Winter - BMW

GolfBravo

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

This is a joke right? My friend's 320d and his old 325i were both utterly useless in the snow a couple of years back, despite swanky winter tyres.

Nope.

Feather the accelerator, turn t/c off when necessary, start from 2nd gear, etc.

RWD 3-series is the top selling car in Germany, yet their winters are much harsher than ours. The main difference is their much better driver education/skills (youtube link).

Iceweasel

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

This is a joke right? My friend's 320d and his old 325i were both utterly useless in the snow a couple of years back, despite swanky winter tyres.

I have fond memories of driving past an endless line of rear-wheel drive cars stuck on a gentle incline in snow on the M58 last year - I had no problems at all along with most other FWD drivers.

Didn't you watch the video links in post #12?

Mobeer

I've driven RWD cars on summer tyres through the last decade without crashing, or being crashed into. Don't make any changes, just drive sensibly.

Iceweasel

Mobeer wrote: »

I've driven RWD cars on summer tyres through the last decade without crashing, or being crashed into. Don't make any changes, just drive sensibly.

Me too - for 40 years!

But it's been a hell of a lot safer and easier for the last 10 years with winter tyres!

colino

So cold you have your grippers on November to March in the UK? it must be Cumbernauld.

TrickyWicky

Mobeer wrote: »

I've driven RWD cars on summer tyres through the last decade without crashing, or being crashed into. Don't make any changes, just drive sensibly.

Thing is though you only need to hit black ice and you're done for.

I did that a few years ago in a heavy front wheel drive volvo. It slid along for what seemed like an eternity until it hit the front of another car. Despite trying everything to regain control it felt like I was on a big barge that needed half a mile to stop lol. I was only doing 20 too..

Luck is luck. It's either in or it's out when it comes to winter driving.

scheming_gypsy

I did it a couple of years ago in my Supra. Just started to sleet as I went out, part of the estate is block paving rather than tarmac and as soon as the front wheels hit it, it span the car sideways slamming the front passenger wheel into the kerb and dragged the back end round taking out that alloy.
No amount of careful driving could have stopped it as it was a split second occurance

TrickyWicky

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

slamming the front passenger wheel into the kerb

Yeah I've done that too. Not nice, it made an almight bang. Car was solid though and there was no difference to the handling etc. I carried on running it with no probs lol. I scrapped it this year and kept the subframe too as a spare for another car

chrisw

Also, sounds back to front but turn the DTC traction control off. In the 3 series it is on by default so as soon as a wheel starts to spin it cuts the engine power and applies the brakes with the result that you don't move anywhere. Pressing the button once partially disengages it so you have some control but the car still watches the limits, or press and hold the button to turn it off completely. Be very careful with this one though, it is really surprising how easy it is to spin the wheels in normal driving if you've got used to having traction control, and the insurers might not be too happy about it.

Gloomendoom

Presumably, the insurers have assessed the risk based on the fact that the traction control can be turned on and off by the driver. It would be different if the traction control was disabled by pulling a fuse, for example.