You need to put snow tires on the car. I have a XF SC and in the winter, i use 18" wheels with vredestein wintrac extreme snows and the car runs great in snow. As long as you can clear the snow the car will plow through it. The car runs great with Winter mode on or off and snow tires.

 

As above, Snow Tyres are king.

OK, you are new around here and have probably not had time to read around all the Geographic member locations, but for hints with snow look at what the Canadians or Scandinavian members are doing.

Maybe check out the wheels and tyres sections.

The guys know just what to do when it comes to the white stuff.

I am from the UK, but when listening to all the complaints on Radio 4 about adverse weather, and becoming stuck, one thing strikes me, is that people just do not prepare their car, and instead blame the authorities for not providing a clean snow free road.

Here, where we rarely get the kind of fall we currently have, (see my post in our competition, and please enter) the tyre vendors have now experienced unheard of demands for snow tyres.

And our minor A roads are not ploughed or gritted, we just have to deal with it.

Mind you, you have a huge difference between the RR and the Jag and will probably need to adapt your driving style a little.

I have spent years driving RRs and Landies in competitions, and one of the main adages when precision is required is, "DRIVE AS SLOW AS POSSIBLE AND AS FAST AS NECESSARY".

As to a £40 grand car getting stuck, if it is on wide summer tyres with a closed tread block type pattern, or rain/mixed, then there is nothing to bite into the snow.

You need to invest into some winter tyres and cheapish narrower rims, that will allow the car to cut through the snow and give you some traction.

Of course if you are talking about long term ice, then full studded tyres are the way to go. But only on ice that lasts, which won't be the case in SWales. (I hope).

One of the problems with Winter Mode on modern cars, IME is that the driver has no sensory experience of what the wheels are doing. If you open the window and listen, you will hear the wheel breaking away and can adjust your foot accordingly. The TC can not create miracles, if there is no friction between tyre and surface then you are going nowhere.

When such snowy conditions exist, I always have my driver's window cracked open, AC off. OK I'm a bit chilly, but I would rather that, than getting stuck through not knowing what my wheels are doing.

And so endeth the sermon, sorry if I have sounded off in your thread, but electronics can only go so far, rubber + ice = very limited friction.

If you have no error messages, then I would think that all is OK with the car.

 

You must use at least all season tires and preferably snow tires. Also, for loose snow try pressing the DSC button once to engage TRAC which allows a little wheelspin. Finally, if desperate, leave the "winter" setting on and press and hold the DSC button for 11 seconds until the DSC switches completely off (it displays the same DSC light but also a Hazard warning!). Leaving the "winter" setting on leaves the electronic limited slip differential effect on but seems to allow even more wheelspin before applying a brake or two to limit spin. Jaguar recommends this combination if using chains, it might just work with summer tires.

Remember that getting going is not useful if you cannot stop. Those same useless tires may be saving you from a crash when the ABS brakes prove just as ineffective at manufacturing traction as the "winter" mode.

My XF handles snow and ice with ease with winter tires. If you send me an email I can provide you with more detail which may help.

 

I was in the same situation with my M6 and Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires....what a drastic change once I switched over to snow tires...the only way to go, all seasons might work ok in light snow but if you are caught in a blizzard they will be useless...

 

My Canadian spec XF came with Conti all season tires. I confirm that they are inadequate for true winter conditions such as the UK is now experiencing. All season tires are particularly weak in braking performance on ice or in snow.

I use Pirelli Sottozeros. In the UK the Nokian WR2 would be an even better choice as they are designed to be "all weather" and will work very well in warmer temperatures also, driving like an all season tire in the warmer conditions. Full winter tires will wear rapidly when ambient temperatures get much above freezing. Nokian WR2 will wear like an all season tire in warmer weather.

 

My view is the XF is excellent in the snow. There is a lot of adjustability in the stability system that makes it easy to drive pure ice or deeper snow. Handling is also beautifully balanced.

As everyone has said driving in temperatures below 40F is sheer lunacy. It's not ice and snow but temperature that's the killer if you're on summer tires. Considering the damage you can do to the car driving on the wrong tires, winter tires are a good investment.

 

Testing shows that summer tires can take up to 40% longer to stop on cold bare and dry road than do proper winter tires. this is purely a rubber compound issue.

Then if you add snow or ice to that cold road surface the extra distance to stop can get sphincter tightening.

If you can't go then you definitely cannot stop. Think of this as a safety feature.....

 

This is gonna sound hypocritical here as I don't have winter tyres on my car this winter.....I will be seriously looking at changing this next year though!!

Winter tyres all the way....our Canadian / American cousins are bang on with this.....winter tyres are sold out in the UK and you cannot buy them for love nor money at the moment I believe.

 

Watch this video it shows winter mode from Jaguar USA...
http://www.jaguar.com/us/en/#/.misc/...lery?id=758633

 

We had a "Winter Mix" evening last Monday in Chicago metro which had heavy falling wet snow and falling temperatures. The XFR did just fine whilst SUV's slithered. Then this Friday drove up to family in Michigan and into 5" of fresh powder. Again no problem whatsoever. It's a great winter car.

 

UK XF owners cannot get winter tires while US buyers get a set for free.....

 

This is my 3rd Chicago winter in my 2004 XJ8 and until I swapped to Blizzaks this year I judged the Jag to be the worst winter car I ever owned. The snow tires make all the difference. I have Hancook all season, rated #2 on Tirerack for winter when I bought them. They are worthless in the snow, as all performance tires are.

Snow tires are the only way to go if you drive in winter weather.

 

We had a blizzard here on Long Island last week, which left us with over 20" of snow. The next couple of days, there were still a lot roads and parking lots with several inches of soft slush (including my driveway), but I had no trouble. The only weak link was stopping distances, which were quite a bit longer than normal. I have a 2010 Premium 5.0 with 19" Continental ProContact all season tires, and the snow performance was not that much worse (other than braking) than my S-type 4.0 was with its Pirelli snow tires.

 

My experience is similar. All season tires are much inferior to snow tires when braking. Many snow tires are designed to be optimized with ABS when on snow or ice.

Also, fresh snow or ice at temperatures close to freezing are conditions for which the "all weather" aspects of all season tires are most closely matched. As the snow gets older or the ambient temperatures get colder the balance tips heavily in favour of the full winter tire.

The treads of the two designs work entirely differently. The all season relies on snow clinging into the treads and siping gripping the ice, two opposing functions. Full winter tires rely on self cleaning open tread designs for snow performance and soft rubber compounding with siping for grip on ice or wet roads.