Last winter, though light of snow, did provide one ironic driving moment.

While heading home from work on a really winding, hilly road in my E320 wagon (2wd with traction control), I came around a bend to find a AWD, BRAND NEW, shiny-black ML320 just whacked itself into a tree, nice new glossy nose and headlights just mangled to bits. Driver was ok, and a local cop had responded quickly.

The road had that pre-plowed, slushy, icy mix with some sleet, highly treacherous if foolishly negotiated.

I could tell the ML was new by that particular overall clean and shine on everything, including the exhaust tip.

Very shortly after this bend turns into a short steep uphill turn, then levels off. As I manoeuver up this hill, no slipping or anything, I spy a FWD minivan that had come the other direction and had run straight off the curve and into the forest, again, two fellows in a pickup were helping out, the driver unhurt.

I motored quietly home without incident through all this carnage encountering yet another light bash-up shortly after (FWD) with very light damage.

My wagon was equipped with Michelin Arctic-Alpine snows, they just pad along like the road was dry, absolutely amazing.

The irony of this anecdote should escape no one. People just gotta snap out of it and use their brains, AWD and FWD do not equal invincibility!!! Wake up!!!

Around here, in eastern Mass, without fail, the first vehicle off the highway during the first ice and snow of the season are SUVs, just ask any state trooper.

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1995 MB E320 Wagon
2001 BMW 530i
2007 MINI Cooper S (!)

Traction controll only works when you have traction.

Had an experience about 3 weeks ago that scared the you know what out of me.

Have 96 E320. I live in the VA Beach area of the state and we don't get too many snowstorms down here--temps are usually about 5 degs above freezing. Perhaps a major one every 2 yrs. During winter, temps are usually in high 30s and low 40s here so snow is not a big problem.

Went out to head into work. No real snow on ground, but it was icy and the snow crews had not put down any salt on surface streets. I was getting the "exclamation mark" symbol every few minutes. Was travelling at around 10 mph most of the way. That warning is helpful, because there are times that you can't feel the ice and the indicator gives you extra situational awareness.

Got to offramp to head into my office. This offramp is "blind" in the sense that it goes up at about a 35 deg angle and is curved. Until you reach the "peak" of the ramp, it is impossible to see backed up traffic.

I had to come to a stop right at the highest point on the off ramp. The minute I stopped, the car began to slide backwards.
It was clear to me that the ramp was pure ICE. Thankfully, no cars were behind me at that point.

The cars in front were completely backed up for over 1/2 mile. Later on I saw that a new Caddy had flipped over onto wooded area on right side and another car had spun around and ended up in the center strip. Cars in front could not go forward and as I was thinking of allowing car to drift backward, a car appeared behind me.

Back to off-ramp. I was sliding backwards and it took all my control to keep the car fairly straight and from crashing into a metal divider. Meanwhile two cars had appeared behind me.

I kept trying to get some traction but no such luck. I followed that rule of "turning into" the skid....that worked about 50% of the time. At one point the car had almost went 45 deg on me and would have blocked the off ramp. Perhaps I did something wrong, but half the time when I turned into the skid, the car did stabilize; the other half, it went the other way.

I tried to keep my head and shifted into neutral while looking for any traction. Car began sliding back soon. I was about 6 inches from the metal divider and about 2 feet from the car behind me. I did not want to apply too much acceleration because I was worried about damging transmission.

Shifted into 2 gear and kept foot on accelerator to hold car in place. Car was moving forward and I was slowly but surely making progress in "righting" it and getting both right wheels onto shoulder.

I decided the only way out of this was to get both right wheels onto the right shoulder which had some snow and I knew it had gravel underneith.

Took about 5 mins, with car going back and forth, back and forth, but I finally got the car straight and both right wheels on the side of the road. Never been so happy in life. People in the car behind me must have been filled with fear because I could have slide right into them. Had I slid into them or hit the guardrail, I would have damaged the rearend....breaklights would have cracked.

The nitemare was not over yet because the police had closed one lane down and the traffic was still driving on pure ice and I was able to maintain the lane without losing control. Had to creep up the remainder of hill and then get into the left lane without sliding into center grass area.

Any suggestions for what I could have done better on the off ramp slope? Most people around here do not bother with snow tires due to our climate. If there is a snow day, I either stay home or hit the road in my Wrangler. On this day, there was no signficant snow, only ice and I was angry as h*ll that the state had not salted the roads (total of 100+ accdents that day).

If I had gone 45 deg, blocking the off ramp, would it have been best to have a trailer pull me out or would there have been some maneuver I could have used. My concern was that if I would have left car to get police help, the car would have slid down right into the car behind me.

I was shakened up enough by incident that I took 1/2 day off and stocked up for the big snow storm that hit the next day--closing everything.

Car working fine now. I was worried about trans damage, but I had to take car into shop a week later for one of the major checkups--including trans fluid replacement and filter change. Since then, car has been shifting perfectly.

Any ideas are welcome.

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- Jon E320 210.055

90 Wrangler
77 Mustang 307,000 mi
63 T-Bird [fully restored]

So far so good for me and the 126. No stories to report and that is due to excellent winter tires.

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99 C43
98 S420
99 C230K
01 C240