Awd useless. Waste of time. Why did i bother!

[Fat Magpie]

Not entirely across German law but... you are obliged to have winter tyres fitted, come winter the police set up checkpoints and check your tyres. I have been in such road stops twice. I believe you will be fined at such checkpoints for non-winter tyres or defective tyres.

Also in the winter season, if your car does get stuck and you block the road you can look forward to a hefty fine if you don't have winter tyres fitted.

It's a big business in Germany, there are lots of tyre shops offering storage and cycling of tyres.

[Tannaton]

So back to the OP is AWD a waste of time?

I have some land we keep our animals on in the East Yorkshire wolds and its on a gradient, there is one part where to exit a field there is about a 1 in 5 hill for say 100 feet and at the moment it is covered in waist to shoulder high grass, nettles and thistles. There are two vehicles we use in the field, a 1996 Discovery 300 Tdi which has Defender running gear and is shod with nearly new Goodyear Wrangler, and the 2003 XC90 which is shod with Cooper Discoverer - so quite closely matched.

With a run up the Disco will get up the slope with some wheel spin, if it's slightly wet then you need diff lock or it will stop. The XC90 will stroll up it at any speed, any weather you can even accelerate gently up it.

To be fair the main difference is the older Disco doesn't have traction control, so it will sit there spinning one wheel on each axle. But Haldex cars can and are very capable off road workhorses.

[GusGecko]

https://youtu.be/s-sHXeYWaxk

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by GusGecko

https://youtu.be/s-sHXeYWaxk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMab_DExN3Q

[olliemayo]

I think there needs to be a bit of perspective here. To claim a Volvo has a half assed AWD setup 'because it is Haldex' is nonsense.

You can have viscous coupling, a setup using clutch packs, or just plain old 3 diffs and the ability to lock some of them.

Depending on how the system is setup and controlled, they can be very good. There is nothing wrong with having the vehicle mostly front drive with some torque delivered to the rear when needed. It is not inherently worse than any other system, and you will see how well Volvos are able to handle extreme traction tests on youtube where they mount the car on ramps and simulate zero traction using rollers on them. In this case, a LOT of what you would normally consider 'proper' 4x4s would fail the test where 3 wheels are put on rollers and one is left on dry tarmac, because the drive is sent to every corner but the one with actual grip. In that scenario only a full 4x4 system with the differential locked is going to work- very few cars have these because they are singularly useless for 99% of the driving most people will do.

In any event, I can assure you, from my experiences of off road driving as part of my work, all the ABS,TCS and drive shaft tom foolery does not matter a jot when off road because in that situation tyres become way more important. I have Goodrich BFGs on my truck and I still get stuck from time to time if I am not paying attention to what I am doing. And whilst these things might excel off road, on road such aggressive rubber is often far from ideal. They can be dangerous in the wet and are the worst thing you would have on your car in the snow, particularly when you have a much heavier than normal vehicle and more mass to handle when the thing begins to slide.

As for the OP, are you sure the car in question is not a 2wd variant? The vast majority of XC60s on the road are not AWD.

[hutch63]

Originally Posted by fat magpie

not entirely across german law but... You are obliged to have winter tyres fitted, come winter the police set up checkpoints and check your tyres. I have been in such road stops twice. I believe you will be fined at such checkpoints for non-winter tyres or defective tyres.

Also in the winter season, if your car does get stuck and you block the road you can look forward to a hefty fine if you don't have winter tyres fitted.

It's a big business in germany, there are lots of tyre shops offering storage and cycling of tyres.

thank god we are coming out of the e.u.
Yet another way to fine the working class

[Quacker]

Originally Posted by hutch63

thank god we are coming out of the e.u.
Yet another way to fine the working class

Don't be silly. Germany has far colder and more snowy Winters than we have in the UK's maritime climate. The EU has certainly not forced the UK to adopt winter or studded tyres or carry snow chains.
Not at all sure what road safety and winter weather conditions has to do with 'the working class', as if the rest of the mainly socialist EU States did not have their own fair share of 'working class', many of which have far lower living standards on average than the UK car owner.

[NigelDay]

Originally Posted by Quacker

Don't be silly. Germany has far colder and more snowy Winters than we have in the UK's maritime climate. The EU has certainly not forced the UK to adopt winter or studded tyres or carry snow chains.
Not at all sure what road safety and winter weather conditions has to do with 'the working class', as if the rest of the mainly socialist EU States did not have their own fair share of 'working class', many of which have far lower living standards on average than the UK car owner.

Studded tyres are not allowed in the UK.

[steadvex]

All I know, since fitting cross climates, I don't think I'd switch to another tyre.

I have memories of summer tyres in the snow and its not fun, well, it is until you want to actually get someplace...

[Acer]

Originally Posted by leenineplus

Lol. No embarrassment, just a big slide and struggled to get grip. My zafira and rcz I can give it some and never get in difficulty with winter tyres.
I'm ordering some 18s shortly with winter tyres. There will be ni issues then.

If you put winter tyres on that XC60 it will perform better than your 2wd vehicles. There is a clip where they tested the same vehicle (in 2wd and 4wd guises) on an indoor ski slope and, as you would expect, the summer tyres were worst, the winter tyres (on the 2wd model) were better and the same winter tyres on the 4wd model allowed it to reach the top of the slope.