A good car for this snowy weather

[eloisesparkle]

We're thinking of changing our car and with this snowy weather would like to get something second hand that can be driven in snowy/ icy conditions.
We're not up a mountain or anything and generally do suburban driving.
Any suggestions please wise Mumsnetters.

I just suggest switching to winter tyres in the winter. We have had small cars and big cars and never have a problem in any types of snow conditions. Once driving up a very steep uncleared mountain pass in falling snow chains were obligatory.

Over the last few days I have had 2 separate people raving on about the fiat panda and how great it is in the snow.

Winter tyres
Something under powered and not rear wheel drive - my mum's old 1l fiesta frion the 80s/90s was awesome in the snow

Put on winter tyres if you must travel in this weather on a regular basis otherwise why bother changing your car when we only have weather like this for possibly a few weeks a year.What ever car you have will be stranded if the cars in front have come to a standstill.

Thank you. I was thinking small 4 by 4

My tiny Kia is better on the snow than my Land Rover ever was

Our BMW is currently stranded at the bottom of the hill. In hindsight my little Toyota would have handled it better...Or at least have been easier to push!

We have a Toyota RAV4 and it’s been excellent in the snow, and we are in a red zone so have had lots of snow!

We’ve got a Land Rover freelander 2 (2014) and it’s been great. I have horses so have no option but to go out on all weathers. Ours cost £14k and it’s a fun drive. We can also fit 2 car seats in the back plus an adult between them. We have two big dogs and they fit in the boot. It’s a comfy car in all weather

Winter tyres definitely. We swap when temps are below about 7C and then back again in spring. Much cheaper than a new car. But I too have heard good things about the fiat panda and I believe they did a 4x4 v

Low profile tyres are rubbish in this kind of weather. Many years ago I drove a VW Golf in some really bad snow and it was excellent. My 4WD Kuga gets me up our hill and round a hilly corner as well, but it isn't a cheap car. It would perform even better with snow tyres.

Our 4wd Kia Sportage has been brilliant this week, would def recommend!

4x4 version....

Front wheel drive, thin tyres. Our BMW is in the garage until all snow is gone, the fiat 500 is fine. I think a 4x4 Panda would be brilliant. Good tyres are a must, last time we had a lot of snow I happened to replace my front tyres, just normal ones, and I really noticed how much better the new ones were. Wide tyres seem like they should give more grip but thin ones dig in better. Winter tyres are excellent but I can’t justify the cost, given that I don’t drive much and can usually stay at home in bad weather, or walk or get the bus. We would get them for the BMW if we had to use it, that might elevate it from useless death trap in snow to difficult to handle. I hate the BMW anyway which is probably causing me to overstate its crappiness.

Or a normal car and winter tyres (as a po suggests) would work. It’s what they do in Europe. It seems silly to have the added expense of a 4x4 when actually it’s incredibly rare for this level of snow.

Chenenger
Is your BMW one of the X series i.e.
X3
X5

I used to have the BMW x5 which was useless in snow and ice. Tyres - too wide. Nice fir motorway driving. Hopeless 4x4

Isn't is a trifle OTT to consider a car for snow?
The weather will be different again in 10 days. A others have posted snow tyres make a huge difference. HUGE DIFFERENCE!!

A few years back I picked up a spare wheel for my car off eBay/Gumtree then had both the cars spare wheel and the 'new' wheel fitted with snow tyres (the spare tyre removed came home with me). It worked brilliantly. As soon as winter was over I had the spare swapped back for normal and kept the spare as spare in boot. the other was put in the garage for the following winter.

Our BMW is a 5 series estate, not a 4x4. It has no redeeming features except heated seats, in my opinion. Even the heater is annoying and randomly blows cold air when it feels like it. Ultimate Driving Machine my foot, it’s not fun to drive, it’s too big and it’s utterly rubbish in snow.

Subaru forester

AS many others have been saying, but you seem to have ignored. WINTER TYRES.

you don’t need a new car because of one fucking snow episode.

My VW UP has been fantastic in the snow ❄️

The one year I bought winter tyres we had no snow. at. all.
I changed my car that year so have some barely used winter tyres sat in my garage.

I'm taking on board the winter tyres idea WhatABaklava

In my student days I had a Fiat 126 Biz
Yeah, I hear you laughing
The tyres were ridiculously expensive, so I swapped them all for another fiat model wheels and tyres out of the classifieds section of the local rag. LOL it looked like a baby 4x4. was bright red and jacked up so high...was utterly amazing in snow. Had to do the school run for my younger brother...ended up bringing home the entire village kids home 3 at a time. Great memories