Most folks I know put away their nice cars in the winter and drive aLand Rover or similar. An aluminum , low riding performance car in the salt (very bad on aluminum) and high snow seems like heresy to me, but I'm a republican, what do we know!

 

Gonna be facing this is a Kansas winter soon. XJ8 Vanden Plas 2005. Have had a rear wheel drive sedan in a long time and I am wondering how it will go also?

 

With serious snow tires, you'll make it through the winter, you may have to keep it in 2nd going off the line while snowing, but it will work. I have driven other performance rear drive cars in the snow. It's no joy, but you should be able to drive confidently with good snow tires. Finding the right wheel may be difficult as you'll probably want to go a little narrower than stock.

I actually drove an S2000 with Bridgestone S03's (summer only tire) through three winters. Not smart, but got through without a crash.

 

hey drew, hopefully i can shed some light on some of the cars you are considering. First of all the XJR is an amazing car and a great value pre owned, i too am considering one as a replacement for my s type r next spring. A8s are great cars, it def isnt as fast as the XJR but they will move, when we sell the 745 99% chance says im replacing it with an A8, i havent heard anything about them being unreliable both from other owners or dealer-owner friends who wouldnt bullshit me. an S8 is a great alternative as well if you seek more power with the lambo sourced V-10 and B&O sound system range rover supercharged is very luxurious and capable with the XJR motor but of course sucks gas like no tomorrow and isnt super fast even for an suv. reliability on these is also supposed to be fine. ive owned a lot of cars in the past that had horrible reliablity ratings but never gave me anymore trouble then cars i owned that were deemed great....maybe the fact that i take great care of them even though i drive them hard has something to do with it.

final question: have you considered the VW touareg with the V10 TDI motor? it will do 0-60 in 6.3 seconds (rover supercharged is about a second slower), leather and interior materials from the A8, air suspension, locking diffs and all the other off road goodies from the rover you could want in the snow, and it gets 23mpg highway...what more could you want?

I was in atlanta this past weekend and my brother has one for a everyday car with everything on it minus the diesel, he has the 4.2 V8 motor from the A8, what a nice truck....good seating position, everythign screams range rover, except for bad performance(if u dont have supercharged) and even got just as many looks really and i should know i had a range rover a few years back..try the VW!


lol hope my long answer helps

 

Buy an Mercedes or Audi, and you'll park it next to the dozen other Mercedes or Audi's. My friend had an A8 and it was expensive to own. Tranny died at 95K. 7K worth of repairs to the tranny and then engine died at 105K! Sold the car for like 4k in mint condition []

Jag is timeless, like the Range Rover or Porsche. Range Rover's have never been reliable either, but certainly look nice. For me, they are too big to keep clean the way I would want.

 

I drive an 04 xj8 in the winter in buffalo, ny.

I got a snow wheel and tire set from tirerack and have had no problems.

No ill effects on any aluminum.

 

AS i live way up in Montreal ,Canada , my catstays nice and warm in the garage all winter long. [sm=sleeping.gif]