What a great car!

[Neil]

Early this morning, I headed out from my home in central Ontario on a 200+ km trip to Cambridge (southwest of Toronto). I had to turn back because of the near-zero visability, and the propsect of a very long drive to Toronto before turning west.

However, the Volvo awd was spectacular in the snow. There is about 20 cm (8&quot of new snow accumulation on top of hard packed snow on road surfaces, and very little plough activity overnight. The wagon handled the transitions from ploughed highway lanes to unploughed and packed snow with aplomb.

With severely limited visibility, features such as front and rear fog lights help the general air of security since they make the car more visible to other motorists.

The car is shod with Michelin Arctic Alpins (not my first choice), and was very sure footed and predictable for the duration of the 90 minute round trip drive.

Neil

[slender]

I tell you what, Neil, you don't realise how good the system is until you haven't got it.

Last year, when I had an XC, the one day we had severe ice with a lovely layer of snow on top of it I can truly say driving in it felt totally assured and safe. This year, in my FWD S80 I have just been out driving in similar conditions. Now, to be fair, the S80 handled well, and the use of the winter mode on the gearbox mean't pulling away from my folks house, which entails backing off the drive to a position halfway up the hill and then accelaerating from stationery up an ice impacted hill, was relatively easy - but not as easy as having the assistance of an excellent AWD system. I am fully aware of the many annoyances and quirks of this vintage of XC/850/V70, but the competency of it's AWD system was never an issue for me - or you, by the sound of it.

Safe motoring.

[Bluegrass-XC]

Neil,
We certainly don't get the amount of snow that you have, but this evening after I left work I had the pleasure of driving my newly acquired (52 +/- hours now) 2K V70 SE XC in about 2 inches of fresh snow. We usually get a small amount of snow and it will melt within a few hours of falling.  Not so today - we had an ice storm  over the weekend and the temps got to 50 on Monday - then plunged.  The roads hadn't had a chance to really warm up yet, so what little snow that fell - stuck.  I was literally blasting past the white knuckle people crawling along at 10 mph - ACK !!  I did put it into "W" for a while, but quickly found that it wasn't necessary since I just plowed along effortlessly.  This is my first front wheel drive car (I have a big Chevy K5 4x4 for real fun   ),  but I am really impressed with it's performance.  I can't wait until it really snows (3 inches will cripple this city-jeez).  I too am very impressed with these vehicles !!

Mike
Bluegrass-XC

PS - It's down to 18 degrees now (headed for single digits).

[purush]

Well, we had some snow and ice the past week in the birth-place of hot, glazed, Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  When driving on the roads with both snow and ice I felt very safe.  The only time I paniced was when  trying to come to a stop on an ice-glazed road that was inclined 45deg, and going down, but the car wouldn't go where I wanted it to go.   I slammed the brakes and it ultimately did come to a stop.  I am still wondering if I was being needlessly over-confident, and need to drive just like any other non-AWD vehicle.

purush

[Neil]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (purush @ Jan. 30 2004,06:32)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">&quot; ... I am still wondering if I was being needlessly over-confident, and need to drive just like any other non-AWD vehicle.&quot;[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
It is my observation that, while awd makes the car much better mannered when accelerating and in general handling, it provides absolutely no advantage over a comparable fwd car when it comes to stopping. &nbsp;So, there is a real danger of becoming complacent. &nbsp;

It takes considerable restraint to drive the car according to the (deteriorating) conditions when it accelerates and handles so well.

I mentioned in a prior post about the Arctic Alpin snow tires on the car. &nbsp;They are absolutely useless in slushy conditions, which is what we are facing today. &nbsp;I&#39;d much rather have the more aggressive Blizzaks, but alas there was no stock left in the Ontario region when I replaced the previous set of Blizzaks two years ago.

Neil

[benchrisman]

Neil,

You are very right. AWD just helps in starting, not stoping. We all still have to be very careful in snow and ice, despite our very versitile cars. Downshifting can be very useful when going downhill on ice.

Ben

[nortons]

AWD just lets you get farther off into the weeds when you do lose it. If it's bad enough outside to need AWD, you need to go back inside, make some coffee and let the snow plow drivers do their work. And why anyone in New Mexico, Texas, Florida or other sunbelt areas would buy a AWD car is beyond me! If you need to go off into the desert buy a JEEP

[angmichael]

My vehicle is a 2000 v70 xc with 140,000 miles the problem I'm having is it seems like the trans is going into slower gear while I'm driving I thought maybe it was going into winter mode so I pushed the selector and the light on the dash did not go on . I stopped the car turned off the ignition and restarted it runs fine , and the winter mode light works again .after a little while the same thing happens it feels like its is lower gear . Any help would be appreciated thanks !

[JRL]

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