General snow chains for panda climbing

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General snow chains for panda climbing

nikolas

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Hallo everybody. Trully glad that find you. We own the new Panda 4x4, the Climbing edition from November 2004. It's like a full year now. We are very happy with the car. It is like driving a toy but yet very comfortable and with high sense of security and reliability. We live in Corfu, the most rainy island in Greece and awfully demanding roads. During the summer we made a good tour
from here to the north-east end of the country, that is up to the rivers of Evros and back home.A total of 3000 Km with at least 600 of them in woodlands and fire-roads just after the spring. We felt very lucky for choosing this car. The only pproblem we faced is that after a lot of time on hot black top and with an average speed about 120 Km/h the tyres (Pirelli 185 Snow Control) did not performed very well in sudden turns and brakes.Offcourse this was not really serius since you can easily predict it and control it with such tires, which I consider they are generally excellent. But most of the time it went like a train, especially during rain showers on dirt roads. I do have some questions to pose and hope for your help. I read to the manuals and the salesman also told us that you cannot put on these tyres snow-chains. So then, what happens if there is ice on the road during winter time? Anyone has the same scheme and allready tried it? Do they need change (the rear front and vice versa after 10000Km as usual)? And something else; the average fuel consumption according to the trip computer is 8,1 Lt/100Km wich is far more what FIAT claims that is 7,5 and do not forget. We do'nt live in the city. Believe me I try to drive really ecologically;I hate consuming fuel and certainly I cannot afford it. Any suggestions? As an end I would like to agree with those feeling that some more power would be much better. It could make this beutiful car almost perfect. Thank you...:)
 
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Hello Nikolas and welcome to the forum.

It is really exciting to hear about peoples adventures with the new 4X4 Panda.

I think that the problem with fitting snow chains is not with the tyre, but with the alloy rims. Try and get some second hand steel rims for winter use if you feel that you need them.
Before you do this, remember that when these cars were tested they were taken to Sweden and managed to climb a 40 degree slope covered in ice on the tyres that you have fitted to your car!
I think that swapping front to back every 10,000km is a good idea.
It is forcast to snow tonight where I live in the north of England. I will be out in my car as soon as it happens and will report back on how I think the car performes with the pirelli 185 snow controls.

As for fuel consumption, I would calculate it yourself. The trip computer is very inaccurate. Because mine is UK spec. it calulates in Miles per Gallon (MPG) and the trip computer says 39.7.
So 100/((39.7 * 1.609344)/4.54609) = 7.1 ltr/100km
I would not trust this figure.
Fill your tank up with fuel. Reset trip and drive for x number of Kilometers. Fill tank up againg and take a note of how much fuel goes in. Calculate from there.

Keep in Touch
 
Nikola, happy to hear that another Greek has the car the same time I have mine.
I have already 15000 km and I'm very happy with it except of course with the lack of extra power (but it was bought for a city car)
Regarding your question on snow chains the problem is with the distance left between the tyre and the body of the car due to the higher profile of tyre and alloy wheels. So it's impossible to fit normal snow chains. You can either follow Tim's option or buy Autosock which are excellent for ice. http://www.autosock.com/default.aspx
But as Tim said the car has no problem with ice and snow, as long as the belly of car is above snow (or the height of the snow is less than the distance between the road and lower part of your car).
I had driven the car in Karpenisi last year in full snow and near the ski resort in places with ice without problems.
For the consumption unfortunately the numbers are higher than those Fiat give.
For me it's 8-9lt/km in town and 7-7.5 lt/km in open road or snake roads in mountains.

Happy to answer or discuss any other issue with our little 4x4
 
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Thank's very much both of you, Adamantios and Tim. It's quite a relief to find answers when you don't expect to and people to share with. Unfortunately the local dealer could be of less help in specific queries. I have an other good story which I'll release later on because I am a bit in a hurry at the moment. Thanks again. Nikolas and Amalia...(the boss)
 
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