You experienced exactly what I would have expected if you did not select the 'offroad' option on the Drive Select. I have found this to be the best option for snow/ice and the ESC is partially disabled stopping the wandering around. If you have the Hill Descent Assist option you can go down virtually any snow covered hill safely. No matter how many computers and sensors are in a car, the best one is behind the wheel.
Terrible Winter Driving Experience
Hi All, first drive on partially snow-covered roads in my new Q5 and it was terrifying.
The highway was not slick or icy but, a thin layer of snow covered the lane making it all white except for black asphalt in the two tracks made by the tires. Traveling around 45 miles and hour, the car began to swerve left and right. I was not on ice. It felt like the car was trying to keep me between the white lines but, there were three white/snow lines, one in the middle of the lane between the tires. The car would not let me take control and kept swerving for at least a minute. We figured out how to turn the active lane assist off and switched to off-road mode. This improved the driving but, it still felt unstable. Every time we crossed a small and very shallow snow drift, the car drifted to the left and then over-corrected to the right.
Are there any reported issue with ALA and ESC on winter roads? I'm calling the dealer next but, wanted to put this on the forum as well.
The highway was not slick or icy but, a thin layer of snow covered the lane making it all white except for black asphalt in the two tracks made by the tires. Traveling around 45 miles and hour, the car began to swerve left and right. I was not on ice. It felt like the car was trying to keep me between the white lines but, there were three white/snow lines, one in the middle of the lane between the tires. The car would not let me take control and kept swerving for at least a minute. We figured out how to turn the active lane assist off and switched to off-road mode. This improved the driving but, it still felt unstable. Every time we crossed a small and very shallow snow drift, the car drifted to the left and then over-corrected to the right.
Are there any reported issue with ALA and ESC on winter roads? I'm calling the dealer next but, wanted to put this on the forum as well.
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I have had all weather Nokian tyres. You can get through anything with these but they are noisy. There are other makes of all weather tyres but do you want to fork out approximately £600 to find out that they are of limited use. In an ideal world two sets of rims would be required, summer tyres on one set and winter on the other. I would research all weather tyres specifically looking at road noise.
It depends on what type of snow and how much of it. Where I live in Yorkshire we get no more than a couple of inches for a short period of time. I have summer Hankook's and I have found that even in just wet conditions the road holding difference between new and very worn is significant. I replaced all four tyres recently for identical ones and I found no problems driving through snow in all terrain. As I have said previously, in snow I always select the 'offroad' mode, as from experience I have have found that it is the best option. I agree totally with missile that you need winter tyres dependent on the type and amount of snow.
Putting it in off-road mode was the right thing to do. What make etc tyres do you have? The narrower the tread the worse the handling in snowy conditions.
I said the narrower the tread not the tyre. Although, dependant on the snow type the narrower the tyre the better. The best car I have ever seen going through snow is a Citroen 2CV that has bicycle sized wheels. With wider tyres they can float over the snow so if you have wider tyres then the best tread is wider so the tyre can dig in to the snow.
The problem with snow driving in a Q5 is that you don't have four wheel drive until slippage is detected on the front wheels. In the old days of quattro Audi's the Torsen differential was used which gave four wheel drive all the time, distributing the torque to the wheels that need it. It is very hard to drive a Haldex equipped Q5 in snow, you have to create front end instability for power to be applied to the rear wheels. A viable solution would have been to have the ability to lock the Haldex but we don't have this. I am sorry to hear about your bad experiences with the Q5 and that you have done everything possible to mitigate the limitations. If it was me, I would speak to the dealer nicely and see if there is a viable alternative with a minimal financial penalty.
Welcome. I agree with missile. It is most unlikely that the tyres you are using now are identical to the ones you used in 2019. The other factor is that the electronic intervention will be different. Try it in 'offroad' with the esc partially disabled.
The best car I have seen for snow is the Citroen 2CV. Low torque engine and bicycle wheels/tyres. I forgot, and devoid of any electronic 'aids'.
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