Originally Posted by matthew330

I own a 1984 BMW 318i, about 240,000 miles, bought in May. I absolutely love the vehicle. It's the first time in my life I haven't had a car payment. I want to keep this bad boy on the road as long as possible; however, during our last bout of bad weather, I realized the engine wasn't the only thing I had to worry about - my safety and that of my fellow commuter was a serious concern.

We had a little snow and some freezing rain last week and on the commute home, while everyone else was flying at 55 or 60 (on back, one lane roads)with no trouble I was doing about 40 and noticed some fishtailing, real slight - but enough to make me slow down even more. So I slow down with noone behind me, am doing like 25 (seriously) not accelerating, braking or turning, and my car goes completely sideways. Almost off the road, way into the other lane, luckily there was no oncoming traffic. I throw on my flashers and pull off where I can to let cars go by.

Knowing it was real wheel drive, I have a couple hundred pounds of weight in the back thinking that would be helpfull, but after this ride from hell, I started thinking maybe that was the problem. did it take some weight off the front that would cause this? It was ridiculous how much trouble I had and how little everyone else had. The tires are pretty new. Is it just because real wheel drive sucks THAT BAD in that kind of weather?

I can't just go out and by a new car because we might have 1 or 2 more snow storms in the next couple of months.