Diesel X5 in Aussie Snow

[Black Dog]

After a week of skiing and relaxing in the Australian Alps we returned to our X5 to find it under 30cm of new snow from the night before.



As seen through the moon roof. We couldn't stop laughing at the thought of the roof opening before we'd cleared the snow off!

This was funnier than a few days earlier when collecting something from the car and found I'd left the driver's side window down all night! Snow had fallen on the sill, seats and floor, and into the vents and switches. It all brushed out without melting, and all our CDs and even SatNav were still there so it was a safe car park. But I was not very safe as you can see from my wife's expression.



Being a diesel, and without using alpine mix, it took a few seconds of pre-heating to start (it was minus 5 deg C) and was very rattly at first, but no worries overall. My friend's '08 X5 diesel just nearby started perfectly.

Unfortunately the roads were so slippery we had to use chains and couldn't test out the Xdrive (my wife was pleased).

Trap for non-snow people: Clear any snow off your roof before driving. I know it looks cool and you want to take some snow down the mountain with you, but it will slide onto your windscreen when you brake and block your view. Wipers will not move a huge lump of snow either!



Here we are stopped behind our cousins before the 10 hour drive back to Adelaide. Our car is an '04 turbo diesel X5 with sports pack and we love it.

Hope you enjoy the pics!