[SarahAnn]

Hello everyone,
Could i pick your brains please? I'm looking for a captiva (as a second car mainly for the dog and the 4 wheel drive for when it snows again).

I have been searching all day and found a few that i was interested in.



I thought that i had found a good deal, 5 seater LT until the salesman told me that it was 2 wheel drive. I need 4 wheel drive so told him that i would carry on looking for 4 WD.



The next salesman at a different garage told me that the above isnt correct. He said that the 2 wheel drive captiva change to 4 wheel drive automatically if they go offroad and lose traction.



Can someone clarify which is right please as i'd really like to sort out a captiva or start looking for something else that is 4 wd.



cheers

 

[bigiainw]

The salesman is both wrong and right. The 4x4 does indeed switch automatically to 4WD when the front wheels loose traction, but it needs to be 4WD to begin with, The only Captivas with 4WD also have 7 seats- anything with 5 seats is only front wheel drive equiped, so you need a 7 seat LT/LTX or LTZ.
Hope that helps,

Iain

 

[SarahAnn]

Hi Iain,
Thank you for your answer. Very clear to me now. When i started looking into it, the description of the AWD was as you explain above so i couldnt see why the 2 wheel drive would do this aswell but the salesman was adament that it did. I think i will steer clear of his garage. Seems to be a bit misleading.

Did you have your LTX in the recent deep snow and did it get you through it?

Cheers

 

[bigiainw]

Hi Sarah-Ann,


YesI did. I live in Central Scotland, up a hill and it coped extremely well, and that was on the normal road dunlpos that it came with after 23,000 miles. I reckon with proper snow tyres it would be unstoppable. It didn't even come close to getting stuck once and the weather was in extremis, with about 15 inches in our street and in my drive.



The 4WD kicks in automatically- you don't really feel it happening, and it just goes!



Iain