SAAB's in the snow

[Spleeble]

I came up behind 2 this morning, both of which were under 2 years old. One was struggling to get up a small incline so I just overtook him and the other was just wheel spinning on the flat making slow progress. My daily hack is just a P reg Civic auto with all season tyres. Is there something wrong with SAAB’s winter performance or was it just poor driving?

[kambites]

Excessively wide tyres.

[900T-R]

^^^^ What he said.

[Moley RUFC]

Fine once they have taken off and are at about 25,000 ft

[Spleeble]

So what is the optimum tyre width for snow?

[G0ldfysh]

eco boxes have more chance at the moment, not too much power to spin the wheels naturally aspirated so better delivery and narrow tyres to bite down

The would be better with fronts all round now narrow 175 get down lovely shame the backs are bit wider would be good snow car

[uriel]

Had to stop and tow a floundering 9-5 up a hill the other day.

[WildCards]

My Saab is also terrible in this weather. The tyres are too wide and i find it very difficult to feather throttle sufficiently between a little power and all of the power, even with TCS off and in 2nd or third gear it's either not moving or spinning the wheels alot.

Saab recommends snow tyres for wintry conditions, I suspect in Sweden most people probably heed this warning and it isn't an issue.

[kambites]

Spleeble said:

So what is the optimum tyre width for snow?

Depends on the weight of the car. On most things I suppose something like 10cm would be best?

[aeropilot]

My 9-5 Aero auto with 18" x 225/40 tyres has been fine.......switch off the ESP/TCS and use the auto in manual mode and it's been fine....it's a Saab

It's just a case of most drivers having zero clue how to drive in these conditions.

[Pablo16v]

aeropilot said:

My 9-5 Aero auto with 18" x 225/40 tyres has been fine.......switch off the ESP/TCS and use the auto in manual mode and it's been fine....it's a Saab

It's just a case of most drivers having zero clue how to drive in these conditions.

My 3.0 diesel 9-5 has been great too. I'm really enjoying it in the snow even on 17" low profile tyres. Perhaps the extra weight of the big diesel lump is helping with traction

[F i F]

As others have said it's the lack of winter tyres scenario.

Which reminds me of a case years ago where a mate and I were servicing for some other mates on a forest stage rally. The co-driver lent us his car to use, a 96 V4.

This thing was awful, of course it was heavily laden but it just felt like it wanted to find the ditch at every corner even when driven slowly. Truly dreadful device.

Anyway the buggers we were servicing for failed to report at a service and it wasn't clear exactly what had happened or where they were, (long story) so the organisers simply advised us to go to the start of the stage after the last time we'd seen them and drive the stages until we found them or news of them from the marshalls waiting to do the second runs of the stages. Needless to say this was pre mobile phone era.

Anyway to get to the point of the story, as soon as this SAAB 96 got onto forestry loose it was absolutely transformed. It was as if the car was truly at home.

[CampDavid]

155/55/13s

That's just how I roll

[alfa pint]

My missus has a volvo V40 that you'd expect to be better in snow than it is....anyway, isn't the 9-3 a vectra underneath?

[NST]

no problems in my saab 9-3 Aero on 18in alloys this morning..

[3Dom]

Saw one of these this morning. He didn’t seem to be having any problems

[craggers]

9-3 Vector Sport and it was fine and easy to drive thru thick snow.

[aeropilot]

Nor this owner from last night, as seen on one of the Saab forums, who even took the 'away from the main roads' route home to have a play.....

[900T-R]

Yeah, but that's a proper one...

[nickbee]

NST said:

no problems in my saab 9-3 Aero on 18in alloys this morning..

Me neither, I'm very pleased at how sure-footed it's been over the last month.