economical-ish 4x4? HELP

Paul_the_Painter

When I was a lad we lived in New Hampshire (US), the cars were pretty much all RWD, and the normal thing to do was stick on winter tyres, then stick a couple of large bags of sand in the boot.

This served 2 functions

1. available to improve grip if (rarely) required

2. weighed down the back of the car to provide some grip

Paul_the_Painter

Errr you've got an A4 S4? That's a quattro isn't it - therefore already a 4 wheel drive...

Strider590

Stigy wrote: »

A 4x4 also has 4WD though...which helps, irrespective of tyres!

Helps to get you moving VERY slightly, does NOT help you to turn or to stop.... It's completely over rated and our current culture of "one tyre thats as cheap as chips and does everything" is just utterly !!!!!!.

Hammyman

optimus_primera wrote: »

There is no substitute for experience, thats the biggest issue in this country imho.
Yes we had a 'bad' winter this yr ( or according to wifeys cousin in Canada,'a slight flurry' ....) but when was the last time we had so much snow for so long? i can't remember,i am 39 yrs old, and i cannot remember the las time i had to drive in snow,so how anyone is supposed to no how to correctly is beyond me.

You're the same age as me. I have had to most years. Admittedly save last year the worst one I can remember before that is 2002 but even if its only a couple of days, we've always had snow up here. One event I can recall was from 1997 when I was delivering some reels of paper. I got out of the truck and stood there watching it slide down the short hill on the ice, ran back to it, climbed in the cab and turned the engine back on. Turns out that on that particular model, if you turned the engine off it only kept the park brakes on on the driven axle of the unit and starting it up put them all back on so it slowly came to a halt. Once unloaded, I simply put the diff lock on and drove up the hill, albeit slowly

Stigy

Strider590 wrote: »

Helps to get you moving VERY slightly, does NOT help you to turn or to stop.... It's completely over rated and our current culture of "one tyre thats as cheap as chips and does everything" is just utterly !!!!!!.

Any car in the snow is going to have trouble steering and stopping, but a 4x4 aids this but, at least partially, driving all four wheels! FWD is next to useless because it will just spin on the spot, and don't even try steering! RWD will still spin, but steering is a little more bareable. AWD will probably spin all four wheels for a while, but has more of a pick up than any other setup.

Hammyman

Stigy wrote: »

Any car in the snow is going to have trouble steering and stopping, but a 4x4 aids this but, at least partially, driving all four wheels!

Not quite. Old clunky Landrovers, Range Rovers and Toyota Landcruisers have the ability to drive all four wheels regardless of traction but not modern 4x4s. Your average modern 4x4 without a Landrover badge on does not have the ability to lock both differentials and transfer box. Instead they have a control system that sends drive to the wheel with the most grip. You can then end up with all the drive going to one wheel which is real beneficial in snow, not! And as the BMW X5 amply demonstrates, it is a cack system once you're in anything other than slightly bad conditions.

KillerWatt

Hammyman wrote: »

Your average modern 4x4 without a Landrover badge on does not have the ability to lock both differentials and transfer box. Instead they have a control system that sends drive to the wheel with the most grip. You can then end up with all the drive going to one wheel which is real beneficial in snow, not! And as the BMW X5 amply demonstrates, it is a cack system once you're in anything other than slightly bad conditions.

Spot on :T

No amount of electronics will ever be able to compensate for driver shortcomings, and I personally think the driving test should consist of being made to drive an old school Motorsport Beemer (or other similar heavy, powerful, RWD car) with absolutely NO electronic driving aids whatsoever around London (or other major city) for at least 4 hours in various conditions.

If you make it through that without incident, then you have proved more in that 4 hours than what the current test requires and therefore you should automatically pass.

Rolandtheroadie

At work a couple of winters ago, we had a 4 by 4. Everyone moaned about it having normal road tyres and would be no use whatsoever if we got any snow.
The snow came and guess what? When the works transits were laid up, and people were lying everywhere not able to move, the 4 by 4 coped no problems. Not only could it keep moving, it could go onto the now sodden snowcovered verges and get past people that way too.
When we DID choose to help, tow rope on, pulled people out no problems.
Driver ability and the correct tyres (Never had correct tyres) probably go a long way but give me a 4x4 with rubbish tyres over a 2WD vehicle any day when theres REAL snow on the ground.

boredmarriedwithkids

Not too many suggestions as to the original post other than opinions that are not that relevant!

Who cares if he wants a 4x4, whats it got to do with anybody else?



(Says he with a Land Rover and Jeep and Range Rover!)

2nd the winter tyre option tho!

Hammyman

Because the OP is wanting to buy one on the sole belief that it'll be some kind of miracle vehicle able to traverse the polar regions in the deepest winter storms with ease. They're going to spend £1000s on a car that for 360 days of the year will be a pig to live with especially when trying to get in and out at the local supermarket, cost a fortune to run and leave them wondering why and also unable to get shut of it without taking a massive hit.