[Cdnhemi]

We just had our first dump of snow to-day and to-night. The roads were wet until it got dark then turned to ice and then snow covered. I had to drive home from work and had a chance to watch how the ESP worked. Sure do love driving a rear wheel vehicle again. The ESP light came on several times and seem to keep me on the straight and narrow. The only slight problem I had was when a bus and a car failed to clear an underpass and I got stalled behind them. I had to back up and when I got the chance I was able to pass all vehicles and come out of the underpass with no problems. It looks like it will be fun to drive this car this winter.

 

[Angi300C]

Sure do love driving a rear wheel vehicle again. The ESP light came on several times and seem to keep me on the straight and narrow. I was able to pass all vehicles and come out of the underpass with no problems. It looks like it will be fun to drive this car this winter.

Thumbs up to RWD!

 

[CottyGee]

Ya gotta think the all wheel drive will work wonders!

By the way, what is this "snow" stuff of which you speak???

 

[II kings 9:20]

The AWD will be an improvement over the very good RWD, however my 02 X5 does well in snow/ice but with a 62/38 fixed torque split like MB/300C AWD it could be a lot better. It is no Quattro/Subaru where 100% of torque can go to one wheel if needed. BMW addressed this with the new "X Drive" AWD. I suspect the DC AWD will behave much like the 02 X5, great but not as great as expected, btw, my 94 Grand Cherekee was superior to the X5, I owned them both at the same time in the same storms for direct comparison. The X5 got stuck in the entrance to my driveway where the snow plows created 5 foot drifts that I had to shovel through, in the same stuff on the same day the Grand Cherokee churned right through seemingly never slipping a wheel. In summary, I expect the RWD to perform better than expected with ESP/Trac, and the AWD to be better than RWD but less than expected given the fixed 68/32 rear torque split.

 

[limeyg]

We just had our first dump of snow to-day and to-night. The roads were wet until it got dark then turned to ice and then snow covered. I had to drive home from work and had a chance to watch how the ESP worked. Sure do love driving a rear wheel vehicle again. The ESP light came on several times and seem to keep me on the straight and narrow. The only slight problem I had was when a bus and a car failed to clear an underpass and I got stalled behind them. I had to back up and when I got the chance I was able to pass all vehicles and come out of the underpass with no problems. It looks like it will be fun to drive this car this winter.

Saw it on our local news here in Ontario. It looked Too much Too early. Hopefully we have a ways to go yet before snow.
Good to hear your about your first experience in snow. Sounds encouraging

 

[Reese]

Thanks for the report. Since I live in Connecticut, it is only a matter of time before I have to deal with the snow and ice and you have made me more confident that my C will get me where I am going.

 

[steves300c]

Very nice. I do wonder how it will handle these conditions with hills. I live in a very hilly area and have needed to use 4wd with my truck just to get up the hill in my neighborhood. I actually had to tow a 4wd s10 blazer up this same hill as he got stuck down near the bottom.
Guess I will find out in a couple months.

 

[th59718]

Crispiegee and I talked about starting a thread for winter driving experiences when the time came. I think the time is here and this is the thread! I had a feeling all along you'd be the first, Mikeyjohn. Some years ago I was on a backpack trip in the Canadian Rockies not far from Calgary. It was in a foot of snow - on August 10th!

We had a light snow a couple weeks back but nothing to write home about as it never stuck to the roads and was gone by noon.

 

[Cdnhemi]

Don't agree with you guys on 4WD, but then that's my bias. If you have ice it really doesn't matter what you drive, and they outlawed studded tires here years ago. I just found it very interesting on how this car did perform on the ice with snow on top. I for one will NOT be putting snow tires on this car as it will be a waste of money, but then if it makes you feel good then go for it.

The roads this morning are wet as the city did a good job over night, I haven't listened to the news this morning to see how many fender benders there were overnight but no doubt there were a few due to stupid drivers. I hated the first snow when I was a new police officer because you had to watch what you said to these idiots who don't know how to drive.

 

[kcrnmale]

Anybody wondering if the engine cover will cause problems in deep snow?

 

[th59718]

Anybody wondering if the engine cover will cause problems in deep snow?

I guess you're concerned about getting high-centered in deep snow?? Probably won't make much difference in my opinion. High ground clearance is an advantage of SUVs, trucks, etc. in deep snow. As sedans go, I think the 300 is probably pretty good in this area.

 

[Northern Rider]

Anybody wondering if the engine cover will cause problems in deep snow?

Much less of a problem than on a front driver. If a FWD hangs up you are going nowhere. The entire underside of the 300 is quite smooth. As long as the rear tires have good contact, the ESP should keep you moving.

Still waiting for our first snow.

 

[joey]

I still have the stock 18" wheels and the undercarriage of my C often bangs/scrapes the sidewalk when I back out into the street.
Here are 3 different angle shots of my driveway I took last year when I was deciding on repainting my house.
Unfortunately I don't own a digital camera to take a picture with the C straddling the sidewalk.

None of my previous/current cars bang/scrape the sidewalk, so it is a 300C thing. Not living in snow country makes this a non-issue for me, but lowering the car with Eibachs has me wondering. Folks living in snow could find a problem with snow rubbing on the undercarriage..

 

[KC300C]

I still have the stock 18" wheels and the undercarriage of my C often bangs/scrapes the sidewalk when I back out into the street.
Here are 3 different angle shots of my driveway I took last year when I was deciding on repainting my house.
Unfortunately I don't own a digital camera to take a picture with the C straddling the sidewalk.

None of my previous/current cars bang/scrape the sidewalk, so it is a 300C thing. Not living in snow country makes this a non-issue for me, but lowering the car with Eibachs has me wondering. Folks living in snow could find a problem with snow rubbing on the undercarriage.

Joey,

What other cars do you have, the ones that do not scrape? Chances are they have a shorter wheel base than your 300C. Your photos show very well the hump along the sidewalk. It looks just wide enough to fit in between the 300C's wheels. Have you tried backing out/pulling in at an angle? This will act to shrink the wheel base (lengthen the hump) so you might eliminate the scraping. If this doesn't work, I'm sure a local tool rental store will rent you a jackhammer!!!

Hope my "serious" suggestion helps. Good luck!

 

[Northern Rider]

Joey,

Yeah, the 300C has a long wheelbase, but it also has large 18" wheels and plenty of ground clearance. My C goes over obstacles and low curbs that my 300M Special would never clear. In fact, I had to modify the airdam on the M to keep it from getting ripped off.

Your driveway is the problem. Perhaps you need to make tha mountain into a molehill!!!

 

[joey]

Angling out defiantly works and avoids the problem/contact. I just have to remember to do it.
If I back out into the lane closest to my house then angling out is natural. However, backing out into the far lane to drive in the opposite direction it is not natural to angle out. It is natural to back straight out in this situation and this is when I get the undercarriage contact with the sidewalk.
My previous car was a Bonneville SSEI pictured below, and my other car is a Mazda 626 turbo liftback. Both cars front-end will/would scrape the sidewalk, but never the undercarriage. None of my other previous cars, Celica lift back, Toyota Tercel (I am aging myself ) would scrape bottom. Jack hammering the sidewalk doesn't seem like a good alternative , so I am just going to have to remember to angle out slowly.

 

[th59718]

Folks living in snow could find a problem with snow rubbing on the undercarriage.

It's always a problem when the snow gets deep enough. Snow can get packed in under there, actually taking weight off the wheels which is not good for traction especially with FWD. Wheel wells are another problem area. They generally get filled up with ice sometimes to the point it limits your steering. Routine kicking, pounding, prying or whatever works to keep the wheels clear is the only way to keep you safe. Lowering the vehicle or filling up the wheelwells with larger wheels might look great, but doesn't make a lot of sense in snow country.

BTW, that problem with scraping the undercarriage coming in/out the driveway is probably related to the 300's unusually long wheelbase. If you stretched it out far enough you'd bottom out on even little humps.

 

[AndyK]

joey/th59718: Yeah, the LX platform has an 120" wheelbase, much longer than the rest of the vehicles you listed to the best of my knowledge.

 

[05Hemi]

All I can add (from Southern California) is that with few opportunities to evaluate the ESP support in bad weather, I took full advantage of the heavy rains today to try to do a burn out, a fish tail out of a driveway, and a panic stop. Not once did the car "get loose"...in spite of my pushing it. I hope all of you in the snowy regions continue to have great success with the car.

 

[Cdnhemi]

All I can add (from Southern California) is that with few opportunities to evaluate the ESP support in bad weather, I took full advantage of the heavy rains today to try to do a burn out, a fish tail out of a driveway, and a panic stop. Not once did the car "get loose"...in spite of my pushing it. I hope all of you in the snowy regions continue to have great success with the car.

Tell you what 05hemi, do you want to do a house trade from now til next spring? I'm tired of this crap already, the car is dirty and it's still cold but at least the streets are clear.

I spotted a vanilla white magnum while I was driving on one of our busier roads but could not get beside him due to traffic so don't know if he had a hemi. There are not very many magnums in my neck of the woods, they are just not selling.