SYE-1:
don’t disagree with you there , i’m on my 3rd BMW had them for the past 15 years and currently an E46 M3 for the past 5 years, but when it comes to driving on the snow the miss 306 is miles better …
It’s not the fact that the BM is rear wheel drive that’s the problem in that comparison it’s the difference in power output.Put the M3’s power output in the 306 and the 306’s power output in the BM then see which one would be ‘miles better’ in the snow. 
Carryfast:
SYE-1:
don’t disagree with you there , i’m on my 3rd BMW had them for the past 15 years and currently an E46 M3 for the past 5 years, but when it comes to driving on the snow the miss 306 is miles better …It’s not the fact that the BM is rear wheel drive that’s the problem in that comparison it’s the difference in power output.Put the M3’s power output in the 306 and the 306’s power output in the BM then see which one would be ‘miles better’ in the snow.
Also tyres, thin tyres are better in the snow, as are snow tyres, but sports tyres of 255 width are always going to be crap 
Chas:
IMO, the reason why so few ‘normal’ folk bother to take the courses.
Nope, its because so many think they are clever twits and have nothing to learn to improve their driving.
mezzzz1211:
french cars are rubbish in the snow ,my c5 gets stuck in a light frost(its for sale by the way)
Wouldn’t dream of taking a Sinclair out in the snow… 
If the insurance Co decide the car is a “write-off” they will offer you a figure ££ ( do quick research ie. Fleabay / Parkers to get a value in your mind ) … don’t just accept 1st offer … then ask how much to buy it back ?
Have you got a friendly garage / mechanic who could do the repairs for you ? Get a quote from them for cost of repair.
Bear in mind … if the car is “insurance write-off” and you get it repaired … the insurance Co will insist on the car being checked @ VOSA Test Station ( to check it’s not “cut & shut job” AND having full yrs MOT before they will insure it again.
Depends if you want this hassle or if you can get a decent pay-out
Best car ever in the snow for me was a Hillman Imp. Once got caught out travelling between Manchester and Nottingham with roads closed and vehicles scattered everywhere. It never lost grip and just went around every obstacle and up every hill. Rear wheel drive with the engine also at the back.
Generally it’s BMWs that seem to get stuck in the Northumberland hills, but if they’d just put some weight in the boot!
Rear wheel drive works better on snow,or anywhere else for that matter.That’s why Mercedes and BMW don’t use fwd on the AMG E63 or the M5 because they would be undriveable in that case even on a dry road let alone one covered in snow.
The M5 is undriveable in the snow just check the BMW forums … 2 years back we had really bad snow and out side of where I worked there was a lovely hill , we sat out there and watched the fwd cars cruse up the hill and all the rwd cars struggle sideways , we pushed most up the hill …
The fact I have wider wheels more power and a limited slip diff obvisley dosn’t help but we all know not to feather the power and not sit there with the foot planted on the floor more so rwd owners
The reason fwd is better is most fwd are low powerd cars the weight is over the wheels and there for the car is more planted on the road , also the reason fwd cars are usually bad is that the drive wheels are also the steer wheels but on snow this is the reason there good, the weight over the pulling powered steer wheels means better grip and more ability to point the car in the right direction .
Rwd =pushing with no steer ability and no weight over the power wheels equates to non movement and plenty of curb action …
In the busses case above , cracking clip btw and a great bit of driving . The engine is over the rear wheels and the passengers give the bus the weight it needs for traction …
GBPub:
mezzzz1211:
french cars are rubbish in the snow ,my c5 gets stuck in a light frost(its for sale by the wayWouldn’t dream of taking a Sinclair out in the snow…
Actrosman:
Nuff said…youtube.com/watch?v=4Pcdg9m7Dao
the american way…
best wat to control a slide 
…floor it
lets see if its any easier in the dry…
nope
SYE-1:
Rear wheel drive works better on snow,or anywhere else for that matter.That’s why Mercedes and BMW don’t use fwd on the AMG E63 or the M5 because they would be undriveable in that case even on a dry road let alone one covered in snow.
The M5 is undriveable in the snow just check the BMW forums … 2 years back we had really bad snow and out side of where I worked there was a lovely hill , we sat out there and watched the fwd cars cruse up the hill and all the rwd cars struggle sideways , we pushed most up the hill …
The fact I have wider wheels more power and a limited slip diff obvisley dosn’t help but we all know not to feather the power and not sit there with the foot planted on the floor more so rwd owners
The reason fwd is better is most fwd are low powerd cars the weight is over the wheels and there for the car is more planted on the road , also the reason fwd cars are usually bad is that the drive wheels are also the steer wheels but on snow this is the reason there good, the weight over the pulling powered steer wheels means better grip and more ability to point the car in the right direction .
Rwd =pushing with no steer ability and no weight over the power wheels equates to non movement and plenty of curb action …
In the busses case above , cracking clip btw and a great bit of driving . The engine is over the rear wheels and the passengers give the bus the weight it needs for traction …
It’s that issue of fwd cars being bad because the drive wheels are also the steer wheels that ‘also’ makes them even worse on snow.The fact is,unlike rwd cars,loss of traction,which is inevitable on snow at some point,with a fwd car,also means total loss of steering.Which is why that Volvo in the video which I posted was a lot faster round that snow covered circuit than a SAAB would have been and it’s also why a Mk1 or 2 ■■■■■■ was a better rally car than a SAAB.
As for the weight issue in many cases there’s actually as much,if not more,weight on the drive wheels of many rear wheel drive cars,than on the drive wheels of many smaller engined front wheel drive cars even without any passengers or anything in the boot and not taking into account weight transfer under acceleration from rest and in the case of BMW’s I think it’s as near as makes no difference to being perfect 50/50 weight distribution front/rear unladen.
The fact is the fwd fans have always made too much of the so called ‘advantage’ of the bit of extra weight provided by having the engine over the drive wheels when the reality of fwd is more often a case of understeer at best or catastrophic understeer at worse and vice versa in the case of the rear engined Porsche.All other issues related to rear drive cars have more to do with their often higher power outputs for a given throttle application and tyres.
An M5,AMG V8 Merc,( or a 6.0 Litre V12 Jag ) v Vectra SRI no contest either on snow or in the dry given equivalent tyre specs.The Vectra would be the one which caused the most problems.
my mate has a clk which is unable to pull itself off the drive…even though he`s shifted the snow.
no problem,he also has a fiesta 
Carryfast:
SYE-1:
Rear wheel drive works better on snow,or anywhere else for that matter.That’s why Mercedes and BMW don’t use fwd on the AMG E63 or the M5 because they would be undriveable in that case even on a dry road let alone one covered in snow.
The M5 is undriveable in the snow just check the BMW forums … 2 years back we had really bad snow and out side of where I worked there was a lovely hill , we sat out there and watched the fwd cars cruse up the hill and all the rwd cars struggle sideways , we pushed most up the hill …
The fact I have wider wheels more power and a limited slip diff obvisley dosn’t help but we all know not to feather the power and not sit there with the foot planted on the floor more so rwd owners
The reason fwd is better is most fwd are low powerd cars the weight is over the wheels and there for the car is more planted on the road , also the reason fwd cars are usually bad is that the drive wheels are also the steer wheels but on snow this is the reason there good, the weight over the pulling powered steer wheels means better grip and more ability to point the car in the right direction .
Rwd =pushing with no steer ability and no weight over the power wheels equates to non movement and plenty of curb action …
In the busses case above , cracking clip btw and a great bit of driving . The engine is over the rear wheels and the passengers give the bus the weight it needs for traction …
It’s that issue of fwd cars being bad because the drive wheels are also the steer wheels that ‘also’ makes them even worse on snow.The fact is,unlike rwd cars,loss of traction,which is inevitable on snow at some point,with a fwd car,also means total loss of steering.Which is why that Volvo in the video which I posted was a lot faster round that snow covered circuit than a SAAB would have been and it’s also why a Mk1 or 2 ■■■■■■ was a better rally car than a SAAB.
As for the weight issue in many cases there’s actually as much,if not more,weight on the drive wheels of many rear wheel drive cars,than on the drive wheels of many smaller engined front wheel drive cars even without any passengers or anything in the boot and not taking into account weight transfer under acceleration from rest and in the case of BMW’s I think it’s as near as makes no difference to being perfect 50/50 weight distribution front/rear unladen.
The fact is the fwd fans have always made too much of the so called ‘advantage’ of the bit of extra weight provided by having the engine over the drive wheels when the reality of fwd is more often a case of understeer at best or catastrophic understeer at worse and vice versa in the case of the rear engined Porsche.All other issues related to rear drive cars have more to do with their often higher power outputs for a given throttle application and tyres.
An M5,AMG V8 Merc,( or a 6.0 Litre V12 Jag ) v Vectra SRI no contest either on snow or in the dry given equivalent tyre specs.The Vectra would be the one which caused the most problems.
I had a Vectra 20i with an auto box which had a snow mode and it would go most places on snow,and I live in Mid Wales where we get a lot of snow.
Carryfast:
SYE-1:
Rear wheel drive works better on snow,or anywhere else for that matter.That’s why Mercedes and BMW don’t use fwd on the AMG E63 or the M5 because they would be undriveable in that case even on a dry road let alone one covered in snow.
The M5 is undriveable in the snow just check the BMW forums … 2 years back we had really bad snow and out side of where I worked there was a lovely hill , we sat out there and watched the fwd cars cruse up the hill and all the rwd cars struggle sideways , we pushed most up the hill …
The fact I have wider wheels more power and a limited slip diff obvisley dosn’t help but we all know not to feather the power and not sit there with the foot planted on the floor more so rwd owners
The reason fwd is better is most fwd are low powerd cars the weight is over the wheels and there for the car is more planted on the road , also the reason fwd cars are usually bad is that the drive wheels are also the steer wheels but on snow this is the reason there good, the weight over the pulling powered steer wheels means better grip and more ability to point the car in the right direction .
Rwd =pushing with no steer ability and no weight over the power wheels equates to non movement and plenty of curb action …
In the busses case above , cracking clip btw and a great bit of driving . The engine is over the rear wheels and the passengers give the bus the weight it needs for traction …
It’s that issue of fwd cars being bad because the drive wheels are also the steer wheels that ‘also’ makes them even worse on snow.The fact is,unlike rwd cars,loss of traction,which is inevitable on snow at some point,with a fwd car,also means total loss of steering.Which is why that Volvo in the video which I posted was a lot faster round that snow covered circuit than a SAAB would have been and it’s also why a Mk1 or 2 ■■■■■■ was a better rally car than a SAAB.
As for the weight issue in many cases there’s actually as much,if not more,weight on the drive wheels of many rear wheel drive cars,than on the drive wheels of many smaller engined front wheel drive cars even without any passengers or anything in the boot and not taking into account weight transfer under acceleration from rest and in the case of BMW’s I think it’s as near as makes no difference to being perfect 50/50 weight distribution front/rear unladen.
The fact is the fwd fans have always made too much of the so called ‘advantage’ of the bit of extra weight provided by having the engine over the drive wheels when the reality of fwd is more often a case of understeer at best or catastrophic understeer at worse and vice versa in the case of the rear engined Porsche.All other issues related to rear drive cars have more to do with their often higher power outputs for a given throttle application and tyres.
An M5,AMG V8 Merc,( or a 6.0 Litre V12 Jag ) v Vectra SRI no contest either on snow or in the dry given equivalent tyre specs.The Vectra would be the one which caused the most problems.
Agree to disagree I think , you can post as many videos as you like I’m going on first hand experience , owned 4 bmw’s and always had a fwd car aswell been a member on a BMW forum for 10 years where a big percentage of owners drive a fwd car when the snow hits and don’t even bother trying to get the BMW out of the drive …
BMW might state 50/50 weight but there not , not sure where your facts are coming from but from my experience rwd car full lock right, 9 out of ten times the rear will just push the front in a straight line , fwd car full lock right power on the front wheels will drag the front round and point you on the right direction .
May I ask what you drive … Out of interest …
Driving on a snow covered race track is very different than on the road. I’d take a front wheel drive over a rwd in snow in the real world.
I’ve got a 4x4 Hilux Mk5 Double cab. My driveway is block paved & approx 50ft of 1’ in 4’ upwards gradient to the road.
We call it “the launch ramp”. 
This morning at 5am & -4deg my Hilux failed to get up it, cos’ we’ve had 2" of snow. Me & my doggie (mostly me) had to snow clear 2x tracks for the wheels & grit them with rock salt. 
My Hilux is a 4x4, normally it drives around in H2 mode which gives me 1 wheel drive. If I put it in H4 mode I get 4x4, which gives me 2 wheel drive, 1x front & 1x rear. It’s also fitted with a rear diff lock, so the diff is ignored & both rear wheels will drive, this gives me 3 wheel drive !
I don’t know if your familiar with the Mk5 Hilux, but the engine is conventionally located at the front, mine also suffers from 3/4ton of ‘stuff’ permanently being carried in the back.
So, which is better in snow? FWD, RWD, FWD with rear engine, RWD with front engine + a bit of weight in the boot, mid engine with RWD, FWD or even 4x4?
I reckon it’s a helicopter, or maybe a King sized double bed.
SYE-1:
Carryfast:
SYE-1:
Rear wheel drive works better on snow,or anywhere else for that matter.That’s why Mercedes and BMW don’t use fwd on the AMG E63 or the M5 because they would be undriveable in that case even on a dry road let alone one covered in snow.
The M5 is undriveable in the snow just check the BMW forums … 2 years back we had really bad snow and out side of where I worked there was a lovely hill , we sat out there and watched the fwd cars cruse up the hill and all the rwd cars struggle sideways , we pushed most up the hill …
The fact I have wider wheels more power and a limited slip diff obvisley dosn’t help but we all know not to feather the power and not sit there with the foot planted on the floor more so rwd owners
The reason fwd is better is most fwd are low powerd cars the weight is over the wheels and there for the car is more planted on the road , also the reason fwd cars are usually bad is that the drive wheels are also the steer wheels but on snow this is the reason there good, the weight over the pulling powered steer wheels means better grip and more ability to point the car in the right direction .
Rwd =pushing with no steer ability and no weight over the power wheels equates to non movement and plenty of curb action …
In the busses case above , cracking clip btw and a great bit of driving . The engine is over the rear wheels and the passengers give the bus the weight it needs for traction …
It’s that issue of fwd cars being bad because the drive wheels are also the steer wheels that ‘also’ makes them even worse on snow.The fact is,unlike rwd cars,loss of traction,which is inevitable on snow at some point,with a fwd car,also means total loss of steering.Which is why that Volvo in the video which I posted was a lot faster round that snow covered circuit than a SAAB would have been and it’s also why a Mk1 or 2 ■■■■■■ was a better rally car than a SAAB.
As for the weight issue in many cases there’s actually as much,if not more,weight on the drive wheels of many rear wheel drive cars,than on the drive wheels of many smaller engined front wheel drive cars even without any passengers or anything in the boot and not taking into account weight transfer under acceleration from rest and in the case of BMW’s I think it’s as near as makes no difference to being perfect 50/50 weight distribution front/rear unladen.
The fact is the fwd fans have always made too much of the so called ‘advantage’ of the bit of extra weight provided by having the engine over the drive wheels when the reality of fwd is more often a case of understeer at best or catastrophic understeer at worse and vice versa in the case of the rear engined Porsche.All other issues related to rear drive cars have more to do with their often higher power outputs for a given throttle application and tyres.
An M5,AMG V8 Merc,( or a 6.0 Litre V12 Jag ) v Vectra SRI no contest either on snow or in the dry given equivalent tyre specs.The Vectra would be the one which caused the most problems.
Agree to disagree I think , you can post as many videos as you like I’m going on first hand experience , owned 4 bmw’s and always had a fwd car aswell been a member on a BMW forum for 10 years where a big percentage of owners drive a fwd car when the snow hits and don’t even bother trying to get the BMW out of the drive …
BMW might state 50/50 weight but there not , not sure where your facts are coming from but from my experience rwd car full lock right, 9 out of ten times the rear will just push the front in a straight line , fwd car full lock right power on the front wheels will drag the front round and point you on the right direction .
May I ask what you drive … Out of interest …
Morris marina I think.
SYE-1:
Carryfast:
SYE-1:
Rear wheel drive works better on snow,or anywhere else for that matter.That’s why Mercedes and BMW don’t use fwd on the AMG E63 or the M5 because they would be undriveable in that case even on a dry road let alone one covered in snow.
The M5 is undriveable in the snow just check the BMW forums … 2 years back we had really bad snow and out side of where I worked there was a lovely hill , we sat out there and watched the fwd cars cruse up the hill and all the rwd cars struggle sideways , we pushed most up the hill …
The fact I have wider wheels more power and a limited slip diff obvisley dosn’t help but we all know not to feather the power and not sit there with the foot planted on the floor more so rwd owners
The reason fwd is better is most fwd are low powerd cars the weight is over the wheels and there for the car is more planted on the road , also the reason fwd cars are usually bad is that the drive wheels are also the steer wheels but on snow this is the reason there good, the weight over the pulling powered steer wheels means better grip and more ability to point the car in the right direction .
Rwd =pushing with no steer ability and no weight over the power wheels equates to non movement and plenty of curb action …
In the busses case above , cracking clip btw and a great bit of driving . The engine is over the rear wheels and the passengers give the bus the weight it needs for traction …
It’s that issue of fwd cars being bad because the drive wheels are also the steer wheels that ‘also’ makes them even worse on snow.The fact is,unlike rwd cars,loss of traction,which is inevitable on snow at some point,with a fwd car,also means total loss of steering.Which is why that Volvo in the video which I posted was a lot faster round that snow covered circuit than a SAAB would have been and it’s also why a Mk1 or 2 ■■■■■■ was a better rally car than a SAAB.
As for the weight issue in many cases there’s actually as much,if not more,weight on the drive wheels of many rear wheel drive cars,than on the drive wheels of many smaller engined front wheel drive cars even without any passengers or anything in the boot and not taking into account weight transfer under acceleration from rest and in the case of BMW’s I think it’s as near as makes no difference to being perfect 50/50 weight distribution front/rear unladen.
The fact is the fwd fans have always made too much of the so called ‘advantage’ of the bit of extra weight provided by having the engine over the drive wheels when the reality of fwd is more often a case of understeer at best or catastrophic understeer at worse and vice versa in the case of the rear engined Porsche.All other issues related to rear drive cars have more to do with their often higher power outputs for a given throttle application and tyres.
An M5,AMG V8 Merc,( or a 6.0 Litre V12 Jag ) v Vectra SRI no contest either on snow or in the dry given equivalent tyre specs.The Vectra would be the one which caused the most problems.
Agree to disagree I think , you can post as many videos as you like I’m going on first hand experience , owned 4 bmw’s and always had a fwd car aswell been a member on a BMW forum for 10 years where a big percentage of owners drive a fwd car when the snow hits and don’t even bother trying to get the BMW out of the drive …
BMW might state 50/50 weight but there not , not sure where your facts are coming from but from my experience rwd car full lock right, 9 out of ten times the rear will just push the front in a straight line , fwd car full lock right power on the front wheels will drag the front round and point you on the right direction .
May I ask what you drive … Out of interest …
Since getting my licence around 35 years ago the list is Triumph 2.5 PI,BMW 3.0 SI then a V12 Jag XJ,I also had a Volvo 145 then a Granada 2.8 i having decided that the V12 Jag was too thirsty and not suited for commuting to work.Only relatively very recently have I used a front wheel drive Zafira for local journeys while still using the V12 Jag for long distance runs.
However the relevant bit is that all of those rear wheel drive cars are/were far superior to the front driver in all conditions wether driven flat out or carefully in snow.The only reservation being with the ( modified ) Jag’s relatively ( much ) higher power and torque output for a given throttle application.Which is the only advantage which the Zafira has,although the Volvo 145 had the best combination of being a heavy,rear wheel drive car,with a relatively low power output,in bad slippery road type conditions.Which,contrary to kr’s view,certainly does show that rear wheel drive cars’ performance advantage as rally cars translates into similar advantages in real world bad road conditions.I think your comments there again seem to overlook the difference in handling between the two types when at and above the limits of traction.
I’ve owned five rwd in the ukand they have all been pretty useless in the snow. Four bmws and one merc. The bmws were fairly powerful a 323i a 328i a e36 m3 and a 528i. The merc was a c250d which was embarrassingly underpowered but hopeless in the snow.
As for the Lincoln town car that just wallows about whatever the weather but has to be feather footed to get any traction.
Best in the snow I had was a citeron c15van it went anywhere.