Gen iii snow driving characteristics

Yes, that would be the perfect comparison. Or a comparison to a vehicle with a genuine traction control system

To make the test even trickier, just have the ice under one side, say the right side of the car. Have the same incline.

With my FJ, in 2H, the brake is applied to the spinning rear tire. It would easily pass such a test, even without dedicated winter tires

What I can't get over from the video is how quickly the 2010 Prius pulses the traction control. My '04 pulsed much, much more slowly.

 

I don't get it.....why put on 4 snow tires when it's only a front wheel drive vehicle.

 

That's easy. One goes around turns in the snow and skidding through curves, even with all the traction control, is what happens. It wouldn't be much fun if the rears flipped out while the fronts stayed still.

Same argument with braking: regenerative braking or no, you want all four wheels to have roughly the same grab.

KBeck.

 

This is why

Be Tire Smart – Play Your P.A.R.T. - Videos

They tested that same scenario on a variety of front wheel drive and rear wheel drive vehicles. Having "all season" tires on the back and winter tires on the front is very dangerous

 

Great link Jay, thanks.

Rumple

 

The Maxima I owned before this would have looked at the hill, looked at me, looked at the hill, looked at me, and then it would have morphed into a transformer just so that it could laugh at me about why in God's name I thought it was able to climb it.

Really pretty much any FWD car with traction control is going to do similarly. Winter tires are important for snow traction but that looked like a harsh driveway to me and the Prius did ok.

Tirerack also is evangelical about 4 winter tires on two wheel drive vehicles.

 

I actually was somewhat reassured by the vid, given stock tires and a relatively steep incline, w/ snow on top of ice (as reported by others here, anyway--I couldn't see the ice).

My guess is that w/ 4 snows the car will do great, except for the aforementioned ground clearance issue. Which, I have to say, really sucks in this car.

What many people expect to do--and I see this all the time in MD, where our winters can range from practically nothing to what we had last year (over 80", which, outside of the great lakes states and other northern areas is a lot)--is to be able to drive exactly as they do on dry pavement. You know, "The speed limit is 55, so I'm doing my god-given 65, laws of physics be dam'd." It just isn't so. You have to slow down. That prius in the vid was going slowly up the hill, but it made it. (And the driver was wise to stop *before* the front wheels hit the nice, dry, high-coefficient-of-friction floor of the garage, potentially inflicting an embarrassing exit wound to said garage...)

The problem is in areas like the mid-Atlantic, where 90% of the winter the regular, all-season tires are enough to get by for most people, there is little incentive to buy another set for the few times it matters. Also, wet, packed snow (like we get here) is much more difficult than cold, crunchy snow to drive in. When my family lived in Maine, we switched out all four tires for winter ones on a Corolla, and it did almost as well as the 4WD SUV. But that was knowing we'd be driving on snow-covered roads for months.

It's all about expectations. That, and the fact that, as they say, 'Mother Nature always gets to bat last.'

Cheers,
~T

 

Last New Year's, I drove back to Chicago from the Detroit area. While driving through southwest MI, I entered a blizzard. My Prius, with four snow tires mounted, performed admirably.

 

Double post...sorry.

 

80" of snow? We call that spring.

Tom

 

I live in Central IL, and I'm curious how my Prius would climb my driveway during winter... I'll report back after our first snow.

 

Here's a video of said drive...

[ame="http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y94/chrisj428/2010%20Prius/?action=view&current=SSPX0163.mp4"]2010 Prius :: SSPX0163.mp4 video by chrisj428 - Photobucket[/ame]

 

Like I said, it's all about expectations.

btw down here DC had a mayor caught on videotape smoking crack with a prostitute. That wasn't enough to get him voted out of office. One time though, he was asked something about the city's snow removal policy. He responded something to the effect of "...snow removal policy? Spring!"

He lost the next election in a landslide.
~T