Cars that are surprising good in the snow.

[Shambler]

I have a Skoda VRS estate DSG dies and was caught out by some pretty horrendous snow last night. I thought oh crap here we go, but was amazed how good the car handled the snow. It was a complete whiteout and other cars were sliding and going off the road. I thought with relatively wide and low profile tires combined with auto transmission and a fairly torquey diesel engine the car would be all over the place. In fairness it never slipped once and I was travelling at circa 50mph on ingratitude roads that were completely white. What other cars have surprised you in the snow?

[J4CKO]

My 350Z is awesome in the snow, utterly brilliant, mainly as I didn't go out in it.

Citroen C1 was very good, 155 section tyres really help.

[waynedear]

Her Kia Picanto id awesome in the snow, my 97 Mazda 323 is pretty good as well

[shoestring7]

An old Morris 1800 land crab. Mind you, around 600lb of cast iron B series sitting on top of 165 section tyres must have helped, but it went up a steep snowclad hill like a Landy.

SS7

[Kawasicki]

Most modern cars will be designed to be driven on snow. Yes, they will need winter tyres, but beyond that and the obvious lack of grip, it is just considered normal use.

[Immortalisation]

My 4wd Astra diesel with LSD handled it very well the other night

[Hitch78]

SEAT Ibiza 1.4 16v sport was a winner for me one year. It was only unstickable if you were silly.

To be honest I think most of snow driving is about skill. Particularly being able to feel what the car is doing and drive to the conditions - a lot of people just haven't got a clue how to adjust their style to get the best out of the vehicle.

[CR6ZZ]

1955 Austin A30. Incredibly narrow tyres and low power got me through snow that much more moderns and even some 4x4s were struggling in.

[scenario8]

My standard road tyre shod R56 MINI Cooper was not once caught out in deep snow or ice and went through all manner of terrain in the Surrey Hills it had no right to. Terrific car that was..

Skinny tyres and a bit of thought work wonders.

[MrBarry123]

Hitch78 said:

SEAT Ibiza 1.4 16v sport was a winner for me one year. It was only unstickable if you were silly.

To be honest I think most of snow driving is about skill. Particularly being able to feel what the car is doing and drive to the conditions - a lot of people just haven't got a clue how to adjust their style to get the best out of the vehicle.

Indeed.

Back in 2012 we ventured to Center Parcs when the South of England got a particularly bad covering of snow. The road that runs within and around Center Parcs was littered with people who had binned it into the little gulleys that are either side of the road.

The diesel Golf I had at the time performed faultlessly throughout the journey.

[Otispunkmeyer]

K11 Micra. AKA the snow beast.

[SlipStream77]

Original VW Beetle, narrow-ish tyres and an engine almost over the driven wheels.

Austin 7's are good too - tyres that just cut through the snow and there's not a lot of power or braking ability.

[anonymous-user]

I had a stty W168 2003 Mercedes A-Class, the crappest A140 model and it was on normal but decent brand summer tyres when we had all that snow in 2010 or whenever it was. The thing was like a mountain goat, totally unstoppable, I imagine with winters on it would be truly superb.

[Troubleatmill]

in snow.
My Corvette Z06 - 325 wide rear tyres. Scarily frightning.
My Wifeys - Fiat 500 - Epic fun.

In snow - summer tyres are useless. Wide summer tyres doubly useless. Extraordinary wide summer tyres - Random number generator.

[numtumfutunch]

My RR Sport get a lot of flak for being a WAG car

In its defence; today it comfortably crossed deep drifts getting from one county to another involving passing a beached Skoda Yeti (good effort but no cigar) and more surprisingly an abandoned Landcruiser

Cheers!

[S0 What]

You may laugh but one of the better vehicals i've owned in the snow was a lucida, never got stuck, only ever needed some air out the tyres to get out of trouble, auto helps in the snow as it will change up and drop the torque to help stop wheel spin, had laods of sideways fun in the old thing till a bus took it out one eve in S London

[RobinBanks]

I have a Range Rover with expensive tyres and a Vauxhall Corsa with the cheapest tyres available.


The Corsa is perfectly competent in snow. And I have driven each to the Alps to ski.

[daveofedinburgh]

Mk1 MX5. Yeah, I know...

Had 2 different ones, over about 3 years of DD usage.

Both coped perfectly with ice/ snow, never leaving me stranded once. Neither ever needed digging out, pushed or any real extra effort to keep moving, regardless of weather conditions.

I personally found the low weight, narrow tyres and short wheelbase made them surprisingly capable/ predictable in the snow. One of them was even an auto...

The only 'issue' was that you had to remember to push the snow off the headlights before you got in, as the motors werent strong enough to lift more than afew inches of snow!

You also had to be able to live with the noise of compacted snow scraping against the underside, which was a pretty unique sensory experience.

There's also the great pleasure of getting into a genuinely freezing car (amazing how much colder those old softops get), then quickly being toasted by the legendarily powerful mk1 MX5 heater.

[cirian75]

my old Pug 306 D-Turbo

great in the snow, no too wide tyres, huge lump of pig iron over the front wheels and zero driver aids, not even abs.

[BritishRacinGrin]

BMW 5-Series.

With a 100kg iron block engine in the boot.