It will go in the snow!!

[Denis O]

Travelled across the Alps yesterday, via Mont Blanc, through some serious white stuff and can confirm that the X, on standard Bridgestone 19" rubber, proved more than a match. I stuck to the autostrada on the Italian side, which admitedly is mostly undercover (tunnels) and got to the tunnel without difficulty. The last mile or so is outside and alhough the snow ploughs had been busy still had around an inch of snow on the road. Up she went no problem.

The French side was much worse with trucks travelling down at no more than 5mph on the bends. Probably 20 miles from the tunnel till the road was clear enough to get above 20mph. After that it was fairly wet all the way through to Calais and I managed to ping a speed camera at around 100 somewhere around Rheims

Chaos at the Eurotunnel entrance as you now check your tickets and go into passport control as opposed to the cafe area to await your train and then go through passport control. That takes around 1/2 hour to 40 minutes and you then can go to the cafe area or to the waiting area for the trains.

So your X, on standard rubber will get through snow. I have to say I was pleasently surprised and found myself wishing for the old Discovery before trying.

[x555]

Thanks for sharing and good to hear positive comments re non winter tyres in snow etc.
Never had a problem with mine either.......always on the lookout for a cheap winter set up mind.....but then they do take up room in the garage

[Powercat]

That sounds like a really nice adventurous drive and great to hear the X did very well, I've been flashed by cameras in France before nothing ever came of it, and yes the eurotunnel is a joke at peak times they never have enough staff, since the passport fiasco they now check everyone more thoroughly I find that travelling in the wee small hours the best thing to do at peak times.

[4.8isFred]

[quote=""Denis O""]Travelled across the Alps yesterday, via Mont Blanc, through some serious white stuff and can confirm that the X, on standard Bridgestone 19" rubber, proved more than a match. I stuck to the autostrada on the Italian side, which admitedly is mostly undercover (tunnels) and got to the tunnel without difficulty. The last mile or so is outside and alhough the snow ploughs had been busy still had around an inch of snow on the road. Up she went no problem.

The French side was much worse with trucks travelling down at no more than 5mph on the bends. Probably 20 miles from the tunnel till the road was clear enough to get above 20mph. After that it was fairly wet all the way through to Calais and I managed to ping a speed camera at around 100 somewhere around Rheims

Chaos at the Eurotunnel entrance as you now check your tickets and go into passport control as opposed to the cafe area to await your train and then go through passport control. That takes around 1/2 hour to 40 minutes and you then can go to the cafe area or to the waiting area for the trains.

So your X, on standard rubber will get through snow. I have to say I was pleasently surprised and found myself wishing for the old Discovery before trying.[/quote]
Cool info, great story.

just wonderd is your x a manual or auto transmission?

[Raj]

Cool. Tbh I didn't have a problem with mine through quite deep snow round these ways on toyo summer tyres.

[Denis O]

Auto all the way. I haven't driven a manual for years apart from my Defender and even had a 50th Anny for 2 years. I certainly used the tiptronic in manual on the way down on the French side.

No doubt I'll be OK on the speeding as we don't have any arrangement with Europe as yet. Maybe with Cameron growing a pair we'll never have to worry about it.

Wish I'd, sorry SWMBO, had taken some pictures now and you could have seen how bad it was but I was hanging onto the steering wheel and she's a technical nightmare when it comes to using a BlackBerry camera. Still, there's always next year.

[gobiman]

I did a similar journey last week on 23 Dec - back from Austria via Rheims. Prefer that route (paying for the autoroute) because they do bother clearing it when it snows - unlike the Belgians.
Noticed the new arrangements for passport control which were not working well although I always try to get straight on to next shuttle and avoid the terminal.
One trick I would recommend is always book in the high car/roofbox category (which you can get away with in X5 - think it is 180 limit). I generally have a roofbox anyway. It costs the same and there always seems to be space in the double height section even when the car only (double stacked) part is full. Consequently at peak times (Aug particularly) you can generally arrive and get on the next shuttle. They also load the frequent users in the same place.I'm guessing that the shuttle trains were delivered with a fixed ratio of single and double height wagons and there is excess capacity on the latter. At worst, they'll send you back into the main loading area but by that time you will have done the automatic check-in and probably got on an earlier shuttle.

[Powercat]

I would be surprised if you receive a speeding fine from Europe inless you are a repeat offender,
in most of Europe they only fine you for speeding (no points system) the first time is normally a small fine, after that it keeps going up every time you speed again.

If they are trying to get money from foreign cars they need to use an agency who charge for this, so normally there isn't enough money in it for them to pursue you, unless you are a repeat offender, I have picked up this knowledge from travelling in Europe for many years, so far not one penalty notice,
I even got stopped once by the French police who saw me set the camera off, neither of us could understand what each other was saying, and after looking at my documents they let me go and I never heard anything about it again.

If you're a traffic official watching in Europe I didn't say any of that

[pvr]

Doing the same journey to the tunnel tomorrow. Usually see a flash in France but never hear anything about it. Winter tyres performing well but I do notice a fuel consumption increase.

[squeaky2]

Did the drive up from provence on the 30th back to the tunnel.....left far too much time and got up there 3 hours early so was pleasantly surprised to be able to get on the next available train.

Ever since they changed the layout for customs its been a nightmare when its busy......all i have learnt is to go the toilet before you get to the tunnel as have had to wait nearly an hour to get through before.

No need to worry about the flashes in france at the moment as in all the years ive been driving across ive never received anything......strangely enough parking tickets are a different story altogether. There is talk in the next few years that european countries will be able to put points onto our licenses but until then

What kinda economy were you getting......over 2300miles of mixed driving at an average of 70mph weve managed 25.6mpg out of the 3.0sd.

[pvr]

36 on mine

[AW8]

Points from abroad or mpg ???

[gobiman]

For me it was 21 mpg at an average of 89 mph (Verdun - Calais non-stop).
The joys of a 4.8 with a roofbox (on winter tyres)!

[pvr]

[quote=""AW8""]Points from abroad or mpg ???[/quote]not got back yet so can collect more

[pvr]

Diesel nice and cheap here though.