Snow, Snow & More Snow!

[JBPRX400h]

Just returned from a trip to Switzerland in our 400h.

It started snowing as we drove round the Brussels ring road and continued to snow for the rest of our journey through Luxembourg, France (N66 through the Vosges Mountains - very beautiful in the snow!) and onto the Swiss motorway system at Basle.

Always thought the Swiss were meant to be super efficient and well used to snow but Basle was almost at a standstill. Once clear of Basle it was a slow crawl along busy, snow covered motorways, often in queues behind snowploughs working in formation blocking the width of the motorway.

Eventually we reached our destination, Champoussin, a small ski village up in the mountains south of Montreux. The drive up to the village was in the dark on a narrow snow covered road with snow continuing to fall. Although it had been ploughed at some point there was still a covering of about 2 - 3 inches of fresh snow on a compacted base.

Through all this the car behaved excellently, despite being on normal Bridgestone Potenzas, with the traction control light only flickering on as we negotiated the hairpin bends on the way up. The last part of the road was a half mile 12% (1 in 8) descent into the village which was interesting to say the least as it reminded you that the laws of physics cannot be ignored! However, it was dead straight and by keeping our speed right down by feathering the brakes and using the B setting we made it down without any drama.

When we went out later in the week we put chains on the front wheels which inspired us with a lot more confidence, especially on the 1 in 8 descent!

The chains were size 410 bought from Cooks Motor Spares in Chesham for £59.95 (http://www.barland.co.uk/snow410all.html) and were very easy to fit and remove (after practising at home before we left, of course!) and I can thouroughly recommend them.

To sum up. We were very pleased with the performance of the 400h in the wide variety of snowy conditions, especially so with the addition of snow chains. It would be interesting to compare the performance of winter tyres but living where we do we cannot normally justify the cost of a spare set of wheels and tyres.

And finally, of course, we were cossetted by the comfort inside the car despite it being a very long journey in terrible conditions.

Long live the 400h!!!

JBP

[steve haley]

Just driven in my 350 down to Switzerland through Germany in some of the worst weather I have ever seen in my life.

Driving blizzards from Calais to cologne on sunday with the outside lane almost impassable and even the inner lane was white most of the time. Took nearly 7hrs to do the 250ml form Calais to Cologne. I reckon in places it was putting down 3-6in an hour of snow. The salting just couldnt keep up withe the snowfall and got really bad in places were the traffic was light. Didnt help that the lorries had been banned.

Stopped in cologne for a day to see the xmass markets and their roads were rutted ice and snow.

Didnt clear the snow until south of Stuttgart on Tuesday and the 3rd lane of the A3 was impassable all the way to Frankfurt

Through all this the 350 never put a foot wrong - I suspect the nerves of the driver were the limiting factor and I didn't notice the traction control ever kicking in, any slipping/sliding or wheel spin. Fairly sure I wouldn't have made it without the snow tires as there was 3-8in of snow in the petrol stations!!!

Interestingly the fuel consumption was pretty steady at 28.5 even when we finally got going at 100+ south of Stuttgart which isnt bad considering the snow tires are more inefficient albeit on premium unleaded.

Switzerland is positively balmy at 5 degs:)