BMW XM - Dead in the snow
Discussion
Happy New Year all.
Mine started not great was driving back to the hotel in Aberdeen from Kintore and the XM decided to basically try and kill itself 4WD, Stability Control, Brakes, Hand Brake and loss of power system failures all at the same time while driving through the snow on as per usual un gritted and barely ploughed roads. This led to a bit of a spin of thankfully nobody hurt and no damage to the car, I managed to creep it back to the hotel car park and call BMW assistance. Assistance guy turned up within 20 minutes and as expected "I cant fix that" so then a 2 hour wait for flatbed to turn up and recover the car to BMW dealer in Aberdeen.
Then told hire car being arranged, the 1st company called LCH advised cant get a car there any time this week (as expected) so onto Enterprise who were really helpful and got me a range rover evoque first thing this morning which is actually really decent to drive in this weather ( I have had 5 RR sports before).
Handing the Evoque back to enterprise tomorrow and getting the train back down south to Darlington with LCH dropping me off a brand new M5 to the house on Tuesday morning and when the XM is repaired they will low loader it back down south for delivery back to the house.
Great start to the year but as least nobody hurt and no real damage I supposed it for sure could have been alot worse.... To not it managed the 6 hour drive to Aberdeen no problem at all.
Mine started not great was driving back to the hotel in Aberdeen from Kintore and the XM decided to basically try and kill itself 4WD, Stability Control, Brakes, Hand Brake and loss of power system failures all at the same time while driving through the snow on as per usual un gritted and barely ploughed roads. This led to a bit of a spin of thankfully nobody hurt and no damage to the car, I managed to creep it back to the hotel car park and call BMW assistance. Assistance guy turned up within 20 minutes and as expected "I cant fix that" so then a 2 hour wait for flatbed to turn up and recover the car to BMW dealer in Aberdeen.
Then told hire car being arranged, the 1st company called LCH advised cant get a car there any time this week (as expected) so onto Enterprise who were really helpful and got me a range rover evoque first thing this morning which is actually really decent to drive in this weather ( I have had 5 RR sports before).
Handing the Evoque back to enterprise tomorrow and getting the train back down south to Darlington with LCH dropping me off a brand new M5 to the house on Tuesday morning and when the XM is repaired they will low loader it back down south for delivery back to the house.
Great start to the year but as least nobody hurt and no real damage I supposed it for sure could have been alot worse.... To not it managed the 6 hour drive to Aberdeen no problem at all.
2.8 ton uber powerful vehicle on summer tyres has a digital meltdown while trying to drive on snow and ice?
Light, skinny winter/off-road/allseason tyres, gentle power application and finesse is what is required - not brute force with digital tools to make up for shortcomings...
- picachu surprised face*
Light, skinny winter/off-road/allseason tyres, gentle power application and finesse is what is required - not brute force with digital tools to make up for shortcomings...
BMW electronics on X models you say ? A colleague turned up to work the other day in his X something, think it's maybe a hybrid, and it refused to switch off. He headed off to his local dealership where they managed to turn it off and is now waiting to find out what went wrong and when they can fix it. My suspicion is the 12v battery but who knows. Thankfully work is only 20 miles from home for him, wouldn't have been handy had it happened hundreds of miles from home like your issue.
Tiglon said:
Meanwhile, over in another topic: "It's well worth paying extra for a new car, just so you don't have to worry about breaking down."
Should have bought an old Yeti
A good question and taking us offtopic for a moment...Should have bought an old Yeti
I asked Gemini "What is the best value car for snow/ice in the UK, assuming winter tyres can be fitted?
Must be post 2010. No no going back to the original Panda 4x4. Needs to be <£15000."
It gave the shortlist as:
Dacia Duster 4x4 (as it includes a torque lock)
Suzuki Ignis Allgrip (as its only 900kg and has Allgrip)
Fiat Panda 4x4 / Cross (2012–Present) - very narrow tyres
Subaru XV (2012–2023) - class leading 4wd apparently
That's hard to read, can't really work out if all those failures proceeded the crash or were a result of the crash.
Snow plays havoc with all the systems that rely on the cameras and radar.
I can imagine a very heavy, very wide tyred, very powerful SUV is more than a handful in the snow.
Snow plays havoc with all the systems that rely on the cameras and radar.
I can imagine a very heavy, very wide tyred, very powerful SUV is more than a handful in the snow.
vaud said:
A good question and taking us offtopic for a moment...
I asked Gemini "What is the best value car for snow/ice in the UK, assuming winter tyres can be fitted?
Must be post 2010. No no going back to the original Panda 4x4. Needs to be <£15000."
It gave the shortlist as:
Dacia Duster 4x4 (as it includes a torque lock)
Suzuki Ignis Allgrip (as its only 900kg and has Allgrip)
Fiat Panda 4x4 / Cross (2012 Present) - very narrow tyres
Subaru XV (2012 2023) - class leading 4wd apparently
Missing the AWD Yeti in my view. I had two; on winters they were superb in the snow. I asked Gemini "What is the best value car for snow/ice in the UK, assuming winter tyres can be fitted?
Must be post 2010. No no going back to the original Panda 4x4. Needs to be <£15000."
It gave the shortlist as:
Dacia Duster 4x4 (as it includes a torque lock)
Suzuki Ignis Allgrip (as its only 900kg and has Allgrip)
Fiat Panda 4x4 / Cross (2012 Present) - very narrow tyres
Subaru XV (2012 2023) - class leading 4wd apparently
vaud said:
Tiglon said:
Meanwhile, over in another topic: "It's well worth paying extra for a new car, just so you don't have to worry about breaking down."
Should have bought an old Yeti
A good question and taking us offtopic for a moment...Should have bought an old Yeti
I asked Gemini "What is the best value car for snow/ice in the UK, assuming winter tyres can be fitted?
Must be post 2010. No no going back to the original Panda 4x4. Needs to be <£15000."
It gave the shortlist as:
Dacia Duster 4x4 (as it includes a torque lock)
Suzuki Ignis Allgrip (as its only 900kg and has Allgrip)
Fiat Panda 4x4 / Cross (2012 Present) - very narrow tyres
Subaru XV (2012 2023) - class leading 4wd apparently
t.Just as a side note regarding enterprise
I got an enterprise car arranged through bmw which on inspection I pointed numerous scratches etc and was told all ok. Had car a few days and hardly used and took back to bmw when I picked mine back up. Couple days later a phone call saying it had a scratch on it and was gonna cost £150. Queried this and went down to the enterprise place to see this scratch to be told it’s already gone for repair. Showed me a pic of a panel with a scratch but could’ve been any car.
Spoke to manager who then said car wasn’t in for repair but not there and when it comes back he’ll try and buff the scratch out and let me know. Told him I’ll dispute it every step and if it goes for repair I will want to inspect it with a paint thickness meter to prove it’s been painted etc. Then miraculously after he’d checked it he said he couldn’t get the scratch out but he took it to his mate who spent an hour or so and got the scratch out as a favour to me so no charge!
So word of warning to take vids and pics when you drop it off as you may find it obtained a phantom scratch.
I got an enterprise car arranged through bmw which on inspection I pointed numerous scratches etc and was told all ok. Had car a few days and hardly used and took back to bmw when I picked mine back up. Couple days later a phone call saying it had a scratch on it and was gonna cost £150. Queried this and went down to the enterprise place to see this scratch to be told it’s already gone for repair. Showed me a pic of a panel with a scratch but could’ve been any car.
Spoke to manager who then said car wasn’t in for repair but not there and when it comes back he’ll try and buff the scratch out and let me know. Told him I’ll dispute it every step and if it goes for repair I will want to inspect it with a paint thickness meter to prove it’s been painted etc. Then miraculously after he’d checked it he said he couldn’t get the scratch out but he took it to his mate who spent an hour or so and got the scratch out as a favour to me so no charge!
So word of warning to take vids and pics when you drop it off as you may find it obtained a phantom scratch.
normalbloke said:
A good question indeed. But what do YOU think? Not the regurgitated Ai st.
Easy tiger. I agree GenAI can be BS, but I'm not offering legal advice based on it. For example I never knew about the Subaru XV.t.A Panda 4x4 for me as a daily on Yorkshire Dales roads in the winter.
vaud said:
normalbloke said:
A good question indeed. But what do YOU think? Not the regurgitated Ai st.
Easy tiger. I agree GenAI can be BS, but I'm not offering legal advice based on it. For example I never knew about the Subaru XV.t.A Panda 4x4 for me as a daily on Yorkshire Dales roads in the winter.
ChocolateFrog said:
That's hard to read, can't really work out if all those failures proceeded the crash or were a result of the crash.
Seriously? Yes, using some punctuation would have helped with the readability but seems quite clear that the systems failure happened before and indeed contributed to the crash.vaud said:
Tiglon said:
Meanwhile, over in another topic: "It's well worth paying extra for a new car, just so you don't have to worry about breaking down."
Should have bought an old Yeti
A good question and taking us offtopic for a moment...Should have bought an old Yeti
I asked Gemini "What is the best value car for snow/ice in the UK, assuming winter tyres can be fitted?
Must be post 2010. No no going back to the original Panda 4x4. Needs to be <£15000."
It gave the shortlist as:
Dacia Duster 4x4 (as it includes a torque lock)
Suzuki Ignis Allgrip (as its only 900kg and has Allgrip)
Fiat Panda 4x4 / Cross (2012 Present) - very narrow tyres
Subaru XV (2012 2023) - class leading 4wd apparently
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