What’s your snow chariot?
What do you drive to the snow, and how do you rate it as a snow vehicle?
I have a Subaru Forester XT Premium. The wife wanted the Premium bit and I wanted the XT (turbo). We previously had a regular Foz and while it was a good car it definitely lacked some zip climbing the hill to Hotham. The XT is near perfect for the drive up. It is comfortable and reasonably roomy inside and equipped with Subaru’s “Eyesight” safety system which uses stereo cameras to watch out for hazards and take automatic action. It has a built-in satnav, and while there are some negatives to built-ins, overall it is really handy. The HK sound system is good although I rarely get to use it for fear of drowning out the rug rats’ iPads or offending Mrs. Mud’s musical sensibilities. It doesn’t have enough rear cargo area for a big trip so we have a roof pod (box) that has been a life-saver on so many trips. The turbo is absolute magic up the hill, just gobbling up any sort of hill and blasting past stubborn Volvo drivers with ease. The AWD system seems good, too. Subaru did away with the low-range option the older model manuals had and replaced it with “X-mode” (how original). This is one of those hill ascent/descent modes where you can crawl along with high traction as the computer micro-manages traction control.
What could be better about it? Hm well it’s damned close to perfect for our use. As a dedicated snow car it could be a tad larger, but that take away from its value in the city. The electronics can be a bit flaky at times and the MP3 player sometimes craps itself and resets the whole console. Bluetooth can take a good while to connect, too. The steering is pretty good but a bit vague and lifeless on centre. Can’t really think of anything else!
We only drive to the skitube, but we have just recently bought a Subaru XV and love it.
Previous couple years been driving my car, SV6 Commodore!
Still got a 2006 Subie Outback 3.0R!!!!!
Does the trick nicely!!!!!
1991 Ford Maverick. How do you guys go with no bullbars? i couldn’t imagine worrying about roos from Canberra to Perisher, there are so many everywhere, with the Mav i just keep driving and no stress. The amount of cars we have seen totalled because of either swerving for roos or hitting them is huge.
How do you guys go with no bullbars?
Hm I’ve never had an animal encounter apart from the odd bird. I guess it would probably end up badly for the Foz, although maybe the Eyesight system would help lessen the impact a little.
I have a Subaru forester with the winter pack which includes heated leather seats, heated rear view mirrors, and heated windscreen wipers. it has done more trips to perisher than I care to remember.
also have roof rails/racks for boards, even though there is enough room for them in the back, I like them outside especially when they are wet.
I have fitted those kangaroo alerting things in the front bumper. there are varied opinions on how well they work/don’t work, but I figured its worth rolling the dice for the small cost. haven’t hit any yet (touching wood)
I have an SV6 wagon that pretty much does everything I want it to. Carries all of my snow gear in the back in winter, my surfboard and other gear in summer, as well as my MTB straight in the back with the seats down too. It also comes in handy for camping trips when I can’t be bothered putting up the tent. Plenty of sleeping room.
Mrs. Tills was on the hunt for a new car last year. She wanted something bigger than the Astra she was driving, mainly to make things easier when the new pup (baby) arrived. All I wanted was something with AWD, and a big boot, so that I could use it on snow trips if I needed it. We ended up getting a Honda CRV. I haven’t used it for any trips yet, but it’s proving to be another very practical car. It’s only part time AWD, but I’m sure it would handle the conditions just fine.
1991 Ford Maverick. How do you guys go with no bullbars? i couldn’t imagine worrying about roos from Canberra to Perisher, there are so many everywhere, with the Mav i just keep driving and no stress. The amount of cars we have seen totalled because of either swerving for roos or hitting them is huge.
Being from Canberra you get use to the amount of kangaroos on/near the road!
1991 Ford Maverick. How do you guys go with no bullbars? i couldn’t imagine worrying about roos from Canberra to Perisher, there are so many everywhere, with the Mav i just keep driving and no stress. The amount of cars we have seen totalled because of either swerving for roos or hitting them is huge.
Being from Canberra you get use to the amount of kangaroos on/near the road!
Yep, i’m from Canberra too and that’s why i only use the 4x4 for our snow trips. I go every weekend, i’ve had roos jump into the side of the 4x4 before and jump suicide style straight into me. The roos in Canberra are pretty road smart, they mostly check for traffic before crossing, but out of Canberra it’s a whole different game. I guess i just like the feeling of not having to worry when roos decide to play chicken. We have a new falcon as well but i’ve only ever taken it to the snow once.
Currently driving the 328i SportLine. Got my own chains and have the change time down to sub-5 minutes now so it’s all good. Plus the back seats fold flat, meaning plenty of board/boots room.
The drive from Jindabyne to the Hume via the Alpine Way is so good. Once you hit the bottom chain bay towards Corryong, it becomes a race track! In all seriousness I have considered getting a 4WD/AWD (probably an old Defender or Cruiser) but maybe another year - I say that every year 
Jake, your Mav looks like it has done some tours - awesome!
My subie!
Otherwise know as the Bogan Beast - due to its previous owner.
I suspect after this car I will no longer have much say in the car choices for my household!
1991 Ford Maverick. How do you guys go with no bullbars? i couldn’t imagine worrying about roos from Canberra to Perisher, there are so many everywhere, with the Mav i just keep driving and no stress. The amount of cars we have seen totalled because of either swerving for roos or hitting them is huge.
Being from Canberra you get use to the amount of kangaroos on/near the road!
Yep, i’m from Canberra too and that’s why i only use the 4x4 for our snow trips. I go every weekend, i’ve had roos jump into the side of the 4x4 before and jump suicide style straight into me. The roos in Canberra are pretty road smart, they mostly check for traffic before crossing, but out of Canberra it’s a whole different game. I guess i just like the feeling of not having to worry when roos decide to play chicken. We have a new falcon as well but i’ve only ever taken it to the snow once.
I wish the Kangaroos that jumped in front of us on the Tuggeranong Parkway were road smart 
Got the Amarok
Bit of a winner as far as a lifestyle vehicle is concerned for me. It’s a good mile eater, very comfy and roomy inside, good for overtaking the big car snakes between Canberra and Jindy as well. I have often and almost bought both an XT Forester and a Jeep Grand Cherokee but I just find it so hard to go past the practicality of the ute. If they put the V6 TDI from the Touareg or better yet the 4.2TTV8 Diesel from the quick Touareg in it, I wouldn’t get weird twinges everytime I hear a VE SSV ute with a nice exhaust drive past.
The ute just swallows our gear for the snow trips, I had 4 snowboards, two camp chairs, a 6’6” surfboard, card table, two tool boxes, oil heater, blow heater, double camp mattress and boots towels etc last weekend and still had room for more. I’ve bought it new just over 2 years, has 92,000kms on it with no issues mechanical issues thus far thankfully. Had an issue with a nail in a tyre and someone in an old vintage car dropping an exhaust bracket at 100kmh on the way to Berridale that put a large dint in the bonnet and windscreen but not exactly the cars fault ha ha!.
Have heard of some issues with them though, a mate has had an issue with a fuel sensor and a cracked or split gearbox rubber seal/gasket I think it was. The speedo is way out though despite my wheel diameter being within 1% of standard. I have an aftermarket android HU though and run the GPS speedo on the way to the snow. You can tell ppl think I’m flogging past them way over the speed limit but it’s only very rarely that I ever get over 110kmh GPS indicated, just goes to show most stock speedo’s are way out as well. To put this in perspective btw, I have driven to the snow this way a lot (92,000kms a lot!) and past countless speed traps and not once has a cop shown any interest. Newport to Jindy in a touch over 5 hours.
When I got married the race car was the first thing to go, but I compromised with a dope snow car:
It’s a 2008 VW Touareg. I picked it up four years old for about 1/3 of the outrageous original retail price. The Touareg is about 70% Cayenne (pretty much the same, less the driveline), which is as close as I’ll be getting to a Porsche any time soon. It’s got airbags, giant stereo and all the other fruit. Great snow car.
I don’t even need pics for this. Mazda 323 2003.. OOOOOOOLLLLD. lol….
I got the good ol aussie holden vx 2002 commodore wagon.. She goes pretty good, bit heavy on the juice but thats ok given the power on the highway i can get, v6 engine and heaps of room in the back for everything plus the kitchen sink.
Though am looking at upgrading to a toyota 100 series land cruiser!