While in principle I agree with you, @W205C43PFL, some cars are just not meant to be driven in the snow. Not because of salt damage (though I can sympathize with owners who live in states that salt the roads), but because the car may just not be technically capable of doing so. Safety and technology aids or no, physics still applies. Snow tires help immensely, but at the end of the day, you're not going to be able to easily (or at all) drive a high torque, RWD car through 6 inches of snow for very long or very well and certainly won't be able to drive it through foot deep snow. A RWD car is not going to do well well (f at all) on a sheet of ice. Yes, I know, people have been driving RWD cars on snow and ice for 100 years. Alas, they were not high power output cars. One can argue that tires back then were not as advances as they are today either, but here we are.

Again, snow tires help. A lot. AWD helps even more when combined with snow tires. But when you're driving in extreme inclement weather like deep snow, you need ground clearance. When you're driving on a sheet of ice, at the very least, you need skill and snow tires. AWD (preferably something better than the 4matic - nothing wrong with 4Matic, but it's not amazing), and ideally a decent 4WD system come in even handier. At the end of the day, my goal is to get to my destination safely. If there is "lesser" vehicle is technically more capable at achieving that goal in severe inclement weather than say, my S, I'm using it, and the S can stay parked for a few months.

 

I’m the same way. I don’t understand having a great car like an S Class and driving some beater car all the time to keep it pristine in the garage. A classic Mercedes sure…

 

In my case, it's because I don't have AWD on my S class. And even if it did have AWD, I have other vehicles that are more capable in the snow than is an AWD S class. Not everyone lives in areas where snow plows come out as soon as there is a flake of snow on the ground.. or an inch, or three.

 

For those that worry about corrosion or rust, I would recommend to coat the bottom of the car in something like cosmolene or fluid film regularly. I live in a salt state with a vehicle that is notorious for rusting and my undercarriage is still in mint condition (literally could eat off it) and that vehicle is 20 years old. Factory coatings can wear very quickly so touch up is key. NEVER use a rubber or solid undercoat because when they chip they trap water and then you cannot see the rust forming underneath the coating and you will actually do more damage to your vehicle in the long run.

proper tires are always the only answer for any vehicle. Awd or 4wd is no good with bad/ inappropriate tires. As the saying goes, 4 x 0 equals 0.

 

I have not driven a modern AWD car in snow that I thought was at all unsafe. Some were better than others, but none of them for a second ever stopped me from going out.
W222 should at least be on par with the average AWD offering?

Heck, we're moving to a walkable city where the car will never be driven. I want to use the car specifically for winter trips up north
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Totally different to drive a car thats better in the snow than the S Class when it snows.

Honestly though I prefer an AWD sedan to an SUV in the snow as long as its not more than 5-6 inches. I have found when I have had both in the garage the lower center of gravity and lighter mass of the sedan makes getting around easier. The S Class gets surprisingly tall ground clearance in the suspension high mode, and if you are in really deep snow you can put it in transport mode up to 25 MPH and it gets REALLY high.

But for a while I had an AWD Lexus GS and then an AWD Lexus LS and a Grand Cherokee Overland with Quadra Drive and I preferred driving the Lexus sedans in the snow.

Obviously 10+ inches you need more ground clearance.

 

What is this "transport mode" and how do you access it?

With 10" of unplowed snow, even the best SUVs with high ground clearance aren't getting around safely in that without chains. And chains present their own set of challenges.

 

When I had my RWD S600 with over 600 lb/ft of torque, it drove fantastic in snow and ice with dedicated snow tires. Same with my old Chrysler 300C SRT-8. I drove that thing back 40 miles after a Super Bowl party in a snow storm where the snow was coming down at over 4" per hour and on unplowed roads and I was passing AWD SUV's like they were standing still. Now the summer Michelins that came on the S600 couldn't handle even a dusting of snow as the car tried everything it could to get off the road.

 

Hold down the raise height button until it clicks into transport mode. It will come on and tell you that its limited to 25 MPH. It gets pretty high:




I wouldn't drive it around like that normally, but in a pinch or if you get high sided or something then sure

 

Transport mode makes the wheels look ridiculously... cartoonish...

 

Especially at 25mph(max).
But, if there is 10” of snow on the ground, and snow is accumulating in the wheel wells, it might not stand out as much.

 

If I'm trying to get unstuck or keep from getting stuck, cartoonish is just fine!

 

10" on the ground might make a difficult go, even for an AWD S class with its' skirt hiked up.

No argument there. Better to look cartoonish for a few minutes, than to be on display for hours until help arrives.


Curious why they're calling it "transport mode". I suspect the additional height is to increase the break-over angle for loading onto some trailers? Should have called it "Trailer Load Assist", (since MB seems to love calling everything "assist")?

 

Thats right, its designed for loading vehicles onto transports etc. Its not someting that a vehicle owner is even supposed to know exists.

My car was in that mode because I had a flat and it was loaded onto a flatbed.

 

Some some states have great big trucks with a thing called a plow on the front. For 99% of people driving in the winter we tend to leave after the plows have gone down the road. In general it is within minutes to hours of a snowfall.

somebody who wants to drive across the golf course on the other hand is definitely going to need the ground clearance. I once had a Subaru that died and unfortunate death getting into a fight with a swing set on a playground in the snow.. the ground clearance was not an issue the non-moving swing set pole was.

 

I heard about those things! I think I even saw one once! They call them plow... something. Plow Pushers? Plow cars?... Trucks! That's it, Plow trucks!

Indeed, we have some of them fangled plow trucks here as well, but by the time they get to our neck of the woods, the snow is pretty much melted. The price you pay for living 25 miles from the closest paved road. Thankfully, people around here have snowmobiles and sno cats for when the snow gets horsy. But I'm not complaining about that. It's a choice we made to live here.

 

I see, I thought what you meant by beater or lesser vehicle in the previous post as in a vehicle from the 2000s or like a very old honda civic with FWD, although we can argue FWD is safer than RWD in the snow.

Between the choice of only RWD with snow tires and AWD with summer tires, RWD with snow tires hands down. Personally.

 

Can't imagine what a lifted up S-Class sedan looks like, I did remember MB made a E-Class lifted up version though of previous generation, W213. https://www.topgear.com/sites/defaul...17c534_024.jpg

 

Transport mode gives it that 5th owner look with the push of a button. Cool feature though! 20-25 mph top speed would be pretty useful too.

 

Never knew about SUV mode, thx for sharing that info. Forgot to mention, in addition to snow tires, I keep a set of SCC tire chain/cables in each of the cars (look around for deals during the summer). My S has Alpin PA4s which is good in the winter but noticeably not on the same severe winter performance level as Blizzaks or Hakkapelitas. Tire chains/cables got me out of a pinch years back.

 

No argument there. Throw two or three 60 lb sacks of sand in the trunk, (opening the sacks and spreading the sand inside the trunk is optional, but I recommend leaving the sand in the sacks. ) and that RWD with snow tires will do even better.

 

Trains have a device that spills sand from a hopper, in front of the drive wheel for added traction. Then you don’t have to leave sand in the sacks. 2 problems solved, for the price of one!

 

The sand over whe wheels is just for weight.

 

I am sure that the fellers at AMG can work on some Rube Goldberg way to get some sand onto a tire for traction. Best case? We can use "rare" sand from Ethiopioa that once was home of so many starving children.......

Sing it....We are the wooooooorld.......

 

In 2023 I was hit by an early blizzard (late Sept) coming out of Durango, and by the time I reached Roswell the car was covered by a full inch of ice. I washed off the ice and salt at a local car wash place and settled in for the night.

In the morning it was maybe 10ºF with 6+ inches of snow on the ground, traffic was running closer to 5MPH than 10 MPH (speed limit of 35 MPH) and traction was close to zero. Still I had to make it to Austin by the evening. I was on High Performance Summer tires at the time. I drove south on 285 to the intersection of 380 heading east at 10-ish MPH. I turned onto 380 and inched out of town slowly. After about 10 miles I was up to the dasterdly speed of maybe 20 MPH with a car in front of me going maybe 10 MPH. about 100 yards behind I gave the steering wheel the tiniest input I could and instantly felt the tires loose traction--

I have driven race cars on slick in 1" per hour rain at racing speeds, so I knew the only thing to do was to wait for the car to find traction again and hope this happened before the car hit anything. Yes, at this point you are merely a passenger--but as driver you can make the situation WORSE. Its a lot like flying an airplane--you HAVE TO keep the nose pointing forward at all times without fail and without inputting any control terms that would upset the vehicle. 10 seconds pass, then 20.....

--luckily, as the car slowly crossed the incoming lane, the front tires found some grip, so I straightened it out, and I passed the car. About 20 minutes later, the tires had had enough rotations with the cars 5,000 pound weight to get above freezing temperatures and traction improved steadily. I inched up into the 40MPH range than a bit faster, and by the time I got to the Texas border I was doing 55 MPH.

And all this was on tires that should not be driven in winter conditions--but I did not have a choice--and I DID have the skills to pull it off (barely).

{{Not recommended}}