Topic

Wife is panicing early..

So lol lets go for it, what is the best car in winter?

Considering at some point getting rid of the vectra, choices include MPV, 7 Seater 4x4 or a huuuuge estate.

But some of the so called 4x4's are dogger.

Anyone got any tips / recommendations.

Out of all my cars I've come to the conclusion the crapper and more basic it is the better in the snow it is. My corsa, micra, nova, 106 made it up every hill every time, no issues. The ZR was a bit crap, Vectra is rubbish all the fancy things it has you can't turn off so the slightest bit of wheel spin and the car starts braking on whatever wheel is out of control. It is turd!

I have a jaguar x-type AWD and it is superb in the snow and that's with the 18" wheels and regular tyres. Think it would be unstoppable with smaller wheels and winter tyres.

Get Winter tyres. We run the F all year. Winter tyres about to go on. We live on an un-gritted hilly road.
Nuff said?

Had one of these as a company car for 4 months. This is the best car I've driven in the snow. Didn't find anything that stopped it.

if you're looking for something basic that nothing can stop:

Fair dos Clive. That would take a bit of beating.

Give one of these a go....

We bought a Freelander 3 years ago for that very reason.

Cost us around £1400 at the time and is great to drive. Even Anne enjoys driving it.

It has needed some work, but mostly consumables etc. Nothing more than you would expect from a 13 year old car.

We are that impressed with it that when we do come to get "The next car" we might be replacing the Focus ST and the Freelander with a newer model Diesel Freelander as Annes main car.

i usually find that shouting 'Come On' and 'Power' at regular intervals gets me where i need to be.
seriously though, all you need is to anticipate, carry your momentum, and generally not drive like a dick.
i had a 330Ci Sport which never got stuck in Scottish winters, despite the comments and naysaying.
inclines of packed snow could be helped by putting the handbrake on a couple of clicks, just to help the traction control.

Deffo a Landrover...pretty much any kind but a Defender 90 takes a lot of beating...Good for doing the shopping for the neighbours when its a tad slippy...and great fun too..bring on the snow !

more of a truck than a car though...

Subaru Legacy AWD 3.0Rn Flat 6 on winter tyres, towed a Freelander V6 Auto out of a drift last year.

If you can stand the total lack of performance and don't need to carry a lot, the Mk2 Fiat Panda 4x4 is incredibly good in snow especially with the right tyres. My other half has one and we've used it to tow quite a few much bigger cars uphill in the snow on the road we live on in the Highlands. 0 - 60 in 22 seconds though! Still, the Italian Police use them in the Alps for a reason.

Or as Clive suggests a BV206...

Richard