So the great snow storm of 2005 has decended upon the midwest and I was out driving around. On my way home I decided to take the road less traveled because I figured that the two lane would be better than the four lane where nobody could see the lines and were driving all over the place. Everything was going fine...then I got stuck behine a dually truck doing 20 mph. Not that I was flying down the road, but 20 mph in a fricking dually? I ended up passing him and got back up to 35-40 and just loved the way teh Mini handled the snow.

Then back on a four lane and in 12 miles I saw two vehicles in the median both were large SUVs! I love the whole American thought process where a huge SUV is safer than anything else and that rear wheel drive cars are the devil. On the four lane there was one car that was going along fine with me, it was an older XJ6 and he was not having any trouble either.

Now I do not think my Mini will compair in stock guise with my old Hyundai, but that thing had really narrow tires and it just absolutly loved the snow (no ABS either) I remember my friend got stuck once in his huge SUV and I had to pick him up in my Hyndai it was quite embarrasing for him, but I thought it was funny.

Tonight reitterated what I have always said about driving in snow (or any driving really) the most important part is the brain of the driver. You can give the best driver in the world a crappy car and the worst driver in the world a 4X4 and in the snow the great driver will kick ***.

So with winter upon us be careful out there, but have fun too!

 

Well said!!! While I think few nowadays would go solely on the opinion of Sir Alec that nimble maneuverability and the corresponding ability to avoid hazards is the primary essential for safe motoring.....we love/need our airbags, ABS, and the rest.....I do think this factor is vastly under-rated, and perhaps even forgotten nowadays. A nimble vehicle + an knowlegable driver = a big safety plus! (...but the other stuff is very good, too.)

 

Don't forget to put the cell phone or incredibly engaging conversation with the passenger down, at least when you should be concentrating on the task at hand.
Oh yeah, and snow tires! Man, that DSC got a real workout this morning coming out of the sub Probably 5-6 inches anyway. DSC makes you look like a real WRC champ with the auto correct of the slide in the (empty) parking lot...

My tire pressure indicator warning went off today, but I assume that it was reading snow packed on the tire or a tire slipping or something. The tires look/feel like they have the appropriate amount of air...:impatient sheesh.

 

The scariest thing to me about driving in the snow isn't my ability to drive in it. I know that in any of our vehicles (MINI, EVO, and Scion xB) I get through with some vehicles having an advantage, but I can get there eventually. What scares me is all the other people out on the road. This morning my husband called me while I was driving to work. I got a bit mad at first b/c I didn't want to talk on the phone while I was driving in the snow. But he kept calling, so I found my Bluetooth ear piece and answered. Somebody had pulled right out in front of him without looking and there was no way he could avoid it, so he hit the guy, a stop sign and a pole He's OK, but very upset. Even though he has (or perhaps had) an AWD car with snow tires, he makes sure to keep a good distance away from the car in front of him and not go too fast, but it didn't matter this morning

 

Not that I disagree with anything you said, but I feel I have point out possibly one faulty implication of your post. Duellies aren't good in the snow. In fact they are particularly bad for precisely the reason you pointed out about your ex-Hyundai. The double width of the tires puts rear end traction at an absolute premium and when the nose weighs nearly 5000#s but the rear is only 2000# it makes for, shall we say, a pretty interesting combination of horrible understeer followed by snap oversteer.

BTW where you on snows or all seasons?

 

While I KNOW that I would be better off in my MINI in this weather, I am driving my 13 year old Ford Ranger that currently won't even go into 4-wheel drive. I have good, new tires and some sand and salt bags in the bed, but I swear it has got to be one of the worst things you could possibly drive in the winter!

I consider myself a good snow driver and can generally manage it, but in an "instant reaction" situation I'll be screwed. I am particularly careful when driving the truck in inclement weather and I leave plenty of space for myself and the vehicle to react - but you know how other people like to jump into those gaps. mad: No ABS on the rear end just makes me a fish-tailing wreck waiting for someone to cut me off or jump out in front of me. Not to mention that the rear wheels break free so easily that I'm bound to get stuck in some ridiculously mild spot unless I figure out what is wrong with the 4WD.

...I just can't bear the thought of dragging Mel out to get all snowy, salty, slushy, and crappy. I already did that to Molly (my former '02) and just can't bear doing it to Mel. So, I'll continue driving the truck with care.

 

How true. A friend's wife was in an accident yesterday while she was talking to her husband on her cell phone while driving in the snowstorm. Her car spun around on the ice then slid down a ditch and struck a pole. Luckily she was not hurt but her 350Z has now dents on two sides. The damage isn't major, but isn't going to be an inexpensive fix.

I took Gromit out for his first excursion in the snow yesterday. WOW!!! What a ride! This car is fantastic in the snow!

I still have the performance run-flats on him and had heard they weren't very good in the snow. If they aren't very good, I can't imagine how good other tires would be. I have never had a car handle this well in the snow/ice combination we have here. He slipped and slid very little, but the DSC kicked in and took care of that. Nothing like my work car(a Malibu). It slipped and slid all over the road and could have been a real handful a couple of times had I not been careful.

I agree with MandaBoo about being more worried about the other drivers. I was nearly hit by a 4wd pickup yesterday because the driver thought he was invincible. He was meeting me on the road at a railroad crossing, lost control and slid 90 degrees to his direction of travel, totally blocking both lanes, all the while driving around 40mph on the ice. What an idiot! Luckily I was driving in a manner expecting those type of incidents and was able to avoid him without radical manuevers.

 

[off-topic]
Mishka, not to get too off-topic, but I've been through Dexter! In on our way to my in-laws place near Ellington
[/off-topic]

 

I agree on the MINI handling well, even on runflats. And i don't even have dsc, lsd, anything.

I've hit "black ice" as most people said i hit. I was coming around a curve in the road when i completely lost traction, over corrected, and crossed over the opposing lane and went down a hill, into a ditch, out of the ditch, and through a dead corn field. Thank god no one was hurt, and no one coming the other way, and everyone that did pass me was super helpful. The cop let me off with nothing just because of the car i was in my little 100 HP sleigh.

And i did get into an accident once. It was the last sleet/snow this past March, and i was braking for a stop light, when the car in front of me braked really fast, so i braked harder. I was on a slight hill and i noticed i was sliding. Turns out the car in front of me (which i could barely see around in my itty Miata) almost hit the car in front of it. They found an opening and got out in time. I wasn't so lucky. I started to turn to the left when crunch, under a caddy i went.

I make a point of turning my music down (which i rarely do) and staying OFF the phone period when the weather is bad. I was a pretty inexperienced driver, in a not so good car to have on the roads at the time anyhow. I'm sure i could have avoided what i did in it, but i was going as slow as possible, and keeping an eye on as much as i could around me. Haven't had a single problem in the mini, and i'm very thankful of that.

 

Glad I live in Florida.

I honestly have to give props to the entire population that lives north of Tallahassee, I don't know how you do it.

It has been in the 60's this week and I feel like I need a coat! I saw my first snow this time last year in NYC. It was the first time in my life I spent more than 2 days where the temp did not exceed 25 degress. In fact it was like 20 for all but one day of my trip.

 

So sorry Nothing is more upsetting than getting one of those phone calls from the other half

 

Must have been traveling US60! I'll have to keep an eye out for you now since I drive US60/I57 daily.

Here's a picture of the end result of one of Gromit's many trips out and about yesterday. He just kept coming up with little trips we had to do in the snow.

 

Not a MINI, but my old 1990 Saab 900 with studded snow tires absolutely destroyed the 4x4's in Colorado in the snow. I remember one particular Christmas when a major snow storm hit when I needed to drive from Colorado Springs to the Denver airport.

The interstate was littered with SUV's that had lost control and then became stuck in the snowbanks. My little Swedish snow beast was rock solid at normal highway speeds at the time when the interstate behind me had just been closed and I was one of the last to get through.

 

Sorry, I understand your wanting to keep your car clean but from the sound of it you are basically endangering yourself and others by choosing to drive the old truck with broken four wheel drive when you don't have to. Really I do understand the desire to keep the new car pristine but if you look at what you are saying you really are choosing a high risk vehicle over a much safer car (for many reasons) when you don't have to and it seems like folly. If something happens and you or someone else is hurt in a circumstance that would likely not have happened or been avoided by having ABS/traction control/air bags/etc how would you feel by, when in your own words, you are freely choosing to drive "one of the worst things you could possibly drive in the winter!"?

It would be one thing if that were your only choice but having the safer car available is a good thing - if the choice of old and lacking in safetly equipment/bad handling in weather conditions or new and great safety equip/handling were available I know would go with. Its a blessing to have a great car like the Mni at your disposal, don't be afraid to use it

 

Tires make more of a difference than just about any other single thing (brainpower excluded) that you can do to prepare for snow driving. In the old days everybody had snow tires and the "other season" tires. Life was good.
Then came "all season" tires, which if you think about it are really only mediocre for each season. I use 'em on my AWD Audi because I don't really push the car at any one time (don't want to invest another $600 - $800 for a set of steel wheels and snowies either). But with my MCS, as I do like to DRIVE in all weather, so I have my performance tires for good weather and my snowshoes for winter. Huge difference, and proper snow tires really makes the MCS a superb snow vehicle.

 

I think I have you beat... my other car is a 1995 Mustang GT. 5.0 liter V8, RWD, front engine... basically with all that power, and no weight over it, it's MISERABLE. This is also before traction control was an option. And did I mention 275/40R17 tires? Very WIDE, VERY bad for snow. I drove my Mustang through 10 winters before I got my MINI. For one or two winters, I actually put snow tires on it, and it did remarkably well... but once I upgraded my brakes and had limited snow tire options, I bought performance all-seasons and tried to tough it out.

Needless to say, I hate snow. I have hated snow ever since I got my driver's license, and I still hate it now. Even with the MINI, since I have performance tires on it... until next Thursday when I finally get snow tires on it.

Who knows, perhaps the MINI will help me start to enjoy the snow more.

 

I agree with you MGCMAN, but I can't bring myself to have 3 sets of tires for my car. I still have my all-season runflats which the hubby said did fine after he brought the wrecked EVO home and took my MINI to get to work. I was trying really hard to not risk the MINI in snow, because I didn't HAVE to drive it, but I guess now I do. Plus, I have my Falken Azenis which I use for auto-x and HDPE's. I would like snowies, but I can't bring myself to buy another set right now . What really stinks is that just last weekend we bought snowies for teh EVO and we were counting on using it as our inclement weather car, but I would bet its probably going to be towards the end of the snowy season before the EVO is drivable again.

 

It's not my intention to start a spicy debate here. Neither do I feel that I need to justify my decision to someone else - but I do feel there are some worthwhile comments I can make.

While I agree with you to a point - and to some degree still question my own choice - I think that (unfortunately) Mandaboo's husband's situation helps show that no vehicle/driver is going to be great in the "instant reaction" situations. (Sorry to hear about his misfortune, Mandaboo. ) Furthermore, I know the limitations of my vehicle and take steps to avoid exceeding them. To MGCMAN's point, the new Nokian tires extended those limitations a bit. As do driver skill. Not that I'm a professional, but having lived in the boondocks most of my life (read: lots of bad roads) and having driven plenty of RWD cars in the snow, I have the experience to not only avoid most of those situations, but to control the vehicle through most of the oops-a-daisies. If anyone is going to be driving one of these, I'm glad it's me and not some "invincible" 16 year old or arrogant 40 year old. Frankly, I think it is my healthy dose of skepticism about my vehicle's limits that will keep me safe, while others develop a false sense of security from all their passive safety equipment and push their vehicles beyond it's limitations. (...which get's back to Mandaboo's point about the other drivers on the road...)

As for the broken 4WD: A.) I'm certainly not the only RWD vehicle on the road. B.) That only helps me to get the car moving - not stop it. C.) I plan to be crawling under the truck this weekend to have a look. (What fun! - and good thing I have a garage. )

Oh, the biggest reason I don't want to drive Mel is that I do not want him wrecked - for many reasons - it's not just to keep him clean. The truck isn't exactly disposable - but in comparison, a fender bender or bumper crunch wouldn't be nearly as big of a deal. (Not that I'm looking for or expecting either.)


SO, in closing, let's ALL be safe out there!

 

That's why I was hoping to keep my Bruno off the road during snowy times too. We figured my MINI was the most logical choice to stay in the garage during this kind of weather. His EVO is AWD and has snow tires and I figured that since both handle reasonably in the snow and if I were to be in a position in which an accident was unavoidable, I would rather have that accident in the Scion than in the MINI

 

But its so Pretty outside

 

For your reply you took a small quote from the entirely of what I was saying and thus made it seem ridiculous - I know its not the broken 4 wheel drive that is the main issue, I was just responding to what you had said about how bad your truck was ("one of the worst things you could possibly drive in the winter") and the issues around that and suggested going with the safer alternative you have. I didn't say you had to justify your position nor did I mean to make you defensive, I was simply responding to what you put out there. Aside from stating that it was the worst thing you could drive in the winter you outlined the dangers yourself:

"I consider myself a good snow driver and can generally manage it, but in an "instant reaction" situation I'll be screwed. I am particularly careful when driving the truck in inclement weather and I leave plenty of space for myself and the vehicle to react - but you know how other people like to jump into those gaps. No ABS on the rear end just makes me a fish-tailing wreck waiting for someone to cut me off or jump out in front of me. Not to mention that the rear wheels break free so easily that I'm bound to get stuck in some ridiculously mild spot unless I figure out what is wrong with the 4WD."

Good luck, I sincerely wish you and everyone the best on the roads and truly hope that no-one cuts you off and that there are no instant reaction situations for you to deal with in your truck. Cheers.

 

Dam I forgot to include the best part the dually had 6X6 on the side, that is what I thought was ironic thinking 4X4 would be better than 4X2 so 6X6 would be best!

I agree about the seasonal tires we have a freind in Japan and they have to get snow tires in the winter, my freind says it is because they normal tires suck.