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Jim Adney wrote: >We have all the plows here that you could wish for, but tight money the past >few years means that they try to minimize snow plowing, which is a major part >of our annual city budget. > And here I thought this was a Norwegian phenomenon. > > >You're probably better off with a lot of frightened drivers. Around here it >always takes at least one snowstorm to remind people that they have to change >their driving habits. Last sunday evening the ditches were full of SUVs and >drivers who just didn't understand that they should have slowed down. > Over here people arent afraid to drive in snow, they just have the understanding that if they go slow enough, everything will be ok. The problem is that traffic is backed up so much, it's almost twice the traffic problems in snow than normal. Also many people do not understand that low speed causes problems as well, momentum is often needed to get up steep hills on snow. The result is that they wil start to spin and cause problems not only for them self, but many others as well, since many people now will be forced to back down snowy or icy hills. > People >don't understand that a 4-wheel drive vehicle may go better in the snow, but it >won't stop any better than any other car. Being able to drive faster in snow >just gets a lot more fools into trouble. > A 4wd like my Audi quattro actually will stop a little bit better, because the 4wd system will even out the braking power to all 4 wheels. The difference is marginal, but noticeable for a driver *who knows how to drive a 4wd passenger car in snow* I would also like to mention something that I have mentioned before, I have experienced that rear engined VWs are a little bit prone to premature lockup on the front wheels because they only have approx 35% weight on the front wheels. Finally we have the issue of proper snow tires. It is my understading that snow tires (either studded or studless) still isnt very common in USA. I really dont understand this! From my experience on other (Audi) discussion boards, the people who have "discovered" sow tires are never going back to all season tires, and also wont believe the difference in traction. Here inNOrway, it is illegal (I believe) to drive on non M+S marked tires in teh winter. And those who actually do so, are totally stupid. I have experienced driving on regular "summer tires", as they're called here, on snow, and that is about the most frightening thing I have done in a car, ever! PerL 73 Variant L 70 Variant 87 Audi Coupe quattro (My other enthusiast car & daily driver) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org