#11: Driving in winter conditions

What this episode covers

Steve talks about driving in wintery and snow conditions. Andy: Hello everyone, itrsquo;s Passionate About Cars. We woke up this morning to thick snow, well, I mean, for Brighton, itrsquo;s thick snow, three inches and Irsquo;m sitting in the main lobby, the main area where customers come at First Class Garage and Steversquo;s manning the lobby. Are you short of staff this morning Steve? Steve: Yes, Irsquo;m actually playing secretary as well today. The secretaryrsquo;s on two daysrsquo; holiday, shersquo;s back in on Monday, today being Friday. So Irsquo;m sort of manning the front desk as well as everything else. A general dogsbody, thatrsquo;s me. Wersquo;ve had a fair bit of snow overnight. I live just on the outskirts in Woodingdean and as always out there it does tend to get a little bit worse. Wersquo;ve probably had about sort of five or six inches of snow settling on the ground overnight in Woodingdean which has made it difficult to get out. Public transport, you know, buses not running. I came in from Woodingdean this morning and picked four women up on the way in actually this morning, like all walking to work along the Warren Road and it was still snowing quite heavily. It was a bit breezy out there and all the women said that itrsquo;s a bit of a first, they wouldnrsquo;t normally step into a motor with a stranger. So obviously I couldnrsquo;t sort of encourage people to do that but the conditions were such that, you know, itrsquo;s just Irsquo;m coming that way and Irsquo;ve got the benefit of a four wheel drive for the workshop so it just made sense rather than see them struggling on foot to work. Andy: Did you see any good examples of interesting snow driving on the way Steve? Steve: Yes, theyrsquo;re out there. The sort of people that are really not sure when it comes to these sort of conditions should stay at home. They ought never ever to get behind the wheel. If theyrsquo;re not sure about the conditions, stay away from the wheel. One of the big problems you get is yoursquo;ve got four wheel drive vehicles out there that do find it a lot easier to get through these conditions but then yoursquo;ll always come across the person that doesnrsquo;t understand the conditions, will drive at 2, 3, 4mph and constantly get stuck. Because you just need to keep momentum going, you need to just let the engine take it and you see people, theyrsquo;ll get up to 5mph so theyrsquo;re dabbing the brakes. Not really the thing to do. So if yoursquo;re not really sure, obviously the best advice is to stay at home, stay out of the conditions and you donrsquo;t have to drive, again, stay out of the conditions. Itrsquo;s only if you really have to drive then if you donrsquo;t have a lot of alternative but to venture out then obviously you donrsquo;t have much alternative, itrsquo;s as simple as that. Particularly if yoursquo;re living in the outer areas or if you know a neighbour whorsquo;s got a four wheel drive, you can cadge a lift with someone, then thatrsquo;s definitely the way to go. But, yes, therersquo;s more forecast for the weekend and although itrsquo;s nice and blue sky and bright out there at the moment, it is still hovering around freezing. And Irsquo;ve noticed one of the big problems wersquo;ve got, where the snowrsquo;s packing down and because the temperatures are so low, wersquo;ve got a lot of solid ice forming underneath. So, until the gritters get out there, itrsquo;s not a good idea to be on the road in fairness. Wersquo;ve had two of the guys from the workshop that live in the outer areas, havenrsquo;t made it in this morning. Theyrsquo;ve phoned in, canrsquo;t get in but likewise wersquo;ve had customers that again, whose cars are booked in, are not coming in. Not that wersquo;re expecting too many. We have had some come in and wersquo;ll continue to get people coming in with the non-start problems, the bad starting and then after the weekend wersquo;ll...

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