What's a reasonable number of times to be asked to give a jump start?

[Huge]

*grin*

[Roger Chapman]

In theory at least what sets BMWs apart from the great mass of modern cars is not the rear wheel drive but the weight distribution. If it was just the RWD then it would be easy enough to get off a flat car park in reverse but not having 70% or more of the weight over the driving wheels is a bit of a handicap on very slippery surfaces.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It tends to be you notice a couple of people having problems with their cars so you then look for evidence to back up a theory you have.

Rather the same as it being only BMWs which use foglights when not needed.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

BMWs tend to have very nearly 50:50 weight distribution. Which helps make them handle very well under normal circumstances. As opposed to the terminal understeer of a car with the weight heavily biased to the front.

If you really want good traction in very slippery circumstances with only

2 wheel drive - get a rear engined car. ;-)

However, accidents ain't usually caused by the inability to start off - more likely the inability to stop or corner. And how the car is driven makes not a lot of difference to that.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Just noticed this is a bit ambiguous. I meant, of course, which wheels on the car are driven. It's the driver not the car that causes an accident.

[Alan]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" wrote

More than a couple of BMW owners :)

You should use front and rear foglights in white conditions on a clear day when it isn't snowing :) Why do people do this?

[JTM]

It helps keeps the full list of 'Fixed Penalty' offences alive

[Skipweasel]

Quite. That really ought to be a crime.

[Skipweasel]

Really? The amount of traction required to slow or turn a car is proportionl to the square of the speed. Driving very much slower on ice makes a vast difference. I've only skidded when I've wanted to[1], this season, unlike many in this road who've slithered all over the place.

[1] Playing in the car park. Empty, I might point out.

[Tim Streater]

Anyone in the UK or US who has a BMW has been taken to the cleaners anyway when they bought it. A car seen as a normal workaday car in France, Germany or Switzerland is somehow seen as upmarket over here - never understood it myself.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Have you seen the standard of the average US car?

Also BMW don't sell the rep spec ones there.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Absolutely - I realise afterwards it was ambiguous. I meant which *wheels* were driven.

It's what many who go on about 4WD don't seem to realise - they may have better traction to start off from rest, but are no better than any other when it comes to cornering or stopping.

[Huge]

It means you can spot the dickheads at a distance.

[Steve Firth]

Or here, really.

I can recall having a ride in a "base" model BMW 316 in Germany. There's nothing like that over here.

[Tim Watts]

Makes the Edsel look stylish...

More of a jellybean car with some attempt at a hard-ass american grill. Bllrrrp!

[Steve Firth]

Dodge are not even trying though, or at least not compared to some other US manufacturers. This is a car in current production in the USA:

[John MacLeod]

[John MacLeod]

Not all American cars are bad. Some are rather good. But best suited to their home market. And generally speaking, the Americans do bigger cars better. Some of the worst cars I've had have been American. So have some of the best.

[Skipweasel]

But fairly comprehensively ugly.

[Huge]