SNOW!!!!

[paulie b]

Hi. Given the current weather situation, and the need for some folks to commute, I was wondering if any members have been driving their Aygo's into the teeth of the beast from the east? How have you fared? Did you get stuck, or has the little Aygo managed to get you where you need to go and back again?

As for me. Mine hasn't moved since Monday.

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

We've only had a very light, patchy covering of snow - Birmingham - barely 1-2cm. Roads and pavements largely clear and gritted. Aygo has been out each day. Only issue was yesterday evening where being -5C and windy, difficult to deice windscreen.

[Bike_loon]

Yes as its a choice between the Aygo and my 3.4 litre Porsche with 265 wide rear tyres, the Aygo gets it! Not much snow on the coast but doing fine

[AYGOSTU]

Today I drove 130 miles and some of the sow was VERY thick, it has to be the worst conditions I have ever drove in.. I turned off the traction control in he deep stuff and the Aygo was fine and  kept pushing through... I had the luxury of giving my boss a lift home from work as well after his M3 BMW got stuck in our office har park hahaha. He couldn’t believe the Aygo coped so well.. 

The only scary part was when the brakes keep juddering on the abs.. and waiting for it to stop !! Just don’t go to fast and leave plenty of distance ! Safety first as they say. 

I am also really glad I put train washer fluid in the car (don’t ask).. as it has a really high alcohol content, doesn’t freeze and seems to evaporate the snow every now and then I need to clear/ clean the windscreen.

i think it’s safe to say we have a very capable car compared to others out there

[petesellit]

Always found Aygo very impressive in the snow!

[Wiz201]

Yeah, Rosie has been out to work. The Pirelli all weather tyres seem to be doing their job although she struggles on compacted ice if there is no momentum. 

[Kanga77]

Hiya,

 

I have a little 07 plate Aygo. I drove 50 miles home this evening in the worst conditions I've ever taken a car out in in the UK. Part M4, some A roads, mostly B roads. Deep snow on some, but mostly fairly compacted, slippery stuff. He was absolutely brilliant, I think they're pretty easy little cars to control when  you know them well: I can feel and effectively negate every slight slip straightaway because he's so light. As long as you drive slowly enough and leave plenty of space to react gently (I echo the comments above about the abs), I think they're great little cars for the weather. He's not so great in a drift, perhaps being such a light car, so a shovel is a must for me. 

[paulie b]

I'm glad to hear the the Aygo performs well enough to get it's owners through the white stuff. Just for everyones information, I'd like to point you in the direction of plastic snow grips. They're basically like oversized cable ties. They're re-usable and handy for such situations. I haven't used them myself but I've read plenty of positive reports.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/173037774386?chn=ps&adgroupid=13585920426&rlsatarget=pla-142413575586&abcId=&adtype=pla&merchantid=6995734&poi=&googleloc=1007027&device=c&campaignid=207297426&crdt=0

[rajivrattna]

We have been using Aygo in Sweden for many years now and it has coped very well with Swedish winter with ice and snow. We obviously use winter soft tyres here as required by the law during winter. It has abs and anti slide so no worries. The only hinder in deep soft snow would be the clearance under the car as the snow piles up in front and under the car, making it difficult to proceed  in deep snow, I mean really deep snow. It has skinny tyres that apply good pressure on the road for grip.

[rajivrattna]

8 hours ago, paulie b said:

I'm glad to hear the the Aygo performs well enough to get it's owners through the white stuff. Just for everyones information, I'd like to point you in the direction of plastic snow grips. They're basically like oversized cable ties. They're re-usable and handy for such situations. I haven't used them myself but I've read plenty of positive reports.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/173037774386?chn=ps&adgroupid=13585920426&rlsatarget=pla-142413575586&abcId=&adtype=pla&merchantid=6995734&poi=&googleloc=1007027&device=c&campaignid=207297426&crdt=0

The review on Amazon on them is bad. They do not work and break easily.

[Wiz201]

this is how bad it was on Thursday for me and a snippet of Wednesday getting up my dad's road.

 

[Agent Orange]

Brilliant, Isobel....Simply brilliant!

You have given me a laugh on a cold Saturday morning, not at your troubles but at your comments caught on the Dashcam. 

That looks like just over't'tops from me, is it Brighouse?

Anyway, well done to you and Rosie and thanks again.

All the best. 

P.S. I'm glad it's not just me that talks to my car! 

[fordulike]

16 hours ago, rajivrattna said:

We have been using Aygo in Sweden for many years now and it has coped very well with Swedish winter with ice and snow. We obviously use winter soft tyres here as required by the law during winter. It has abs and anti slide so no worries. The only hinder in deep soft snow would be the clearance under the car as the snow piles up in front and under the car, making it difficult to proceed  in deep snow, I mean really deep snow. It has skinny tyres that apply good pressure on the road for grip.

+1 for using winter tyres or all season tyres. The difference is like night and day, between summer tyres and all season, in the weather the UK has been having recently.

I'm running Goodyear Vector 4seasons on my Aygo and for a low performance car, have been spot on all year round. The car feels safe in any weather. I'll never go back to summer tyres, unless of course I win the lottery and buy a Ferrari lol.

[paulie b]

Isobel, Great footage. Don't get me started about stupid pedestrians! The icing on the cake being stupid pedestrians with 'elastic' dog leads!!!! When you come across such ignoramus's while out walking they expect you to get off the pavement so Fido can have the run of the place, their viewpoint as to theirs and their dogs right to walk often extends to vehicular traffic.

Good quality footage BTW. I've just bought a new Motorola full HD Dashcam. That too gives very clear images across a wide angle.

 

Rajiv. I have seen positive reviews, but never used these myself. I suppose at a pinch the old nylon rope trick would suffice? 

 

[Wiz201]

1 hour ago, Agent Orange said:

Brilliant, Isobel....Simply brilliant!

You have given me a laugh on a cold Saturday morning, not at your troubles but at your comments caught on the dashcam. 

That looks like just over't'tops from me, is it Brighouse?

Anyway, well done to you and Rosie and thanks again.

All the best. 

P.S. I'm glad it's not just me that talks to my car! 

The footage at the end is Brighouse, and the rest is going from Huddersfield to Shipley through Bradford. I did think it was a tad disturbing that I talk to my car but I figured I do it because it gives me more confidence 

[Agent Orange]

Give over Isobel, you don't need more confidence...Anybody that shows that amount of determination and good, old fashioned, "Yorkshire Grit" has a shed load of it! 

I reckon that we talk to our cars because although they might be a chunk of metal with a tyre at each corner, they become part of the family don't they?.....Or is that just me being daft.....again?   (I even apologised to mine, yesterday for not using it and asked if it had been too cold  )

I'm going to scuttle off now before I hear Folk laughing at me! 

Take care. 

[rajivrattna]

Isobel, first of all that was not much of a snow! If your Rosie had  winter skirt (I mean tyres) she would have just run up that mild slope without any hesitation. I noticed that you were quite gentle with her. I understand that, I think! Cars have feelings too you know!

[rajivrattna]

Paulie B, I would trust that nylon rope more than that glorified Zip tie with made in China written all over it.

[Wiz201]

1 hour ago, rajivrattna said:

Isobel, first of all that was not much of a snow! If your Rosie had  winter skirt (I mean tyres) she would have just run up that mild slope without any hesitation. I noticed that you were quite gentle with her. I understand that, I think! Cars have feelings too you know!

It was compacted ice, and problem was the traction control kept cutting the power. She had no momentum simples.

[Micra2Aygo]

Around 8 inches (20 cm)  of loose fresh snow on a short hill to the small estate where i live was enough to stop me on fairly worn allseasons.  Had quite a few attempts and no amount of encouragement would get her up the hill.   Apart from that the allseasons were great, still needed to be careful though.  

On the front I've got vredestein quatrac lite which are down to about 3.5mm and Goodyear Vector 4seasons Gen2  on the back.

One thing that I completely forgot about was I had a set of Autosocks in the boot.  Bought them about 12 years ago and have briefly used them twice. They slip over your driven wheels and they grip the snow.  They are made of fabric and are meant to get you out of a sticky situation and allow you time to find a safe place to stop so you can take them off.  Being fabric they wont scratch alloys like chains or cable ties.  I'll never know if they would of got me up the hill as i signed up with the neighbourly navvy squad to remove the snow 

[paulie b]

10 hours ago, Micra2Aygo said:

  I'll never know if they would of got me up the hill as i signed up with the neighbourly navvy squad to remove the snow 

There's always next year!

[mrrusty]

took mine on a 500mile round trip  from worcestershire straight in the the mouth of the beast to Morpeth, northumberland.

she did me proud on the snowy A1. had a 10 mile roound trip whilst i was up north thankfully no really steap hills, but had no problems at all.

great little car, just keep your distance and all should be good.

PS glad its melting now though :-)

[mickburkesnr]

I didn't take mine out in this weather, I didn't take anything out I was in bed suffering. But when we last had the big snow storm before christmas - in Stourbridge at least - roads were really bad. It didn't handle it all too well I'll be honest, but I remember in about 2011 when we had similar weather the car was brilliant.

It's the tyres what make the difference. Back then I had the Contenital, whatever they call them. This time I had Yokohama BluEnergy and they have been poor. But they're a summer tyre, so you can understand it!

The only time I did venture out though was to put my Peugeot 3008 in for repair and collect a hire car, a Ford C-Max. The woman took great delight in telling me how hopeless they were in the snow, and she wasn't wrong! The traction control engages and you can't turn the damn thing off! Happened to get stuck on a slight snowy incline, and I had to do a 3 point turn and go around it.

[APS]

We've been out with the Aygo as normal. You just have to take it easy. However, we encountered the deepest snow on the Monday *after* the worst weather. It was sunny, but there's a passage at the top of a hill where the snow had blown into drifts. As Rajiv noted from Sweden, the main problem is just clearance under the car. I had to 'rock' the car free (back and forth) a few times as it got stuck in deep snow (nice steam as the exhaust buried in the snow). Such a light car is good in these conditions as you can feel everything that's going on.

[APS]

On 02/03/2018 at 6:51 PM, rajivrattna said:

The review on Amazon on them is bad. They do not work and break easily.

Yeah, I think the so called 'snow socks' probably work better while still being quiet (unlike snow chains! - which are overkill and illegal in the UK).

That said, if you get stuck, just put a car mat, blanket, rug or whatever you have to hand, under the driving wheels and you should get free. Thin branches from trees (especially coniferous ones) are also tried and tested methods to improve traction. 

Hey ho, we probably won't see this much snow in the UK for quite a few years now anyway.