Tips for driving big automatic in snow?

[jaysmith60]

Hi all,
I'm picking up my S90 on Saturday and there's a lot of snow on the ground here in rural Suffolk. My total experience of driving an auto-box is a couple of hours in my Dad's car 20 years ago - and I was hoping to ease myself in gently.
I would guess it's not as easy to control in slippery conditions as a manual (e.g. by starting off in 2nd) so any winter driving tips fot big automatics would be much appreciated!

BTW, my current car is 4WD Yeti with snow-rated tyres which is pretty easy to drive on snow in comparison.

[gaby]

I guess it's as much, or perhaps even more, a matter of tyres.
If you go gently on the throttle, you will hardly notice the gearbox

[nu11eaf]

You can still manually sellect 2nd or 3rd gear with an automatic the old version XC90 boxes had a winter mode button that just put it in 3rd gear to set off and when you stopped ready to pull away again.

[Lexman8]

If the car has Drive Mode Select you could try putting it in ECO mode. This reduces the throttle response and should also produce gentler, more progressive gear changes.

[anotherv60]

Originally Posted by Lexman8

If the car has Drive Mode Select you could try putting it in ECO mode. This reduces the throttle response and should also produce gentler, more progressive gear changes.

This definitely works, just make sure you plan well ahead, avoid dynamic mode, unless you want to spin the front wheels for fun.

[NickV90]

Just driven my V90 to work in Suffolk on snow covered roads and I was surprised at how good it was. I was extremely gentle on both the accelerator and brake, but did nothing special. I hope the trip home is as good.

On the other hand my partner's Mercedes SLC cannot get out of our road....

Oh and as for other people's driving - atrocious. Too fast, too close. Having someone 10 feet behind me when in a total white-out trying to work out where the road actually is was not fun. I guess they had the benefit of my lights to follow, which made them invincible....

Nick

[nu11eaf]

If you do use a higher manual gear to get going ensure you slip it straight back to Auto mode or you will spin your wheels if you stay in that gear as you speed up, and as Lexman says use Eco mode

[Quacker]

The secret to driving automatic in all conditions is not to stab the throttle. It’s as simple as that. Automatic works better than manual for starting off due to the torque multiplying effect of the torque converter

[MCV60]

Also 1st time owner of V90 auto and it was woeful yesterday. Despite being gentle and starting in 2nd gear.
Yes I put it down to summer tyres. But even so, other cars were passing with ease.
For the last 3 years, I have previously swapped on to winter tyres and see next to no snow. Sod’s law.

[MtillingVolvo]

Originally Posted by Lexman8

If the car has Drive Mode Select you could try putting it in ECO mode. This reduces the throttle response and should also produce gentler, more progressive gear changes.

This is what I did in my V90 this morning... seemed to do the trick