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I think I've posted this before. The best cars we ever had in snow were the 2 old 4x4 Panda's. Narrow wheels, reasonable ground clearance and designed and built in the Alps.

The wide tyres on our Disco act like skis, but it's fine if driven with care. The ground clearance does help. The Octy is OK, although when the main agent delivered it back after a service they got it stuck in our 90degree turn steep drive.

I do think it's all in the driving rather than the vehicle. Twice last winter I had to reverse quickly to avoid being hit by people coming of the main road to ungritted side roads and sliding.

In the past I've always had, apart from the Landies, things like Omega automatics. power to the rear, brakes to the front. If you can drive them in the snow, you can drive almost anything.

I had a possible fuel problem in my last car. It was a Shell garage and I had the receipt. I contacted Shell and was put in touch with their fuel checking department, who said they would do a test.

My local trusted garage bled some fuel, but couldn't see anything and found a problem with a camshaft sensor.

Some weeks later Shell rang me to say the fuel had been tested and found to be fine.

The next week, the garage closed and they excavated round the tanks. A month or two later they closed again and all the tanks were replaced.

It might have been coincidence, but now I always keep my receipt for a few weeks and if it happened again, I'd insist on a written copy of their report into the fuel test.

Mine's a 2007 Ambiente estate, and my wife hates it. It does crash and bounce over the very bumpy and potholey roads around us.

My son has a 1996 Fiesta that rides much better, and our old Discovery just absorbs all the bumps. Before we got the Octy, I test drove a Focus which was pretty harsh, too.

We have just the standard wheels with proper tyres - none of this low profile nonsense, and the dealer says it rides normally.

She moans about that so much that I keep quiet about the DMF that I hate.

I'm just totally depressed about modern cars.

daz_pd, on 02 April 2011 - 18:48, said:

I'm still watching (and waiting for my DMF to go). The thing that worries me is that the local, generally well thought of, main dealer told me that they had fitted SMF's to a couple of taxis and both had returned to have DMF's re-fitted. This was at a time when we had just got the 06 car and both they and I thought the judder was the DMF. It turned out not to be.

I do a lot of small mileage creeping along with oldish ladies aboard. I often have the bang and the engine stops dead phenomenon, so get marooned dangerously on awkward turns etc. I'm sure this is the DMF getting out of sync with the engine pulses. I read today in the Telegraph that with a DMF you should rev up before letting in the clutch, yet I've previously read that the DMF is there to absorb the pulses at low revs. Revving up seems a recipe for clutch wear.

I haven't yet ever read a post from someone who had reverted to DMF from SMF.

Is it only me or does anyone else find the line down the glass dreadful. I thought it on the last non-Skoda and this one is just as bad. It makes my eyes feel odd and I can't see which bit magnifies or diminishes anyway.
I'd far rather have a normal mirror.