Citroen C5 X7 snow fun

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vborovic
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Citroen C5 X7 snow fun

Post by vborovic »

Well, we finally have some useful snow in Croatia, and more coming on the way, so I decided to test the car how it handles on about 15 cm of snow, with ice here and there below it ... big open space (over 100,000 sq yards if I recalculated correctly), asphalt surface, no risks of damaging the car, no other vehicles or other obstacles ... Nokian winter tires equipped ... shame I don't have a dash cam or something similar yet to video it, but the drive was ... well, fun ... :D ... regular transmission (no sport, no snow), turned the ESP off, and drove under 50 kmh ... tried to make the car spin out of control, was able to only by applying full handbrake (remind you, manual one on my car, not the e-brake) ... did slalom turns left-right, the car was just gliding ... above 50 kmh, the ESP kicks in (safety feature that can't be bypassed), and the car is rock stable ... you could easily feel how the opposite wheels get locked or unlocked (not the best term I could come up to describe it, not to be taken literally), with he ESP doing hard work at maintaining the car stability ... even though I was stepping on the gas pedal, the car went slower, and fought back to my driving ... brilliant feeling ... then I did some 80 kmh drives and stepped hard on the brakes (so hard that upon stopping the hazard lights went on), and the car was braking to a full stop in a line so straight, you could use it as a geometric reference for whatever you need ... don't know if any of you had the opportunity to do the same, but the drive was a great experience, and helped me to familiarize to the car and its handling even further ...

Which brings me to a question ... does any of you know (or have) Snow Motion on their X7? This should be an advanced ESP system, that event further enhances snow driving capabilities ... found some clips on youtube, and supposedly, it is only available in the northern countries (ex. Russia, Sweden, Finland), my Citroen Service never heard of it, and that is not visible in any official documentation ... all newer X7s in those markets should have it (both manual and automatic gearbox), applies only to the 2011 onwards models, and it is easily recognizable by the engraved "Snow Motion" label on the silver line around the gearbox, closer to the handbrake ...

Image

Some videos and links of this are listed below (sadly, non english content):
http://www.schiavon-sa.com/2013/02/citroen-snow-motion/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Citroen C5 X7 snow fun

Post by osx »

Mine has a snow option (UK C5 X7 Exclusive 2008 Automatic).
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Re: Citroen C5 X7 snow fun

Post by vborovic »

Good for you ... :D ... and I haven't been able to find out exactly what the Snow Motion makes different on the car (which parts, systems) between those that have it and those that don't ...
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Re: Citroen C5 X7 snow fun

Post by Stickyfinger »

vborovic wrote:Good for you ... :D ... and I haven't been able to find out exactly what the Snow Motion makes different on the car (which parts, systems) between those that have it and those that don't ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuXUhT5KUFg
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Re: Citroen C5 X7 snow fun

Post by osx »

vborovic wrote:is only available in the northern countries (ex. Russia, Sweden, Finland), my Citroen Service never heard of it, and that is not visible in any official documentation
Asked a friend who moved to Cyprus and they have the snow motion there too (don't think they ever get snow there!)so it is not country related.
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Re: Citroen C5 X7 snow fun

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Maybe it was EU related (Croatia wasn't in the EU until 2013) ... :D ... yeah, right ... :P ... honestly, I'm out of ideas ... as to whether snow motion is an addition to the car as a marketed option (like ABS & ESP once were), and thus can be engraved on the gearbox handle trim, or it actually is car dependent, and some cars have it some don't ... I haven't figured anything useable so far, Croatian Citroen doesn't know about Snow Motion, and I haven't managed to find anything in the Service Documentation ... the only lead is the user manual, which says (on the 2011 revisions and later) that the car is equipped with it, and that it helps in snowy situations ... nothing more
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Re: Citroen C5 X7 snow fun

Post by Stickyfinger »

osx wrote:
vborovic wrote:is only available in the northern countries (ex. Russia, Sweden, Finland), my Citroen Service never heard of it, and that is not visible in any official documentation
Asked a friend who moved to Cyprus and they have the snow motion there too (don't think they ever get snow there!)so it is not country related.
You can Ski in the mountains (short time) in the winter
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Re: Citroen C5 X7 snow fun

Post by Xantippa »

Isn´t "Snowmotion" just piece of software that allows wheels to spin a bit more than with normal ASR when driving in low friction conditions? So nothing physically different in there, right? It´s not available with auto box, but there´s an *-option for the gearbox instead.
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Re: Citroen C5 X7 snow fun

Post by vborovic »

I think it actually is available on both manual & automatic gearboxes, isn't it?
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Re: Citroen C5 X7 snow fun

Post by osx »

On Auto for sure.
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Re: Citroen C5 X7 snow fun

Post by Xantippa »

I just checked this from http://www.citroen.fi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, and it says there that Snow Motion is only available with manual transmission. So winter mode for automatic gearbox is different thing.

I´m now driving X7 auto for third winter, and only once I´ve stuck in the hill because of wheelspin. It was very steep hill, and I had very low speed so it was pretty much impossible to drive through without more speed or 4WD. And my winter tyres aren´t that good. So it´s possible to live without Snow Motion, even here in Finland. :D
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Re: Citroen C5 X7 snow fun

Post by osx »

I thought all exclusives with Auto transmission had it. It makes more sense to have it paired with an auto gearbox.
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Re: Citroen C5 X7 snow fun

Post by vborovic »

I'm pretty sure people here definitely don't confuse snowmotion and snow mode on auto gearbox ... I remember one advert, where it said that snowmotion isn't available on 2.0 engines, yet there are few owners here that have that engine and snowmotion ... just adds to the mystery ...
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