how's your car doing in this weather?

[kronenborg]

so far we have only had a few cms of snow, but sparsely gritted main roads, and many untreated back roads. Lots of ice under the snow.

despite this, driving has been reasonable, sticking to high gear, slow speed, slow steering, avoidance of braking as much as possible.

only had two hairy moments so far; one on a roundabout, despite slow speed and no braking, the tail of my S4 avant started coming out...corrected rapidly, but still gave me a fright...the other was some idiot behind me not seeing the traffic had slowed in front of him, locking his brakes, and ending up along side my right side (in a single carriageway), missing my rear by what must have been a few mm! (he then proceeded to tailgate me for the next 5 miles till I turned off, clearly not having learned his lesson).

how is your car faring in these arctic conditions? any tales to tell?

 

[Theonenonly]

I got stuck twice trying to get west to east last night, slightest incline and the car just dies, tacking the stability control off seemed to help but I did end up with a stop/start drive fault on the dash that cleared on next restart.

Apart from those hills it’s been fantastic

 

[zippster]

Strangely well, used it a couple of times yesterday to take my daughter to her friends (whilst I still work) and the missus to Sainsbury’s.. grip is good but had a few moments when coming to a standstill or not as the case might be abs makes a funny noise but works.

 

[DohNut]

The Fiat 500 got beached yesterday but that was my fault - I just asked to much of it. Up until then has been unstoppable - skinny tyres helping here I think.

EDIT - refuse to take the smax out in this. Just too big and cumbersome and on some pretty wide rubber so although it weighs tonnes, I'm not so sure it'll handle these conditions well.

 

[blackb9er]

I got mine back last week after crashing it in similar conditions in December so im taking my time. Main roads are fine I'm keeping it in efficiently mode for now as it gets to those higher gears a little quicker but all good here. On smaller roads (around my estate for example) its a different story. I can feel the back end twitching and shifting at every turn its very unsettled and doesn't feel safe at all. I specced Quattro for this very reason but learned the hard way that it doesn't provide any extra grip just traction. The auto gearbox doesn't help either. It clings to 1st/2nd so I use the paddles but then it gears down by itself. So I'm takin it easy at the moment until I get my winter tyres. I drove wifeys Quashqai which seems to be easier to manage in these conditions despite its size.

Be safe everyone

 

[Theonenonly]

I got mine back last week after crashing it in similar conditions in December so im taking my time. Main roads are fine I'm keeping it in efficiently mode for now as it gets to those higher gears a little quicker but all good here. On smaller roads (around my estate for example) its a different story. I can feel the back end twitching and shifting at every turn its very unsettled and doesn't feel safe at all. I specced Quattro for this very reason but learned the hard way that it doesn't provide any extra grip just traction. The auto gearbox doesn't help either. It clings to 1st/2nd so I use the paddles but then it gears down by itself. So I'm takin it easy at the moment until I get my winter tyres. I drove wifeys Quashqai which seems to be easier to manage in these conditions despite its size.

Be safe everyone

I have the manual, if i had of specced the stronic i would have been screwed yesterday lol

 

[A4 SJC]

My 190 S Tronic has been dogshit

The auto box hates snow

 

[cuke2u]

Mine has been in the driveway this time around, took it out yesterday though and it was fine. I have taken mine out in snow, not this time around, and I managed to drive it up hills where other vehicles have been abandoned...

 

[Theonenonly]

Mine has been in the driveway this time around, took it out yesterday though and it was fine. I have taken mine out in snow, not this time around, and I managed to drive it up hills where other vehicles have been abandoned...

Theres currently a smashed up and abandoned daytona grey 17 plate a4 on the a69 (right next to the traffic camera / garage bit)

Was basically identical to my car, felt so sorry for the owner no ones on here I hope?

 

[DohNut]

Wonder if anyone's binned an 18 reg yet?

Mind you if I had, not sure I'd fess up.

 

[Candell]

My part of Derbyshire is either fully snow covered roads or brown slush with ice beneath and still being on summers with just 2mm grip (I know I know) I stayed in, but was out and about when it started and couldn't get back home. A slight incline and the car came to a halt so had to abandon and walk home. I also live up a steep incline side road that few cars venture up so there was no chance of getting home with the car.

I was given some snow socks yesterday so thought I'd give it a go despite the roads being much worse than when I got stuck days ago. The car had over a foot of snow on it which wasn't fun clearing but the socks were amazing. The new grip was superb, I didn't expect it to make it up the hill to my house but gave it a go through a foot of snow and it made it no problem.

Not going out again though, unless my neighbour lends me his TTS for a play

BTW, the stronic placed in to manual with the snow socks gave me no troubles, my only issue was that the traction control won't turn off and kept braking the wheels/cutting power

 

[cuke2u]

Push the TC button once and a message will come up that says (ECS SPORT).
Push the TC button and hold it for a few seconds and a message will say (ECS OFF). It's anybody's guess whether TC is actually turned off completely with a long press. Probably not. I've driven around on the street in both modes and can't tell the difference. A couple off laps around a track and it would probably be apparent what nannies if any are intervening in each mode .

As far as I'm concerned I would prefer not to have TC at all.

 

[blackb9er]

Push the TC button once and a message will come up that says (ECS SPORT).
Push the TC button and hold it for a few seconds and a message will say (ECS OFF). It's anybody's guess whether TC is actually turned off completely with a long press. Probably not. I've driven around on the street in both modes and can't tell the difference. A couple off laps around a track and it would probably be apparent what nannies if any are intervening in each mode .

As far as I'm concerned I would prefer not to have TC at all.

Why not?


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[robw77]

We've had quite a lot of snow and ice our way and have to say my 190 petrol S Tronic hasn't been great at all. Struggled to get up even the slightest incline on ice and in the snow its made me very nervous with back end coming out etc. Don't know if its partially me not being used to driving an automatic in the snow/ice so maybe I should be doing things to help...

Think i'll definitely be getting Winter tyres or possibly All Seasons on her for next Winter....

 

[cuke2u]

Because I don't need it, my bum and my right foot is far better than any tc in the cars I drive. The issue is that people are getting stuck in the snow because they don't realise it is counter active when going up hills in snow as when it detects a wheel begining to lose traction it applies the brakes. Once you stop you've had it.
Happened to my partner recently when she was trying to put her foot down going up a hill and instead of the car going faster it almost came to halt. She couldn't work out what was wrong and thought there was a fault with her new fiesta until I told her to turn off the tc.

 

[france71]

I have been out in the snow. Early snow was powder at about 15cm (no issues at all), later hard compacted snow (slight issue if care wasn't taken) then hard-packed snow-ice with rain on the top (no issues at all unless I became abusive). I switched to off-road mode on my Allroad which locks the diff at 50% front 50% and permanent AWD and switches off many of the driver aids for proximity (to avoid beeps for bushes etc). It also has downhill mode to stop over speeding. The car is running Nokian WR D4 winter tyres on 18 inch spare alloys. Generally it brakes and picks up speed like there is almost no bad weather. I tried a stop on a really steep hard packed snow slope. Then pulled away without the slightest issue. No sliding backwards either with the hill-hold assist.

Of course as the majority of people are not running winter or all-season tyres then the usual issues persist - not lecturing anyone as I know many of you guys are on lease cars and you don't want to splash out the cash for a three year period before doing it all over again.

 

[Candell]

Push the TC button once and a message will come up that says (ECS SPORT).
Push the TC button and hold it for a few seconds and a message will say (ECS OFF). It's anybody's guess whether TC is actually turned off completely with a long press. Probably not. I've driven around on the street in both modes and can't tell the difference. A couple off laps around a track and it would probably be apparent what nannies if any are intervening in each mode .

As far as I'm concerned I would prefer not to have TC at all.

Yep, tried both sport and off but it was definitely braking the wheels

 

[cuke2u]

Yep, tried both sport and off but it was definitely braking the wheels

Sorry but I feared this might be the case...

 

[cuke2u]

Snowing here now again and laying quite a lot, I have to go and pick my partner from her school at 15:30. It's one of these rare schools that has refused to close for anything, thus placing children and adults at risk unfortunately in my opinion.
Going in the fiesta again which has actually been fun to drive and shows many manufacturers how to make a car that is fun to drive and gives good feedback through all the controls...

 

[Fridarey]

Fiesta is a great little car. Good luck on the school run.

 

[Candell]

Sorry but I feared this might be the case...

As soon as I got going you could feel the brakes being applied, however the snow socks were superb and got me going again each time I stopped. The neighbour who also left his TT quattro (not the TTS neighbour, there are just our three houses at the top of the hill, we all have Audi's) at the bottom gave it a go after seeing me get up but only got 1/4 of the way before going back down and reclaiming his spot.

 

[kiter]

My A4 off the road till the new one arrives but I got these bad boys as back up so no problem at all. Quite strange we have no snow at home but on my travels on Wednesday I had to 'assist' an M3 that had got stuck, why he thought he could get up the hill he chose I have no idea, was quite amusing to be honest he was cursing the car no end. I did suggest he find somewhere safe to park it up until conditions improved.

 

[holly35]

no issues whats so ever,but i am running Audi winter wheel/tyre set.

 

[JRF]

Kept mine in the garage nice and safe in this weather

 

[Theonenonly]

Push the TC button once and a message will come up that says (ECS SPORT).
Push the TC button and hold it for a few seconds and a message will say (ECS OFF). It's anybody's guess whether TC is actually turned off completely with a long press. Probably not. I've driven around on the street in both modes and can't tell the difference. A couple off laps around a track and it would probably be apparent what nannies if any are intervening in each mode .

As far as I'm concerned I would prefer not to have TC at all.

Wouldn’t have got unstuck from the a66 last night without turning off the TC so some fantastic advice on offer here, it really makes a difference!

 

[Joetidman]

I’ve got winter tyres fitted on my S5 for the first time this year and it’s a beast as a result. If I turn the wheel and hit the throttle it will slip and bit but hardly an issue. Breaking and handling are way beyond most other cars I’m encountering on the road. I have switch the sports diff down from dynamic to comfort though...


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[Wagondriver]

Running on sotto zero Pirelli’s... it hasn’t missed a step. Even better then I’d expected.

 

[malph]

Mine's been left on the drive and we've been using the wife's new Ka+. It's been great on softer, narrower tyres with its lower power. Definitely the better choice in this weather.

 

[Jsmills]

I think simplicity is key with snow. My 1.4 sport manual has been faultless. Probably due to its light weight and small wheels. I’m not running winter tyres but the fronts are pretty new.

 

[Broonie]

As I posted in the b8 forum as that’s what I’m still driving

I’m in north east Scotland and been hit pretty bad with the weather, living out on a farm too the drifts are pretty bad,

However I’m going against to old and tired winter tyre debate here and have my a4 quattro avant black edition with 255 summer tyres, hold in the damn esp button until it says off on the dis and not sport and away you go! No issues at all and have been pulling rwd/fwd/4wd cars, some WITH winter tyres fitted, through the drifts since Tuesday night, especially mercs!

But now that the drifts are that deep that the tractors are struggling now without bellying out, I won’t be taking the car out in it, that’s just stupidity

 

[Jsmills]

Haha I can relate to the merc comment, mine couldn’t even get out of the close

 

[h1r4]

Mines been absolutely fine. Trooping flawlessly even with summers and 19s on it

 

[Beastface]

S4 on Michelin Alpin 4s has been absolutely unstoppable, it's an impressive thing

 

[Nickfrog]

I fitted all season tyres to the kids Yaris a few months ago. £200 for 4 in 15' wheels, same price as premium summers.

As a result I didn't even notice the snow.

68hp is plenty to out manoeuvre pretty much anything on summers. A lot of fun but people get very upset when you safely overtake them.

 

[Feyim]

Running on Nokians no issue at all.Using everyday

 

[ub7rm]

Quattro plus snow tyres = unstoppable. I think only large drifts would stop it.

 

[Fozzie1960]

No problems at all, even on summer tyres. Having said that, how the car performs is mainly down to the person driving it and how they adapt to the conditions. I had a couple of squeaky bum moments, but that was due to other drivers not taking the conditions into account.

 

[taylorc]

No problems what so ever, the only issues I have encountered are numpties that haven't a clue how to drive in this weather!!

One thing I have noticed though is the wipers keep freezing with chunks of ice so when I wipe the screen water gets smeared everywhere! I have had to wipe the blades over at least four times (once during a journey - pulled over first of course lol).... anyone else had issues with ice on the wiper blades?

 

[Theonenonly]

No problems what so ever, the only issues I have encountered are numpties that haven't a clue how to drive in this weather!!

One thing I have noticed though is the wipers keep freezing with chunks of ice so when I wipe the screen water gets smeared everywhere! I have had to wipe the blades over at least four times (once during a journey - pulled over first of course lol).... anyone else had issues with ice on the wiper blades?

Yes! its very ****** annoying!

 

[Syed Shah]

Must say my car did very well in the snow... did a 240 mile journey to Exeter (red zone for snow & bad weather).. then it got stuck on a very slight incline and refused to move. Stability control and Stop Start fault lights came on. So I got the car to a safer location, Audi Assist got someone to me very quickly considering the extreme weather and they got it moving again. Both fault lights sorted them selves out. But even normal RWD BMWs & Mercs were overtaking me for fun lol! On the way back however it was fault less..