Hello! I have a nice CLK 320 2003 with automatic NAG. I'm leaving to go skiing for a pair of weeks. Its my fist time on snow with this car. Any suggestion or experience with this car and transmission on snow? Problems, tricks, etc.?
For NAG I mean the automatic transmission used by CLK 320. This is the European name for it. I ask this because here we aren't so used to drive with automatic gear and tis will be my first time without manual on snow.
LOL Thanks - now I need a new monitor, for spitting coffee all over this one. Funny as hell.
I tried to replace the NAG in my MB with a newer model. There seemed to be compatability issues, still not resolved.
Regarding the original post, I'm not trying to intentionally be a jerk, but I'm going to be one anyway;
Driving is fun. Driving is not hard. Remember how it was when you were younger, carefree, you had hair. You may want to consider going back to your salesman Biff & asking him how to drive with the $10k option he sold you that you don't understand. It is snow for Gods sake - you slow down.
Please, be careful skiing - hips are fragile. Now speed up to at least
2/3rds of the speed limit & turn your Damn left blinker off - its been on for half an hour.
"Mercedes SUVs - Cangrats on Buying a vehicle that the only off-roading that will ever be done is pulling into your garage"
By all accounts an M-Class is superior to a BMW X5 in off-road capabilities, neither of which are true off-roaders, of course, like a Range Rover, but who cares when people buy images?
If the car gives you a stick which enables you to manually select any gear, then use the stick when on snow as though it was a manual transmission.
The big problem with an automatic transmission is that if it is left to its own devices the only method of slowing the car down rapidly is by the brakes. On ice and snow, when you apply the brakes you lose steering as the front wheels will lock-up, even with ABS.
If you use the stick to force the transmission to drop down gears you will slow down quite rapidly through engine braking on the back wheels (rear wheel drive car, which is what I am talking about) and leave your front wheels unbraked and thus capable of steering the vehicle.
Depending upon the depth of snow, or prospect of ice, you may need studded tyres or chains for the rear wheels. The latter is normally the cheaper option and very effective for a short incursion into winter conditions. Drive into the area on your normal tyres, but if the conditions get tricky it will take you ten minutes to fit the chains to the rear wheels. That will get you most places so long as you don't go off the blacktop.
People who have to drive around on ice for five months of the year, such as the Norweigans, normally use high-grip, lugged and studded tyres during that period, changing them for normal tyres during the summer months. In your situation chains are by far the most sensible option.
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