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For those of us that rent: It's important to learn what you've got. Check out the braking performance on snow or ice on a level stretch with no oncoming traffic. slowly increase the braking power until you feel the grip start to weaken. Do this at a couple of speed levels, say 15/30/50kph. You don't want a surprises on icy mountain roads.

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hmm, technics for driving on snow? First thing id probably do is take off my slipmats. Then id likely ramp up the anti-skate.

The thing I need to clear up is the ABS. I seen on TV that ABS does not work on snow. Police driver on a documentary program.

 

Now, if my hire car comes with ABS, then this would be useless.

I'd be more worried about whether it has 4 wheel drive or not. 1) snow tires 2) 4wd

Maybe they just mean ABS won't let you do an emergency stop on ice - nothing will. But even in Hokkaido I don't think you'll be driving on snow all the time. It wouldn't hurt to have good brakes.

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Depends on the car about ABS maybe, but the car I have now Mistubishi Delica will stop very quickly in snow, even if I hit the breaks hard, the ABS does work and will stop the car without sliding on a flat surface. As well as 4WD it also traction control and anti slide so this helps too. The car I had before would stop in snow, but would slide a bit as well before stopping.

Having said that if I hit the breaks hard going down hill and/ or a corner then it would probably slide out of control! Despite all this I keep my distance, and allow plenty of breaking time in snow.

ABS doesn't work on black ice though.

Basically like everyone else have said, drive slowly, keep a large distance in front of you, and don't hit the breaks hard!

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A little snow any 4WD would be ok, deep snow then no a normal road car would be useless, it would bottom out. SUV is best, but even they will get stuck if you go beyond there limit.

My Delica will go through 50cm deep snow with no problem, I tried it last winter, but I wouldn't go beyond that!

My wifes 4WD I wouldn't go beyond about 10-15cm of snow!

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thanks all. so 4wd would mean toyota prius would not be suitable. so maybe a RAV4 or something.

 

You just need AWD and just about every car I saw in Hokkaido was AWD, even little K-cars. I would think they would have the AWD Prius models which would be fine for you. All cars in Hokkaido will have snow tyres as standard in winter. If you stick to main roads you'll be fine in a Prius. Even if there is a fair amount of snow on the road in Hokkaido it's generally so light and dry that it will present few problems to drive through (the guys from Honshu don't understand that :p ) . Be aware that in Hokkaido generally you are not driving up big mountains to get to ski resorts. Niseko base elevation is only 250m asl. If going to Niseko from Chitose you go over Bifue toge which is up around 560m, around the same height asThe Peak in HK but nowhere near as steep. That's as high as you get on the drive. There's not too many steep sections and the drive around the shore of Shikotsuko is awesome. Which resort would you be driving to?

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Main roads in Hokkaido can be covered with a thin layer of snow for extended periods throughout the winter. Side streets and back roads can be entirely covered for much of the entire winter from late Nov through to early April..This is why pretty much every car is AWD and and has snow tyres in winter. Snow covering the roads is not an infrequent or fleeting thing, it's near constant.

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Cool, from what I can see the conditions (in pics and peoples reports) Izu and Hakone can be variable, so dependent on temps (we'll be riding during the middle of the day), it's possible to have no snow etc, but we will have to use good judgement and watch out for shadow patches.

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They only just reached Hakone in the manga (Vol 39-41), but yes, the roads look awesome and have been used for touge racing longer than ID has been around... We are planning to ride them during the day though, and nothing too fast as we'll be on motorbikes, and I don't want to have to get pulled out of a ditch...

 

That's why I asked about the conditions in winter, as black ice is blinkin scary in a car, let alone on a bike.

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