prius c, excelent in the snow and ice!

The other day when the storm hit here I did 102 miles worth of deliveries on the clock in my C. A little bit of sliding around in the slush, the traction control and ABS were going nuts, but it handled pretty well overall and made it up and over every icy patch.

 

A nasty storm hit the Milwaukee area yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised how my new C handled in the ice and snow. It handled better than my '02 Jeep Grand Cherokee...

 

probably pretty well, I have never put chains on though, so I don't know how they effect handling in general.

 

My Prius C (25k miles) did fantastically in the snow and ice here in Wa! I would have been stuck if I still had my chevy hhr! Not to mention, my husband's 93 ford f150 ...slippin and a slidin!!
Saw a big dually almost wipe out on hwy 99 but my little Luna car kept on truckin!!

All the best from Luna's Lass!!
...? via my Samsung Galaxy S2...

 

yeah, if the snow gets too deep I would take out my Jeep. I'm not sure if the Prius C can handle plowing through more than a few inches of snow.

 

I think the precise torque control from electric motor makes it a breeze to drive in snow.

 

Haha yeah I imagine it might sound ungodly plowing thru the snow...

All the best from Luna's Lass!!
...? via my Samsung Galaxy S2...

 

This past weekend, we had the coldest, snowiest winter weather since 1972 (I say that from reports, not experience). I have only ever driven in the snow once, and never in extremely icy conditions. As far as I can tell, the c handled great! I didn't really slide at all. As I mentioned in another thread, it was a little tricky getting out of the driveway where the 7 inches of snow hadn't been packed down (we don't have a snow shovel as it is so rare here), but once I got out onto the sheet of ice that was the road, I just went slow and all was good. Couldn't get the mileage above 30 though, too cold I guess (single digits).

 

mpg you mean? Yeah, I'm got really low fuel economy this morning.. it was -4°F here...

 

We put Michelin X ice 3 tires on for winter and the Prius C has been doing really well on the snow and ice. No problems braking, accelerating or cornering. We got some light, powdery snow last week (15 cm/6 inches) and the only issue was dragging the bumper on the snow a bit. Haven't tried it in really deep snow, but I have a 4x4 for that anyway.

The fuel economy has been terrible (in relative terms) since it got cold, however. We were getting an average of about 5.0 L/100 km (47 mpg) in Sept, and it's gone to 12.5 L/100 km (18 mpg) so far in December. But that's with the recent cold snap during which the temperature has been falling to -30 C (-22 F), and even colder with the wind. I let it idle a lot more than at other times of year to warm it/us up, as you can imagine. I really wish I had a nice warm garage to park it in in winter...

 

I had one trip...said I got 79mpg! But then, I was goin 9mph lol...

All the best from Luna's Lass!!
...? via my Samsung Galaxy S2...

 

I'm glad you guys are having such great luck in the snow.

The first time I got mine out in bad weather last year, it was the most miserable example of a car you could ever wish to not have. Our circle has a slight downhill slant towards the cross street. I tippytoed down the hill and as I got close to the intersection I slammed on my brakes to see how the traction was. I slid to a stop.

I slid to a stop and a small wedge of the 1" of wet snow built up in front of the front tires. I pressed on the gas pedal and the street tires...would not get traction. They also would not spin (traction control forbade it.) So, can't go forward. Tried reverse. No reverse movement. No reverse TIRE movement. Nothing. No forward, no backward. Stuck on a small wedge of wet snow.

I rocked in my seat and got moving forward. I turned left to go up the hill and got about two feet once straightened out and lost momentum. Couldn't get going due to the traction control not allowing any spin. Granted, these were the tires that came with it, but I have never had that big of a slick road POS.

I have snow tires now, and use the starting sequence that turns off the traction control when I have reason to believe things will go ugly quickly. These two things make the C a great snow car, but without them I would park and walk. Good thing I have a 4wd truck.

 

interesting, I have found that when I go under 15, I usually only get about 15 mpg. Sure, the EV mode kicks in every so often, but when it goes off, I go back to getting horrible mpg...

 

I feel bad for me too

 

If it matters, this was in the drive details screen not the mpg calc.

All the best from Luna's Lass!!
...? via my Samsung Galaxy S2...

 

We had a little bit of snow a few weeks back, but driving with the stock tires it comes with was a very scary experience for me, since my c slipped if I went too fast. And then I got hit by a stop light, and when the light turned green again, my c didn't move at all until I really pressed down on the accelerator (forgot I had it in eco mode lol).

Having crashed my Honda Civic a while back due to slipping in the snow (yeah, don't try to "race" a school bus in slush if they decide to go faster too haha), I decided to invest in some snow tires for my Prius, since I'm intending to keep it for a while. It cost about $1000 to get new snow tires/wheels and TPMS from tire rack, but I figure that's about the cost of a deductible if I crash, and I'd rather play it safe rather than risk damaging my new car.

I got the michelin ice-x XI3, While I haven't driven it extensively yet with the snow tires because I was out of town on a business trip for the week, I did notice that traction in snow was a lot better than with the stock tires, and surprisingly a little bit quieter as well. Mileage suffered, but only by a few mpg, from about 50 to about 45 mpg, but I think the cold weather has more to do with it rather than solely because of the tires.