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      01-05-2006, 07:10 PM   #3
jcoo085
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Drives: E90 320d
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Stuttgart, Germany

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2005 320d  [0.00]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robin Hood
I think it's ridiculous.

I ALWAY drive with normal(not winter)tyres in your country.
I don't think it's so ridiculous. I rented a 320d (didn't really want to put 3,500km on my car) over new year for 8 days to go to Berlin and Copenhagen. I opted to skip the winter tyres because it would have meant another €125. It was one of the stupidest things I ever did. About half-way to Berlin it started snowing. And not that wet stuff. This was the disgusting, slimy, icy stuff. I can tell you the summer tyres had absolutely 0 grip! Even touching the brakes caused the ABS and DSC to kick in and even still the back end was wobbling. And that was only half the problem. Of course, everyone else had winter tyres and could maintain about 80km/h or so, and there's me, barely able to do 30. The fear of losing control and being smacked into by another car (or even worse, a truck) was pretty high and I was white knuckled for the entired 5km's to the next rest stop (luckily it was close!). Earlier I had seen a 5 or 6 car pile-up (apparently it was also on the news) and I didn't really want to end up like that. I don't think I've ever been that scared in my entire 30 or so years or driving.

So of course, I was straight on the phone to Sixt (who were extremely helpful; two big thumbs up to them) and arranged to have another car ready in Leipzig, this time with winter tyres. So I waited for about 2 hours for the roads to be salted and the snow to melt and drove on to Leipzig to get another car.

I'm glad I did, because when I arrived in Copenhagen the next day, it snowed heavily to the point you couldn't see the curbs anymore. You could immediately tell who had winters and who didn't. Those that did could drive pretty normally (althought a little slower of course). Those that didn't were either stuck, or if they could somehow manage to get moving, were sliding all over the place. I saw one van driving down a small street sideways! That's not exactly my idea of fun (except in a closed environment; now that's fun!).

So anyway, if people want to drive in snowy/icy weather with summer tyres then that's their decision. But there's going to be no sympathy from me if there's an accident. And they'd better stay away from my car!
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Last edited by jcoo085; 01-05-2006 at 07:27 PM..
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