Here in Austria

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Satch

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 24, 2003
Messages
3,508
Location
Surrey
Car
S211 E320Cdi Avantgarde Estate & Toyota Land Cruiser
there is one person who is very glad indeed they purchased two major items before going:

Decent winter tyres.

After a very fine, dry drive to Munich for a couple of days doing the Christmas Markets arrived in Kaprun Monday evening. Very cold (-13c at one point) & been driving around on varying amounts of snow/hardpack when off the main roads or in the lift station car parks.

But it was absolutely dumping snow all last night and most of this morning which was followed by sleety rain down in the valley this afternoon thus turning roads into packed ice covered in slush. Care required and the traction control flashed a few times on steeper bits but absolutely no trouble at all.

In the UK one tenth of this would have caused a national disaster. Here, people just have the right kit and just get on with it. Except of course the only other GB registered car I have seen here so far which was wholly stranded this afternoon. Summer tyres, no chains and no hope.

All I can say is that the Goodyear Ultra Grip GW3's really do what it said on the tin. So anybody who wants to start a "My MB is no good in snow" thread can think again

Did very well on the Autobahn although the combination of a full load plus roofbox meant that 150kmh was my self imposed limit on the derestricted stretches.

Most of the time in 120/130 kmh limits it seemed but what struck me is how worn some of the Autobahn is. Stretch down from Munich to Salzburg is horrible: ruts, grooves & potholes. By contrast the E something that runs through France & Belgium towards Brussels is, oddly enough, about the best road I have ever driven on, (especially at 3.30 am when devoid of the French :D )

Tom Tom Go 700

Steering me from home via Channel Tunnel to street address in Munich with absolutely no problems other than idiot behind wheel geting confused twice. Both times steered back on track within 30 seconds. First time was best, when ended up navigating French country roads in thick fog at about 1.45am, at which point all my doubts about how useful a 3D display actually was vanished. Damn helpful to know what the road is about to do in very limited visibilty.

Then from Munich to Kaprun (again street address mapping) no trouble.

But the greatest advantage is the fact that she in the passenger seat remained wholly untroubled by any form of map and hence the dreaded Husband Induced Stress.

Here until next Thursday (try as I might could not get buy in to the concept of fleeing the UK for Christmas) so will be back in the UK just in time to do the traditional bits but hopefully this year will not be the grumpy git fresh from pre Crimbo work stress.

Fuel consumption so far is around 7.8L per 100km. Somebody else can turn that into mpg as after an early finish thanks to poor visibilty I am now off for some well deserved beers :)
 
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Excellent write-up mate. Enjoy your break, back to blighty chilly and damp soon eh. :rock:

Only justification for winter tyres is the sort of trip you are doing, cannot see the point in England.
 
Hi Satch,
What an excellent, informative post.

Enjoy yourselves and take care.

Very kind regards,
John
 
Good post, glad to see you are enjoying yourself.

Did you drive non-stop, or have a stop-over. Having sampled Stuttgart Christmas market this year (by flying) am tempted to try another one next year in the car (so she can buy more!), but was thinking more of a town further north (e.g. Dortmund - probably not as good, but nearer). And as for us not coping with snow - tell me about it!

You're right, a decent satnav certainly does make these continental jaunts a lot less stressful.
 
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Winter tyres rule! :D
Brian WH said:
Only justification for winter tyres is the sort of trip you are doing, cannot see the point in England.
This coming from a man who was considering auto-socks for his tyres? ;)
 
Shude said:
Winter tyres rule! :D

This coming from a man who was considering auto-socks for his tyres? ;)

Don't remember that, must have had a few that day? :D
 
jeremytaylor said:
Good post, glad to see you are enjoying yourself.

Did you drive non-stop, or have a stop-over. Having sampled Stuttgart Christmas market this year (by flying) am tempted to try another one next year in the car (so she can buy more!), but was thinking more of a town further north (e.g. Dortmund - probably not as good, but nearer). And as for us not coping with snow - tell me about it!

You're right, a decent satnav certainly does make these continental jaunts a lot less stressful.

Caught the 0.18 Channel Tunnel train and drove straight through to Munich. Two stops and arrived about 11.30. Would have been about an hour quicker if I had not gone wrong.

Not worth stopping over because the aggro of having to unload/load car etc and never sleep properly.

Like Munich and will go back maybe in early summer because I have never actually managed to do the Residenz. That takes about two days!

In terms of Christmas Markets Dresden is about the best
 
Satch said:
Caught the 0.18 Channel Tunnel train and drove straight through to Munich. Two stops and arrived about 11.30. Would have been about an hour quicker if I had not gone wrong.

Not worth stopping over because the aggro of having to unload/load car etc and never sleep properly.

Like Munich and will go back maybe in early summer because I have never actually managed to do the Residenz. That takes about two days!

In terms of Christmas Markets Dresden is about the best

Thanks for that. Don't think I could handle driving through the night personally, even tanked up on Red Bull.
 
Took your advice and bought myself a set of 16" Michelin Pilot Alpins (not much else available) and a set of second hand W211 alloys before seting off for Switzerland the week before last. 1400 mile round trip with the in-laws in convoy in their Subaru Forester.

Crossing from Dijon through to the north western corner of Switzerland took us through some fairly rural and snowy countryside. The winter tyres worked a treat, not bothering the ESP once, even on completly snow-covered minor rural roads. Comand in its wisdom (fastest route setting) wanted to take us down an uncleared road, but we thought the better of it.

Up into the Swiss mountains, and still no blink from the ESP. In fact the only time it was called upon was when, after we had been parked up for a week and with snow all around we came to return home. We had parked 'nose downhill' so to speak and had to reverse backwards uphill to get out. At last the ESP was woken from its slumber, and we were out in seconds. By the way, from the same position the 4wd Forester was spinning its wheels to get grip.

Makes you wonder why you need 4wd, unless you live on a farm, especially as on the journey the lightly loaded 4-cylinder petrol Subaru needed refuelling at twice the rate of our big heavy fully laden E320CDI estate.

Coming back down the mountains and we got stuck behind a BMW M3 crawling along on dry roads with his chains flailing around - dread to think of the damage he caused tpo his shiny alloys. A close look at the winter tyres shows just how soft and 'squishy' they are compared to normal tyres, and definitely recommended for avoiding the need for chains.

Thanks for the advice!
 
Glad you had a good time. Winter tyres remove a lot stress from the driving process in snowy places.

I can just imagine how happy your BMW M3 man must have been: fought the damn things on, froze his fingers and then had to listen to the sound of his alloys being chewed up and wheel arches flailed. Low profile tyres and snow chains do not always make good companions!
 
We're going on Friday - what's the conditions like in the Alps (Geneva - Chamonix area)?
 
We left Villars (about an hour from Geneva) on 18th Feb. with plenty of snow after three solid days of snowfall. Don't know what it's been like since then.
 
Satch said:
Except of course the only other GB registered car I have seen here so far which was wholly stranded this afternoon. Summer tyres, no chains and no hope.

Are winter tyres not a legal requirement? I was told they were in Southern Germany (nr. Leonberg), where I was a couple of weeks ago.
 
BTB 500 said:
Are winter tyres not a legal requirement? I was told they were in Southern Germany (nr. Leonberg), where I was a couple of weeks ago.

Not everywhere but local regulations can and do make them mandatory.

This is a pretty broad summary of the position across Europe:

http://www.etyres.co.uk/winter-tyres-law
 

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