SAguirre

Well, I can’t believe that this happened to me once again! Every year, when I change the wheels and rims back to the OEM all season/summer tires I get hit by a blizzard. Last time it happened in May!

Anyway, this is not a big deal though since both my Audi and Mercedes have almost new summer tires with plenty of tread. The reason for posting this is that, as usual, idiots on the road can’t seem to stay on it.

I was driving on Highway 66 Eastwards from Estes Park in this blizzard this morning and I first had a Chevy or GMC SUV slide right off the road for no reason I could tell. I was following it with plenty of distance, but I did not feel any traction problems. The wind was high though. About 300 yards further, a Nissan Maxima also slid of the road. I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT! I have the Continental tires with about 3,000 miles on them and I could not feel or see why these cars could possibly be having problem staying on the road. It would have been better if I had the Blizzaks on, but the 4 Matic still does the trick.

I had just come from a long canyon road and I am a very skilled winter driver. However, these conditions were not that bad. I drove by later in the day after the temperature got just above freezing to snap a picture of the cars. I thought you could see what I mean by having good tire tread and a great car really does help in bad weather situations.

Enjoy.

Steve

johna1

Great pictures, Steve, and a good amount of snow for the time of year.

xraymd

Wow! They had all winter to learn how to drive in it. And it's not like you don't get your fair share of snow. Maybe they were looking at the calendar and not the road? Glad to hear you're all right. When I first started reading, I thought we were headed into a wreck or something. I guess I should have trusted you and the 4matic.

JimPurdy

Steve,

I could hardly believe the weather forcast I heard for your area this morning! I like to see the Denver area weather since I travel to Aurora now and then and... Your weather ends up being my weather in a day or so.... at least the storms you have tend to dip down and give the north Texas area a little excitement.

Good report on the 4-matic. It is good to hear that an experienced driver appreciates a good handling car. I looked at them but since my worst weather may be a little ice, I decided to just get the rwd models. I lived in upstate NY for many years and couldn't understand how drivers could find the ditch as often as they did.

Great pictures too!

Jim

SAguirre

Thanks for the nice comments. I am also very grateful that I was not involved in any of many accidents we had in the area. Colorado is known for having 4 seasons in one day. I was skiing up in the mountains on Monday and was wearing shorts and a t-shirt on Tuesday when I was changing to the summer tires. Today, I was driving in "defensive winter mode" and shoveling heavy snow of my driveway and sidewalk.

In all fairness to the poor people whose cars I photographed, at the time they slid off, the road was not visible (it was all white). It had at least 3 inches of very wet snow on it. Both cars slid off the road about 300 yards from each other where huge snowdrifts were blowing over the road. If you don't pay attention, then it would be very hard to recover from a steering error. I would not blame ice, but the heavy wet snow is very hard to drive on if your tread depth is poor. Hydroplaning is very common with otherwise street-legal treads.

I think that a RWD ESP, ABS and trac. control equipped car with snow tires would of been fine, but the only reason I think that the Continentals were OK in this case was because of the great weight distribution, they only have 3,000 miles of wear and the 4 Matic of the W211. In 40 miles of driving the car today, the car did not skid once (except when I was testing it). My old Audi Quattro would have been all over with the same tires.

Everything is coated with 3 new inches of snow again! Except now, we have a nice layer of ice under the snow

It will be fun to drive to work tomorrow!

Steve

McGuireV10

Yesterday I went to the beach. :p

johna1

Same!

SAguirre

Well, work is CLOSED!!!! Half of the state is closed

I lived in Florida for 14 years, I sure prefer snow days to hurricane days.

Have a great one!

Steve

X72

Thank you Steve for the pictures and for your, as usual, keen observations and intelligent insight.
William
2003 E 320

X72

Hey Steve, from the picture your car seems to have 16 inch rims/tires. Just in case you did not read a previous post of mine, you can use one of your snow tires as a full size spare tire. Click on the following to see
https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w211/102933-full-size-spare.html

For anyone else reading, if your car came with 17 inch rims, going to a 16 inch rim may not work because the smaller rim may not clear the brake caliper.

William
2003 E 320