Snow now more slippery or are cars less grippy?

[Scruffy Bodger]

Probably some frightful bingbonging would occur had one of the modern owners tried the pressure trick, no doubt resulting in some apparently unrelated failure of another programme at a later date.

My V50 had an absolute shit fit at me the other year. It turned out it gets a bit confused if you do half a mile or so with the handbrake on fucking around. Every light lit up on the dash and flashed at me with "Brake Failure Stop immediately" showing. So I'm sure you're right in thinking that.

Thankfully, turning it off and on again reset it and I carried on playing. Other than that it was really good in the snow and when properly testing the ABS it worked astoundingly well.

[treehugger]

I get the bing bong if it thinks the tyre pressure is low. Or the handbrake on.

[paulplom]

The van used to beep like fuck when I pulled the hand brake on moving. I just pulled the wires off the back of it.
It also used to beep when reversing to warn pedestrians. I located the beeper up behind the right hand plastic above the rear bumper and yanked the wires off that too.

[Hooli]

I guess skips wouldn't move when they heard it anyway.

[AMCrebel]

It's a combination of all sorts of stuff, innit?
Cars are much heavier now. The fat low profile tyres means a lower pressure on the road/snow over a bigger area.
Suspension these days is all about flat cornering and getting round the fucking Nurburgring, which makes rocking the car harder.
In the old days we all learned to drive in RWD cars so we knew how it felt/worked.
Now traction control etc means even if you have a RWD car you don't really notice.
There is much more traffic and people are as impatient as fuck so there is less margin for error.
People have much higher expectations of being able to go out in the car at any time.

[paulplom]

I guess skips wouldn't move when they heard it anyway.

That was parking sensors. Clever cunt.

[FhakeConcern]

First, great response so far and much that I agree with.
Next I tried to tag Warren & Norfolknweigh in the first post, but it didn’t seem to work, but reminded me that I didn’t remember seeing anything from Warren lately, is he ok?

@Christine I think the XR3i did have P6 now you say it. I agree some modern tyres do look scary when part worn and Michelin PS3 needed gone at about half worn, but the PS4 I have on my C30 still ok when down to about 2-3 mm.
People now seem unable to understand that you must use momentum to get up a slippery hill, but as you say small light is better.
I’ve never had winter tyres and didn’t even know they existed until fairly recently and never felt I needed them until recently either!
@Hooli 185/60/14 on the XR3i, I expect you’re right & love that you know that stuff, well the Renner Modus has 185/60/15. Looking up my own saved statistics on family cars, the XR3i was longer, but narrower and lighter than the Modus which is more powerful, but slower haha!
@Scruffy Bodger Do you describe the snow conditions for British Rail haha!
Yeh, black ice, the only times I’ve fallen off my bike without being knocked off where on that. When I lived in Forrest hill I usually commuted by bike, but was so icy I went in the aforementioned XR3i and was cutting through back streets of Nunhead up to a new mini roundabout, braked gently and went straight over it at the same speed. Luckily it was 6.30am and no other traffic.
@AMCrebel I agree with all that and as above with Escrote vs Modus when not even in the same class of car since Modus is Clio/Fiesta size now.
I passed my test with RWD (Cortina) but moved to FWD straight after and always preferred it. The only thing I’ve driven RWD in all that time was a borrowed BMW E36 Touring when the diff exploded on my GTI. No idea if that had ABS, traction or any other gizmos, but I still hated it.
I agree about people expecting to use the car always, while remembering the worry of will it start tomorrow morning?
Expanding on that, I think so many now rely on the so called “Driver Aids” such as brake assist, park assist, lane control, they think the fucking thing will drive itself and to be honest so do some of the cars!
@Paulplom it must be even more irritating having the beeping in a work van than with a car, out of interest, would it pass an MOT with handbrake warning disconnected?

[Warren t claim]

First, great response so far and much that I agree with.
Next I tried to tag Warren & Norfolknweigh in the first post, but it didn’t seem to work, but reminded me that I didn’t remember seeing anything from Warren lately, is he ok?

@Christine I think the XR3i did have P6 now you say it. I agree some modern tyres do look scary when part worn and Michelin PS3 needed gone at about half worn, but the PS4 I have on my C30 still ok when down to about 2-3 mm.
People now seem unable to understand that you must use momentum to get up a slippery hill, but as you say small light is better.
I’ve never had winter tyres and didn’t even know they existed until fairly recently and never felt I needed them until recently either!
@Hooli 185/60/14 on the XR3i, I expect you’re right & love that you know that stuff, well the Renner Modus has 185/60/15. Looking up my own saved statistics on family cars, the XR3i was longer, but narrower and lighter than the Modus which is more powerful, but slower haha!
@Scruffy Bodger Do you describe the snow conditions for British Rail haha!
Yeh, black ice, the only times I’ve fallen off my bike without being knocked off where on that. When I lived in Forrest hill I usually commuted by bike, but was so icy I went in the aforementioned XR3i and was cutting through back streets of Nunhead up to a new mini roundabout, braked gently and went straight over it at the same speed. Luckily it was 6.30am and no other traffic.
@AMCrebel I agree with all that and as above with Escrote vs Modus when not even in the same class of car since Modus is Clio/Fiesta size now.
I passed my test with RWD (Cortina) but moved to FWD straight after and always preferred it. The only thing I’ve driven RWD in all that time was a borrowed BMW E36 Touring when the diff exploded on my GTI. No idea if that had ABS, traction or any other gizmos, but I still hated it.
I agree about people expecting to use the car always, while remembering the worry of will it start tomorrow morning?
Expanding on that, I think so many now rely on the so called “Driver Aids” such as brake assist, park assist, lane control, they think the fucking thing will drive itself and to be honest so do some of the cars!
@Paulplom it must be even more irritating having the beeping in a work van than with a car, out of interest, would it pass an MOT with handbrake warning disconnected?

I'm alive, I've just had a few days off with Ebola, Thank fuck we have a TDW staff private medical scheme!

In my experience of many thousands of XR3i miles is what makes them handle great over 30mph is traded off by both their slow speed wet weather traction out of corners. 185 tyres may be skinny by today's standards, but a Mk3/4 has not a lot of weight over the front wheels. I remember picking Mutha_Claim up from a party on a steepish snowy road and there was no way it was going to pull away but someone in a Mini Clubman had no problem restarting, ditto a Mk1 Cavalier positively romped up the hill like it was a rainy day.

[paulplom]

@Paulplom it must be even more irritating having the beeping in a work van than with a car, out of interest, would it pass an MOT with handbrake warning disconnected?

The handbrake warning light has disappeared from the dash to so definitely a fail.
It's just two spade connectors on the back of the lever to reconnect it though

[FatherJack]

LOL