Winter use?

[ALM]

Hi,
Newbie to site and long time E500 fan. Having moved to the US from the UK a couple of years ago I keep coming back to the idea of using an E 500 as a DD. My question is how practicable would this be during the winter given I live near Boston. Would winter tyres suffice?
Thanks for your hep
ALM

 

[gsxr]

I'd hate to subject a 500E to salted roads, but otherwise, a set of true snow tires (NOT all-seasons) on all four corners should suffice. I'd use the stock size tire on the stock wheels for the winter. The ASR traction control works very well on snow & ice.

 

[036]

365-7-24
Just put proper winter tyres and something heavy in your trunk. I got anyway my LPG- around 100 kg
And enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYGIQEYyoeU

You can not even make a donut..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOt36D4pwg0

 

[bing]

My former E500 spent most of its life in Switzerland till 2010 when I picked it up from a friend and brought it over to the UK. It was a daily driver then and during winter months it was fitted with winter tires on stock rims. And I have to say, and having experienced it myself, 036s handle quite well in the snow - as Dave says, the ASR works really well - every now and then you see the yellow triangle flickering telling you that it's sorting itself out! During winter months I think that if you clean the undercarriage and around wheel arches regularly you'll have a lesser chance of rust developing. Hell, my mate/PO was not the most tidiest in cars (sorry Francis), especially in the winter, yet there is not a spot of rust to this day on the car.

 

[Jelmer]

I have to agree with Dave: put true winter tires on it and you're done. With all seasons I was gliding all over the place and couldn't even start moving due to ASR kicking in all the time. With proper winter tires I had no trouble at all. I tried having fun by sliding, trying to make the rear break, etc, but the ASR kept me from doing all that. Quite awesome. (And, actually, much better than my previous Toyota Avensis with its fancy ESP etc - that flipped me around 180 degrees instead of saving me!)

 

[Randy Crooks]

Living in Nova Scotia I'm all too familiar with rust and the serious damage road salt causes.Salt brine is a killer of cars and slowly destroys your vehicle starting in the hidden places like the tiny gaps between spot welds and any place small enough for moisture to creep in.Usually when you start to see exterior body rust spots it's TOO late to save the car,the bad structural damage is done.

If you don't have to drive your car in Boston in winter then don't.You can never reverse the corrosion and scale- rust caused by road salt,it's just plain nasty.

The Northeastern USA and Eastern Canada have similar winters and I just can't stress enough that if you have a car you like and you plan on keeping it and you're not wealthy or a professional welder/bodyman and can handle major panel replacement on your own, then park your car inside in the winter.

 

[Prime]

Looks like I'll be the lone dissenter. Before I started storing my 500E in winter, it saw some limited snow. I had a full set of snow tires (not all-season) on 17" x 8.5 rims. While I've driven worse in the snow (my old Z-28 comes to mind), there were also times when the 500E gave me problems. Near my house there is a stoplight crossing a 2-lane highway that has a slight rise in the center - not a big hill (this IS Illinois, after all - very flat). I can recall getting stopped at that light, first in line, and when it turned green I would sit there trying my best to get moving but going nowhere as traffic lined up behind me. Traction control on as normal, totally defeated, or using the snow chain button, soft on the throttle or heavy-footed and trying to let the systems work - nothing mattered. I ended up sitting through 2 red lights before I finally got going. I think I may have ended up backing up and getting a run at it.

Of course, any car can have its moments, but nobody else around me had any trouble at the same spot.

 

[Randy Crooks]

Rear wheel drive cars with or without traction control should be left home in conditions where you have anything more than 4" of snow and any inclines,they just don't work. Years ago when everyone drove RWD cars it was acceptable to see someone holding up traffic and sitting there spinning one wheel. Those days are long gone and you'll be an embarrassment to yourself and your car if you think you can compete with front wheel drive cars (even with bald summer tires) that can drive all around a RWD car in snow.

 

[gsxr]

Keep in mind that the ONLY advantage of FWD cars is straight-line traction from a stop, due to the higher percentage of weight over the drive wheels. (OK, ok, and they are slightly easier to control for less-experienced drivers, as they are more prone to understeer than oversteer, which is supposedly desireable for novices). In every other way they are inferior. The ultimate is AWD of course but MB for some reason never made a 500E 4Matic...

As noted above, for serious winter driving in a RWD car, add some weight in the trunk. Like a couple hundred pounds of weight. Makes a big difference.

 

[Christian_K]

Living in Nova Scotia I'm all too familiar with rust and the serious damage road salt causes.Salt brine is a killer of cars and slowly destroys your vehicle starting in the hidden places like the tiny gaps between spot welds and any place small enough for moisture to creep in.Usually when you start to see exterior body rust spots it's TOO late to save the car,the bad structural damage is done.

If you don't have to drive your car in Boston in winter then don't.You can never reverse the corrosion and scale- rust caused by road salt,it's just plain nasty.

The Northeastern USA and Eastern Canada have similar winters and I just can't stress enough that if you have a car you like and you plan on keeping it and you're not wealthy or a professional welder/bodyman and can handle major panel replacement on your own, then park your car inside in the winter.

You can cope that quite easily with a "Hohlraumkonservierung". Thats the german Word. No fcking idea how to translate it. "Body cavity protection" with wax of fat ???
We use #1 rated products like "Mike Sanders Spezialfett" here, its a mixture of petroleum jelly and bees wax. The US-Military and the German Bundeswehr use a almost identical mixture for the same purpose.
You heat it up until liquid and spray it with a 360° nozzeled gun in every single corner of your car. Then it starts to "crawl" in every even the tiniest spots you just mention above, stop any rust that is already there and then it gets sticky like a wax. And every summer when its getting hot outside, it liquefies itself again and crawl further. Even in wheel-fenders and bottom of the car it sticks for 3-5 years even when driving through hard winters.

 

[ALM]

Thanks for the replies.

 

[DerFuror]

Of a 500E? Don't speak of such heresy. Sheesh!