[mattski]

Some of you may remember my encounter in the Legacy with a NYSDOT snow plow on Christmas evening on our way to "Grandma's House".

A few days later, our rental Mitsubishi Montero Sport got clipped at a parking lot and got a scratched fender and bumper.

Last night we picked up our new 96 Outback 2.2 5 speed w/ winter package. We went about 50 miles away to pick it up at Bell Subaru in Rahway. It was snowing lightly, 33 degrees, so we took the SVX. Drove home without any problems with me first leading and then following in the 2 car convoy. Our driveway is really a 600 foot private road with 5 houses. We are at the top, two houses in the middle and two more at the bottom. The Outback did fine all the way back but fishtailed a bit going up our road which starts out flat, gets pretty steep, and flattens out at the top again. I got in our Ford Aerostar AWD van (w/4 studded snows) and drove down to bring the garbage cans to the curb. No sliding, no skidding, no problema.

Put the van away and decided to see how the new Outback handles going up the hill. Maybe I can do better than my wife.

Started slowly down hill in 1st gear. Suddenly, everything breaks loose, the car starts sliding, ABS goes crazy, car continues to slide straight down but now faster, one house at the bottom has three cars parked very close to the drive, the drive ends at a T with a 2 foot tall stone wall across the street and lots of trees. ****, what am I going to hit?!!!

Well, I managed to keep it straight, avoid the cars, and hit the wall right betweet two trees at ~25-30 mph. The car wound up on top of the crumbled wall with two trees pressed against the front doors. Had to open the rear left window and get out that way.

Bottom of bumper is gone, cross member and radiator got pushed up, fenders are bent due to the two trees. Who knows what else in addition to the suspension. I think this one may be totaled too. Once again I came away without a scratch.

I do not curse very often, but last night I made a conscious exception to my rule against it. I almost pinched myself to make sure that this was not a nightmare.

I walked up back to the house and informed the family of what I had just done. They all laughed thinking that it was a joke.

In the 16 years that we have lived there, I have never had a car just completely slide out of control, until last night. I am beginning to wonder if having it in 1st gear was the right thing to do. We have had mostly automatic transmissions recently except for a Mitsubishi Montero which finally died last year. Although I always used 1st gear in it to get down our mountain.

The tires on the car have ~75% tread and they are Mastercraft brand (I think). I did not give them too much notice other than they are the same brand and have decent life left. The first Legacy had Michelin MXV4 and I never had any serious problems in the snow.

Or perhaps it was the fresh tracks which I had made with the van a few minutes before which froze up and slickened?

Does anyone have thoughts about the best way to descend a slick hill with automatic and manual Subaru stystems?

Thanks,

Matt