd still get stuck/run out of talent :)
 
S3KO4 said:
Someone says they have been fine in the back of a BMW while an s3 was strugling hmmmm! Firstly I would say he had fulty haldex not working pre pump controller or etc.. Secondly even if it was only front wheel drive it would do better than a BMW as the are rear wheel drive and have little whightto put the power down. Thirdly I was in my insurance polo 1.2 fwd managed to calim up some hills in Kent yesterday while Mercs and BMW driveres were leaving thier cars behind and walk as they would strugle to move.
Click to expand...

Agreed, my BM was absolute sh*te in the snow. Dangerous in fact. Laughable due to the fact they come from Bavaria, where there is a lot of snow/ice.
 
Every car that tried to get out of our road failed...apart from me lol. I passed 4 abandoned cars along my single track road going to work.
 
MintyS3 said:
Every car that tried to get out of our road failed...apart from me lol. I passed 4 abandoned cars along my single track road going to work.
Click to expand...

I bet you had a bit of a chuckle passing them as well didn't you! I would.

I'd of pointed and laughed... Then karma would of directed me into the nearest tree. :(
 
audi upgrades
Having driven a 1975 MG Midget (rear drive) for 8 Scottish winters it is nice to have the S3!
The MG wasn't too bad though, apart from poor ground-clearance!
I once slid over to the wrong side of the road and up the kerb, still facing the right way. A guy in an Impreza STI who was behind me laughed at me. I got back on the road and kept going, around the next bend in the road was an Impreza STI facing the wrong way in a ditch. I laughed. Hard.
The most scared i've ever been was driving down to Glasgow and back in a blizzard in the MG. Snow was so deep on the motorway that the underside of the car was scrapeing along the snow. The tail coming out at 70 when you're driving a 650kg matchbox is a definate brown-pant moment, and that happened several times.
I must've been MAD... but there was a girl involved.
 
A3Tom said:
I think a lot of it comes down to knowing how to drive in snow...put a moron in an S3 and they'd still get stuck/run out of talent :)
Click to expand...

Very true, yesterday i saw a guy stuck in an S3 up a hill, he was trying to put his foot down in the ice, wheel spin galore, and then a slight slid down the hill. :banghead:
 
JS1500 said:
but there was a girl involved.
Click to expand...

The things we do for a bit of :sex:

I attempted to tackle the snow in my S1 Elise a few years back. No electrical aids at all, short wheel base, rear wheel drive, Ice on the inside of the car. To cut a log story short I pulled off my driveway, spun round in a circle and drove back onto the drive!

The only sketchy moment I've had so far in the S3 was trying to combat the ****** ABS going down a very steep hill :sadlike:
 
Westle said:
The only sketchy moment I've had so far in the S3 was trying to combat the ****** ABS going down a very steep hill :sadlike:
Click to expand...

Brown pants moment.... I hate those.

I may invest in some brown boxers. That way noone is any the wiser....
 
Welly said:
Agreed, my BM was absolute sh*te in the snow. Dangerous in fact. Laughable due to the fact they come from Bavaria, where there is a lot of snow/ice.
Click to expand...

The Bavarians know how to drive in such weather. Whatever car it is, most of its behaviour in bad weather has to do with the fleshy thing that's holding the steering wheel and clomping on the accelerator like a particularly clumsy elephant :beee:

Still having no problems with the snow and ice :thumbsup:
 
My VW bug was ace in the snow :)

Skinny tyres, rear wheel drive, engine at the back....roundabouts were ace :)
 
It doesn't matter how soft and gentle you try to be with my old mans Merc, it is absolutely useless in the snow, big heavy automatic rear wheel drive lump of metal...

I agree that the driver does play a large part but some cars are simply terrible in the snow, no amount of experience can create traction where there isn't any...
 
Welly said:
Saucer of milk, table 2.
Click to expand...

If not believing every bit of b******t that's bandied around as common knowledge makes me a saucer of milk case, then I gladly accept the small serving of added calcium :haha:

story29b.jpg


My old man's Merc is also a big heavy lump with nearly 500 brake and an autobox...stuck once. And was rocked out within 5 minutes, so no drama :shrug: He's got to wheelspin up the steep drive in the morning...but it's all good fun for the neighbours
 
Well i would say this is the worst snow that i have since owning s3's and i must say im mega impressed. there was a 4wd shogun Lwb trying to get up the hill in front of my house, and stopped to ask me how the hell could i get up and he couldnt?!! must say i was cheesered!!! :D
also the police closed the main road about 100yds from my house, as i approached it, they said 'you can try but we are not helping you if you get stuck - proved them wrong too' - so big thumbs up for the s3 from me!!!
 
Gotta say my S3 has been great in the snow , ice slush what ever just keeps on going and gets a bit sideways which is always good :D

been driving with esp on gotta admit but my excuse is not had the car all that long im still adjusting
 
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