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Snow It's Coming!


panya
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well judging my last year's experience of my sportcross and snow... eehhm this year especially now it is lowered it stays in the drive covered lol

I left the Xantia outside ... it will be handy to raise the suspension and let the low torque HDI ... do the job oohh and yes! front wheel drive haha. That will get me to work at least.

And I have to say here sod's law!!!! lol everytime I book a holiday it decided to get like that and mess with my flights!! every year :( lets hope it gets better by next Thu :(

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First time owning a RWD car in the snow and just went out in it. I did quite well and im surprised ppl are saying the snow mode doesnt make a difference because for me, having much less throttle sensitivity made the world of difference. To scared to turn traction off tho! I live in a built up area but i might have some fun tonight after work when i finish at 9! Oh and i didnt know a little skid light came on if you skid, thats kinda cool. before and after below:

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2013-01-18_12-14-21_142_zps62025b16.jpg

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Just came home, not a lot of the horrible white stuff; less than an inch in most places. My van was thoroughly, thoroughly useless in it outside my house though. It's block paving from the main road all through the estate, and on a hill down from the main road, and everytime it snows it compacts into ice. Van just slid down it, and took me a good 2 mins of gentle but consistent throttle to get it to go back up again. Gave up trying to reverse park it 90 degrees outside my house as all it would do is slide, so parked it on the main road.

Will go out in the Lexus in a couple hours, and hopefully the winter tyres will give it all the grip it needs to get out

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Abandoned car at work and got a lift home ........Brum is pretty well covered and traffic is tailed back causing very long journeys home .....I'm walking into work tomorrow and hopefully get the car back then.

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A friend wanted to fly to London tonight. Heard the airports are closed because of a bit of snow? :lol:

Exactly! See my rant here.

Why are precautions not necessary in the UK? Talking to people about winter tyres here in the UK just raises arguments because it rarely snows here. They're not just for snow but how do you get that across?

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First time I have had the chance to drive in the snow, the car managed through the snow with no trouble whatsoever with the snow button on. So long as you don't accelerate too hard I had no problems, great car on the snow and managed to plow through it better than other cars on the way into Birmingham.

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Out from my jaunt in the snow this eve - lots of slush and snow on the ground, most of it not deep, but still very slippery. Didn't bother with the snow button, other than for parking (which I often do anyway), and only a couple of TRC moments (which were down to me putting my foot down to see how it gripped!). One mini-tank slapper though, coming off a roundabout - gave it a little right pedal to see how it reacted on an ungritted and uncleared road, and had a bit of a left right left; only a few degree's either way, nothing sideways, and all I did was take my feet of the pedals (still in gear) and correct the steering and it sorted itself out. That's mainly down to my inexperience with RWD, and my over-zealousness with the loud pedal - thankfully, tyres did their job and it all ended happily, without so much as breathing on a kerb.

The big test, well two actually, was 1) getting out the carpark of the pub, which was no hassle, and 2) parking at mine. I come down a slope, block paving with fresh snow over compacted ice (never gets gritted as it's a private estate), then pull as far to the right as I can, sitting on a diagonal across the road, before reversing back up the slope, left-hand-down to park at 90 deg angle to the road. Absolutely no fuss at all. Half the FWD in the estate, let alone the RWD cars, can't even get up that slope, let alone park! My van failed pathetically earlier on this eve; ABS going nuts while trying to brake, veering off and kissing a kerb before rubbing noses with a bush while trying to three-point it, then ESP going mental while trying to drive back up the slope to the main road. IS with it's winter boots managed it fine - with just a teeny slide when pulling out and right to go up the slope to the main road.

Of course, diligence, common sense and gentle driving is still key - these tyres are not the be all and end off of combatting winter. But with a sensible approach, I was still able to out accelerate, out brake, and out steer more or less everything else I came across on the road, and, like I said, with virtually no TRC moments and not a single ABS moment either. And I tested the brakes on a couple of quiet sections of road when possible (I really wanna take it to a carpark and give the brakes a good test, just so I know how far it will let me go, or how hard rather, I can press the brakes before getting a slide or ABS out of it.

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I'd love to drive my lex in the snow^

I should've bought winter tyres but I think I've found something even better to combat winter driving.... A Citreon Saxo!! :lol:

About the same price too, £500 for winters or £500 for a Saxo! Honestly this Saxo today was amazing in the snow. We got everywhere, even up hills in rural Wiltshire!

And this is the brilliant Saxo with a couple of examples of the roads we were on. My car wouldn't stand a chance.

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Friend at work has a 5 series Beemer (older one) with 235 section rear tyres - that doesn't move in snow, just pathetic. He's bought a £400 106 with skinny 185 (might even be 175) section tyres that loves the snow.

I agree that you can pick up a cheapy run about for the same money as buying winter tyres - no doubt about it. But then you've got 1) to have space to keep two cars (I don't, as I already have two vehicles) 2) gotta either incur the extra expenditure of insuring two cars, or swapping insurance over and back when needed*, and 3) the added cost of tax (even if you rebate when it's no longer needed, it's still gonna cost a minimum of a month) and MoT should you intend to keep the car for the next winter, all alongside the running costs of the Lex. *(and I bet I can go outside, and change over 4 wheels quicker than you can ring the insurance company, and swap the insurance over ;) )

Plus, I bought my IS because I want to drive my IS; and with winter tyres I still get to cruise about in comfort, with all my leccy toys, fast warm up, awesome heater, heated seats, etc.

Lastly, my winter tyres, and wheels, are paid for. So as long as I don't prematurely wear them out, they'll do fine for another couple seasons, so even if they only last say 4 seasons, that's £87.50 per year. And if I sell the Lex, as I said before, I can sell them as a package deal, sell them as tyres only (and sell the wheels too) or if the car buyer wants, they can buy them along with the car. So let's say I run them for 3 years, then sell the car and sell the wheels and tyres as a combo deal, that's £350 over three years (£116 per year) and sell for (for arguments sake) £300, that actually works out at £16 a year. That's probably cheaper than 1 months tax, per year, on another car ;)

Those roads don't look far off what I was driving my IS on this eve, btw

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Was completely tounge in cheek getting another car for the snow but it's not a totally bad idea.

I wouldn't attempt using my car on roads like that with summer tyres but I would hope to be able to drive it on those roads on winters if I had them! I can't even get my lex of the drive at the minute. I either have to get up this hill to reach the main road

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Or down to the bottom of the street the other way E9746878-F6CA-451A-8E80-5DCB84729B03-5058-0000067D668F3847_zps75768df1.jpg

Either way I cannot get the car on to a main road! :(

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No, it's not a totally bad idea, and indeed something I contemplated when thinking about winter tyres. I almost bought my little Rover back from my neighbour, who I sold it too when I bought the Lex, to use in the winter. Then I did the sums, and it speaks for itself really. Granted, if you sell the car on, you can recoup most of the cost, but you're nearly always gonna be out of pocket one way or another. Likewise, you're still gonna have an "expenditure" with the winter tyres (a divisional yearly cost), but I'd expect it to be much lower, and to me, more beneficial. Luckily, I'm in a position to have space to keep a spare set of wheels/tyres, so that's another plus too.

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Granted it's no garage, but the bin cupboard is just the right size for a set of 4 wheels and tyres, along with the other car bits and tools I like to keep at the front side of the house! (plus, why would you care enough about the bin to give it a home? Sorry bin, but it's true)

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We've just got a small amount of snow here overnight and I need to make a small journey today... I've got 18" aeros on but no idea on the tyres to be honest.

Reading other posts, am I going to die and end up in a tree Lol? Cheers ;-)

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I Must admit to being surprised, I took Lionel out yesterday in the snow, didn't plan too but a mini emergency arose and I had no choice, I put the snow button on more so to humour myself and got around quite well, although the traction control light had a good workout! I have just had two new rear tyres put on ( P-Zeros) not for snow or winter purpose, just needed 2 new rear ones as were getting thin, whether that had anything to do with it I'm not entirely sure. we've had a fair bit of snow down here in the south west.

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I Must admit to being surprised, I took Lionel out yesterday in the snow, didn't plan too but a mini emergency arose and I had no choice, I put the snow button on more so to humour myself and got around quite well, although the traction control light had a good workout! I have just had to new rear tyres put on ( P-Zeros) not for snow or winter purpose, just needed 2 new rear ones as were getting thin, whether that had anything to do with it I'm not entirely sure. we've had a fair bit of snow down here in the south west.

not sure if its a Pirelli thing but am also running Pirelli P Zero Rosso's which are meant to be high performance summer tyres with a wet rating grip of 'B' and managed to drive my car ok with snow button on. was -3 yesterday with fare bit of snow here in bedfordshire and drove 7 miles from work with this rubber. these were already on the car when i bought it a year ago so has seen the back of 10,000 miles .. needed some groceries today and its -1 outside still with some snow outside. defrosted the car/engine for about 5 mins stuck it in reverse activated my snow button and away we go on summer tyres :) .. And these are high performance summer tyres inflated at 36PSI so am a bit surprised as to how others are finding it difficult to cope without running winter tyres on thier Lexus..I guess it boils down to where one lives in the UK and if you think you really need a winter tyre.. yes winter tyres will do a better job than summer tyres in wintery conditions as that is what they are designed for but that does not make summer tyres with natural grip and wet handling grip redundant in wintery conditions or once the weather gets into the minus figures. summer rubber with good grip and wet handling grip are more than capable as winter rubber in snow but will boil down to where one lives i suppose..

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Surely not, surely surely not, a person who only a month ago claiming buying a car just for the winter was stupid hasnt just admitted he contemplated doing it himself oh my.!

I take it you mean me? Yes, prior to buying winter tyres, I did think about the possibility of keeping my small FWD Rover (which of course, was already paid for). I even mentioned it prior to this. I also mentioned how winter tyres make much more sense for me, and that it'd be stupid to have a car just for winter, and how it will cost me less to buy the "not worth the high cost" winter tyres (which as I explained, will probably end up costing me the equivalent of about £35 a year to run)

You see, when you actually have the mentality to process information, options, and logically work things out, you can come up with the better, more suited, choice. Rather than just jumping to conclusions and making a tit of yourself. Of course, you don't understand that ;)

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