in know its a little early to be thinkin of winter, but i just cant help it. i love to go skiing, and whenever north carolina gets natural snow i drive up there and ski on their slopes... i know theyre not as decent as West Va slopes or better yet cali/bc slopes. its just really close and cost effective, not to mention alot less time invested in a 1.5-4 hour drive (depends on which resort i choose)

so my question is, will i risk wrecking my c43 if i try to drive it on snowy roads on the way to the ski resort? its usually not much more than an inch of standing snow on the pavement but im sure you dont need much of a layer to make it slippery. what do you northern guys do? all season tires? drive carefully? W mode? not recommended altogether?

 

NOOOO DO NOTTTT. my buddy brought up his clk430 with winter tires in winter mode. he hated it.
poor car needed a new bumper and repaint on the sideskirts.

 

ya dont do it. started to snow so i left my gfs there was only a slight glaze and i spun around once and almost did 2 other times going 5mph. from a stop its so hard to get moving. there is a street with the slightest tinniest little incline and i could barely drive down it. so many suvs behind

 

when i had my C43, if there was so much as an eighth of an inch of snow/ice on the floor........i would stop at a red light, and then when it turned green, the car was stuck!!

soooo many time i got stuck in almost little to no snow

 

I am a bit surprised reading those posts regarding the problems of the C43 in snow. Did you guys have the proper tires and also did you have the ESP ON?

AMG C: how did you manage to spin out? Did you have the ESP ON and to the W mode?

 

wow thats terrible. silence, have u had any problems? has anyone used snow specific tires?

 

I had a C43 when I lived in upstate NY and had no problems except for the biggest storms and going uphill. I had good snow tires, from Nokian, and provided very good traction. After my reseach Nokians are the best snow tires, better than even Blizzaks.

 

Can't believe all these people who venture out if there's any threat of snow w/the summer tires! Don't do that! Yu can so easily slide through an intersection and crash.

Otherwise, get yourself some Nokian RSi tires and you'll be pretty OK. Just, if you're coming up to a hill, turn OFF the ESP... you'll need to spin the tires to make it. With ESP, it'll kill the throttle and you may get stuck on the hill.

...really tho, if you can use another vehicle, do it. I have a spare set of rims and snows that I won't ever be putting back on the car. Will probably sell the rims and use the tires on my MINI (even tho they're 1" larger outer diameter than wha the MINI uses).

 

I'm suprised about all the horror stories. You sure you guys know how to drive in snow? You can't just floor it and drive like you do on dry pavement.

I have decent (not great) snow tires on cheap rims and have had no problems getting around even in a few inches of snow. I use winter mode when needed and ESP on at all times! Turned it off once and almost did a complete dougnut. You just need to drive the conditions.

C43 and snow = ok if you know how to drive in snow. You can't drive in slick weather like you do with good traction. Also the ESP will not let you do much stupid except go too fast. It really helps out (most of the time anyway). If you drive cautiously, have good tires, and leave lots of room to stop you will be just fine. I even did ok on summer tires, but had to go really slow. Picked up the car in a snow storm and it only had worn summer tires on. It was tense, but never really had a bad experience.

 

DONT! ever drive c43 in winter..lol
i did 1st winter i bought it..didn't **** anything but this car get stuck at every stop or red light as soon as there is a little bit of snow..too much lbs/torque..and I had pretty good winter tires..hoo..and they lasted only 5k miles..they were done after lol ;P

so ya..mines goes in warm up garage this winter..won't see any snow until i own it !

my point of view, thanks !

 

ur financing a 14 thousand dollar car?

 

ok ur rich, hes not, whats your point?

why even bring up stuff like that?

or maybe your insurance payed you for those three totaled cars you are mentioning in your sig and you used that money to cash another car?

 

i financed my car certainly


so far as winter driving, it's no different than any other rear wheel drive car and it's not bad at all.

 

What a stupid comment. If thats pocket change for you're wallet then why are you driving old 202.

 

Sorry for my bad english..i mean to say until c43 is in my hand..she wont see winter anymore..cause I don't plan to sell it, not saying until i'm done paying her..
cause I paid both my 202 and i'm 21 years old.
and there's nothing bad bout' financing..?

it's not yours if daddy paid for it kid

peace, J

 

well as far as facts go, you can get much better financing on a slightly less used car and get a great car out of it. most of the time companies wont even finance a 10 yo car so most c43 owners are left with the cash option to make the financing economical (0% interest).

as far as getting money from totalled cars. that definitely helped as i was able to put some extra money ontop of the insurance money to purchase the c43. but only because i had about 5k in stuff on my 97 c280, they gave me alot of money for that, but its not as if i MADE money. i still had to shell out alot just to be able to drive a c43.

 

haha no w mode in 96 asr was on and no snow tires (it was the first snow fall of the year and car gets garaged for the winter)

 

I drove my C43 for 8 years as a daily driver and I can tell you that these cars are horrible in the snow...period! Snow tires, ESP...doesn't matter. Get a Subaru AWD beater for $1500.00.

 

haha good idea

 

I live in Maryland, and we get our share of bad weather. Plenty of hills where I live.

Anyway, this past winter, I had no problem with the snow. Michelin Pilot A/S on all 4 corners. Just put it in W mode with the ESP on.

I have had several high performance v8 rear wheel drive cars, and this is by far the best.

 

Driving in the snow is first about the driver and second about the vehicle. I had my C43 in Boston and drove to our house in Maine almost every weekend. Sometimes it was 8-10" of unexpected snowfall and we had to continue the trip. We never had any trouble, but I always had the right tires and drove carefully.

If you are an idiot driver you'll smash a Land Rover in the snow just as easily as your C43.

 

i honestly preferred esp off in the snow? of course, it's personal taste. the only thing that's silly is people saying it can't be done at all. It's no different than any other rwd car and is better than most.

 

I totally agree...I drive my 55 in the white stuff.

 

i think ultimately i would like to either own a beater or rent a SUV to make my ski trips, especially if im going to drive to snowshoe, wv... just too many miles for the c43. plus there are other drivers on the road which may smash their land rover into you.. lol

 

u got IM