Type of Car For Finland

GmoDelft · Post by **GmoDelft** » Mon Nov 23, 2015 10:42 am

i am going to buy my first car. I was interested in Nissan Qashqai , 2008 , used car and they are 2 weel driven. I want to ask, how is it hard or easy to drive with 2 WD on snow , sleety road in finland with winter tyres. I was wondering if 4x4 WD is more better but expensive car as well. Share your thoughts please !

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FinnGuyHelsinki · Post by **FinnGuyHelsinki** » Mon Nov 23, 2015 11:39 am

Unless you need to drive on rural roads, 2WD/4WD is more of a personal preference, you will have to adjust your driving style for winter in any case. 4WD is more stable and helps in moving forward in very slippery and snowy conditions, which are rare on the roads where there's plenty of traffic. In the cities the streets are plowed clear of snow quite quickly, or road salt is spread. Since most cars are 2WD, the flow of traffic slows down accordingly in conditions where one would really benefit from 4WD. And of course a 4WD car does not stop any faster than a 2WD one does.

Oho · Post by **Oho** » Mon Nov 23, 2015 12:12 pm

GmoDelft wrote:i am going to buy my first car. I was interested in Nissan Qashqai , 2008 , used car and they are 2 weel driven. I want to ask, how is it hard or easy to drive with 2 WD on snow , sleety road in finland with winter tyres. I was wondering if 4x4 WD is more better but expensive car as well. Share your thoughts please !

Four wheel drive is a mixed blessing, a cynic such as your truly, would be inclined to say that the main difference to a front wheel drive is the speed at which you loose control and put it into scenery. Anyway real four wheel drives are rare, most advertised as such really are not as they lack the necessary differential locks. That said even the so called four wheel drives offer much better traction for better as in neutral handling and mobility in snow. The downside is the lack of feel for road conditions and the likely lack of required driving skills regain control if lost.

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Mon Nov 23, 2015 1:35 pm

Oho wrote:
GmoDelft wrote:i am going to buy my first car. I was interested in Nissan Qashqai , 2008 , used car and they are 2 weel driven. I want to ask, how is it hard or easy to drive with 2 WD on snow , sleety road in finland with winter tyres. I was wondering if 4x4 WD is more better but expensive car as well. Share your thoughts please !
Four wheel drive is a mixed blessing, a cynic such as your truly, would be inclined to say that the main difference to a front wheel drive is the speed at which you loose control and put it into scenery. Anyway real four wheel drives are rare, most advertised as such really are not as they lack the necessary differential locks. That said even the so called four wheel drives offer much better traction for better as in neutral handling and mobility in snow. The downside is the lack of feel for road conditions and the likely lack of required driving skills regain control if lost.

Agreed. The main difference between 2wd and 4wd is the amount of snow to shovel after the driver has lost control and ended up in snowbank.

riku2 · Post by **riku2** » Mon Nov 23, 2015 9:20 pm

I live 40km north of helsink in the countryside and have no trouble with a 2wd car (currently a BMW with rear wheel drive). I did consider a Qashqai since even the 2wd version has extra ground clearance and I've found that is better in deep snow (eg the difference between doing snow work or driving up the driveway with 20cm of snow on the ground).
The best thing I've done in 15 years of car driving in Finland is to have a third set of winter friction tires. No more driving with noisy studded tires for six months of the year when they're really only needed for jan/feb/early march. And I never get caught out by early frosts since I can put them on early and leave them on well until May. I think the studded tires are only needed from mid january for a couple of months.

Piet · Post by **Piet** » Mon Nov 23, 2015 9:44 pm

For your firsts car?

Buy an old car first and learn to drive in the snow, rear wheel drive is more fun (drifting), front wheel drive is more control (sharper cornering).
Stay away from anything AWD because it will only break down and the only real benefit will be that acceleration on the snow is quicker.

as a suggestion I would say buy an old Volvo 940 or 960 for RWD (500€ will get you one that just passes katsastus)
and then buy an 850 or V70 classic (old model) for a FWD (600€ will get you one that just passes katsastus)

Why? they are relatively safe and will run still good with 400.000km on the clock (then they just start to be run in

)

When you did that, you might consider buying your third car for keeps and by then you know the difference between RWD and FWD in the snow and icy roads.

Personally I would never go for anything else than a Toyota for endurance and cheap parts (will run forever), or for a really safe quality car like Volvo (will run forever too... wel maybe buy one from a year before it became Chinese

). For Finnish roads and climate, stay away from French cars, they will let you down, same as Italian cars, they look nice but the technique and durability sucks. And well about the German cars.. to expensive for the quality you get and to expensive parts.
English cars...well what to say...better say nothing at all

thats my 2 penniä

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 11:34 am

We have a qashqai (regular manual gearbox and 2wd) and it's fine. Boring but fine. We got it because it was the cheapest option available through the company leasing scheme that fitted our needs. Never had any reliability issues and it gets us to/from the mökki even in winter. I don't enjoy driving it much though (1st gear sucks) and the satnav is rubbish (ours is about 4 yrs old). One of my kids rolled the first one we had, managed to write it off on a country road doing about 25kmh (slipped into a ditch) but he was fine. Not the car's fault.

Actually, about French cars, we had a 4WD Scenic for a while (another lease car) and it was brilliant. So comfortable inside, good to drive, and GREAT in the snow. We were at a party in Helsinki a few years back, there was a massive snowfall during the evening. When it was all over none of the cars/taxis could get to the venue (up a hill) - we managed to ferry a load of people back into town.

GmoDelft · Post by **GmoDelft** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 10:58 pm

Thanks for sharing the experiences ! may be next week and so after doing some practical learning, i will see my confidence to buy a SUV or old Mazda M6 or M3 .. still wondering

Piet · Post by **Piet** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 11:35 pm

GmoDelft wrote:Thanks for sharing the experiences ! may be next week and so after doing some practical learning, i will see my confidence to buy a SUV or old Mazda M6 or M3 .. still wondering

Remember the SUV's are thirsty and have expensive bigger tyres are expensive in road tax and insurance, but the 6 cylinder from mazda might drink a little more than average too

(but all the other things are cheaper)

For fuel economy and low road tax but good "moose survivability", you might want to consider Toyota Yaris (cheap parts too and it runs forever) 2010 model or later, my mother in law (anoppi) had an encounter with a moose at 80km/h before braking, and the A pilar survived, and so did she

(airbags all around).

I believe (but not sure) this is a Mazda
A pilar still intact too, but I guess the driver saw it too late... see the motor hood, this was a front collision

:

GmoDelft · Post by **GmoDelft** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 10:36 am

that is scary !!

BTW, is there any link where i can calculate r road tax for my future car and compare `?

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 2:07 pm

GmoDelft wrote:that is scary !!

BTW, is there any link where i can calculate r road tax for my future car and compare `?

http://www.trafi.fi/en/road/taxation/ve ... unt_of_tax

GmoDelft · Post by **GmoDelft** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 9:44 am

does anyone have bought car from germany and bring it here ?

How does the load from bank works for this case ? higher interest rate ? How much could be the gain after paying the tax here ?

riku2 · Post by **riku2** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 3:15 pm

GmoDelft wrote:does anyone have bought car from germany and bring it here ?

Yes. the first thing I did was use the search function in this forum to read quite detailed instructions on how to do it. After I imported it (BMW 525d) I wrote about my experiences.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=52674

GmoDelft · Post by **GmoDelft** » Thu Jan 14, 2016 12:39 am

Any expert on Audi A4 sedan ? what is your opinion about buying a used 2011 , 90tk , diesel , automatic one ? what you see negative or maintenance cost for audi a4 ?

Oho · Post by **Oho** » Thu Jan 14, 2016 7:50 am

GmoDelft wrote:Any expert on Audi A4 sedan ? what is your opinion about buying a used 2011 , 90tk , diesel , automatic one ? what you see negative or maintenance cost for audi a4 ?

Bying a used VW group diesel now? Do you know how VW is planning to address the falsified emissions on the car? Well any way, if you fancy an Audi A4 for reasons other than it being an Audi, you might take a look at Seat Exeo 'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEAT_Exeo', which essentially is a slightly updated Audi A4 from 2004-2008.

Seat would be tons cheaper and unlike Audi would hardly register on the Cock-O-meter as devised by the TG-boys.

And again this was totally off topic....

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