Seen a few scooter riders out and about. Rather them than me. My road is covered in sheet ice. I went for a drive to run an errand and had to go super slow on our flat road to get to the de-iced main road. All other roads fine, but I still wouldn’t like to be out there. Brrr…
I normally do my day in the office on a Monday, no way i was doing it today!
I live on a residential street that has some through traffic, but it’s not that busy, So by 9am there was the usual slushy twin tracks worn in the snow. I heard a bike horn beeping & looked out of the window to see one scoot being ridden gingerly up the left hand track. About a metre behind him was a frustrated delivery rider on another scooter being a right twat. I strolled up the A23 to the shops at around 17:30 Normally there’d be a steady flow of bikes heading homewards, but didn’t see a single one.
How is the Tesla in the snow? I’d assume it’d be better than a normal car with all the instant low down torque & no doubt state of the art fancy electronics controlling the traction?
Performance in the snow is all down to tyres. Any old 2wd hack with snow tyres will run rings around any all-wheel-drive, no matter how much electronic trickery it has, if it is on the wrong tyres.
Got caught out a bit on Sunday. Left with no snow for a kids party, started snowing and roads were a mess.
But some of the driving was ridiculous. I was doing 10-15mph as there was almost zero traction or braking. Guy behind me was about 3-5metres behind me.
Then guys stopping near the crest of a hill and then wondering why they can’t get traction, rather than leave good distance and keep the momentum.
I also reckon the driver is a component. Mate on a qashqai (I think awd) got stuck and had to abandon. My trusty old kia powered through
Do these SUVs weighing more make it worse? Suspect they do…
Well, I don’t run winter tyres, so the performance is generally only slightly better than a two-wheel drive car on the same tyres as it’s AWD, and the front and rear axles can be rotated at different speeds, so electronics help a bit there, but as @Serrisan, it doesn’t make much difference. You need to run winter tyres to get safe/good performance in these conditions. If I did that, it might be pretty damn amazing!
No difference at all braking. ABS is ABS. That’s to say, on my iced-up road, it was not wise to go above 5mph, the car would judder under braking as ABS tried desperately to perform a miracle. Acceleration test was funny, the traction control was ultra responsive, being all electric, but resulted in much the same experience, much juddering as grip was found, not found, found, not found, etc.
This is the second year in a row where I’m wondering if it’s now time to consider winter tyres.
The stand-out GREAT thing about an EV/Tesla though is ten minutes before you want to go anywhere in these conditions, you tap the Defrost button in the app on your phone and in five-or-ten minutes later the snow and ice has melted off and the cabin is up to temp. No going out, scraping off ice and then getting into a freezing car. That experience is heaven.
well my car finally got picked up and an economic write off. So I’m now carless and thanks to the RMT cannot bloody get anywhere to try and get a new one.
Supposed to be at a funeral tomorrow but due to same RMT action we’re not going to get there.
All down to the tyres. I lived in Chamonix for several ski seasons. I ran a battered fourteen year old rusty 205 as my ‘valley car’. That thing was held together with zip-ties and dirt but I always had decent winter tyres on it.
There is one steep hill out of Montroc up to Le Balme ski station and early morning after a big dump everyone was rushing to get there first. I remember the acute pleasure of my battered old 205 jogging along in fresh snow past a floundering VW SUV with all four of its wheels spinning helplessly.
Oh yeah don’t disagree that the tyres are key component but I guess my question is… is a heavy 4wd better than a light 2wd on same tyres…
I guess that’s an impossible comparison as there are too many variables. I’ll just think that I’m a better snow driver than my mate
I too miss no needing to defrost because car was in underground (covered but open on sides) car park. Though the inclined exit would have been different matter.
First year de-icing for over a decade and my initial thought is that the £1 ice scraper from Halfords does the job. De-icer spray is a good idea but more faff than it’s worth. Must for any next car is a heated windscreen
Oh winter tyres is a must, I first considered them because i drive to the continent for my ski trips and then a past colleague who’s wife is Swedish always talked about his time there where by law i believe you must switch during winter and the nassive difference it makes. He does a complete switch whereas i have opted for the all year option which is a good compromise. Such a massive difference from sliding around in circles to going comfortably uphill on a snow covered road. Obviously if you drive like an idoit into a snow covered junction you will regret it but 20mph slide outs are a thing of the past.
Not sure why it isnt the standard for all tyres tbh especially on SUVs.
Also just this week I was looking into the whole pre warm up your car thing and its annoying that non electric cars have to start to do it. Some manufacturers have been incorporating remote starrt but only in the US. Seems its illegal in Europe and the UK think its called “quitting”, basically you cant leave your car started unattended on a public road.
A guy i know has installled remote start on his van but he’s an auto electrician and his work takes him to the US quite a bit so i’m not sure if they are readily available here.
I think it turns the engine on with a remote but then if you press the accelerator it cuts the engine and you need the key in to restart it.
Investigate Runlock systems … it allows engine to be left running and keys removed. However any attempt to move vehicle kills engine .
Used by emergency services and a lot of vehicles that use on board equipment (pto powerd hydraulic pumps )