Driving in snow and ice?

How do the studded tires impact gas mileage?

 

Err, when you're sliding into a non-moveable object at 50mph, I think that question is irrelevant, but 2-3mpg's

You can't stud used tires

 

What did you drive before? How much ground clearance did it have?

Your Prius is a low clearance front wheel drive vehicle. While not all agree, plenty of people find the various modern Prius models handling essentially the same as other low clearance FWD cars in winter. The tires and driver make more difference than the car.

That wasn't necessarily true of early models, where the overly sensitive 'traction control' (really a drive train protection system that provides some traction control as a side effect) would strand folks in certain conditions. But after several revisions and improvements, most (again, not all) owners of 2010s and later years are satisfied with it.

But OEM tires still draw plenty of complaints. And even more complaints after a year of road wear. If winter driving is a real concern, get real winter tires first.

 

Prius plus snow plus snow tires .EQ. normal front wheel drive winter performance .NE. 4WD winter performance (nothing else is).

 

My 2008 Gen II with (101k km on the odo) was 'garaged' during the winter months. Now we will drive it first time in the upcoming season. I ordered a set of Michelin Xi3 tires (P185/65R15) with steel rims - no TPMS. These are not yet installed - i.e. I did not picked them up yet.

But I just read about All-Weather tires made by Nokian and Hankook (Nokian WR G3 and Hankook Winter Icept Evo). These supposed to work fine all year around. So installing them on the factory rims (which have the TPMS) would make a lot of sense. To complicate matter I just bought last year a set of Bidgestones which roll really nice.

Life is complicated!

 

^ If you've got dedicated XIce3 on steel rims, I would stay away from WRG3 and that ilk for the rest of the year. A LRR all-season is better option, my 2 cents.

(Snows on steel rims, no tpms, is my choice. Simple, easy DIY swap.)

 

Well, I'm talking about my experience with a standard Prius not a Prius c.

If you are NOT talking mountain pass, super blizzard, extreme winter conditions, I think the Prius is usable in the winter.

The difference to me? Is I've owned vehicles that were actually "good" or above average in snow or ice, that in my relatively urban environment I felt I could usually safely drive with regular all season tires.

The Prius? No.
Without a good set of snow tires, I don't feel comfortable driving it in even light to moderate snow and ice.

I honestly would say to anyone that IF extreme winter condition driving is a high priority, perhaps the Prius isn't the best choice. It can be adapted to be fine in moderate to light winter conditions.

 

The "undisclosed location" listed in your profile leaves out important perspective.

Here in Minnesota, I haven't had any concern about getting around for 13 winters using a Prius with good-condition all-season tires.

 

Tyres, tyres, tyres .... Or tires as you guys say! For me, the difference between the Prius being completely useless and drivable is down to good high quality winter tyres.

Also gradient is an issue. A Prius with good winter tyres will be fine on the flat, but when you ask it to climb (similar for other autos/cvt) it's not half as good as a fwd manual car with the same tyres.

I had mine out in the snow earlier this year and it perfectly fine for me. It was the first time for me driving an auto/cvt in snow, so was a learning experience initially but after a few hours I had the hang of it.

If it snows heavily, I can used use our CR-V.

 

+1. Almost any vehicle can manage winter conditions with the right driver. No car is able to correct for bad driving. The prius is a heavy and well-balanced car with all the characteristics that entails. Stopping might be an issue on ice, but maintaining control will be relatively easy for an experienced driver. KNOW YOUR VEHICLE, and its limitations, keep your head, you'll be fine.

As someone who's driven 18-wheelers in winter conditions, I can say that handling a Prius is a piece of cake.

 

A 2010 beetle.

 

After driving a Mk5 Golf in all sorts of snow, and with the Beetle being very similar, I found it much more competent in the snow, albeit with snow tyres and a manual

 

That's your experience. Glad you've been "lucky" enough to be able to drive in winter conditions with just "all-season" tires.

If you do any serious condition winter driving, my opinion, born out of my experience is I'd HIGHLY recommend a good set of Snow Tires.

 

I agree with Electric Me. I go high performance when threat of snow is gone to optimize the MPGs and switch out to the snows in winter to optimize the winter handling. As I previously posted, with the snows on I find the Prius able to get through stuff with more ease than our other vehicle (minivan) with all-season tires.

My thinking with it is that I could get a new set of tires every 50-60K miles or I swap my tires out twice a year and the combined set gets me 100-110K. Snows are slightly more expensive than all-season, but for me the difference is worth it...and still allows me to swap out to the high performance in the summer when I typically rack up quite a few more miles.

I monitor my MPGs regularly and have sadly not had a good quality impact of snows vs. high performance due to sudden changes in weather temperature following the swap every year, but if I had to guess I'd say the swap costs me around 5MPGs for the the tires alone. Hard to say for sure how much driving in the dark (lights on all the time) and heater running full bore impacts the MPGs vs. the tires, but I do know that from mid-summer to mid winter my average goes from ~54 down to ~40. NOTE: this is northern minnesota (just a shade south of the artic circle).

 

I agree with you 100%.

But, surely the weather is really nice up there beside the big lake?? lol

 

OK guys. Good thoughts here are some answers.

I live in Kitchener, Ontario, where we have winters and of course snow. Sometimes we have 'lake effect snow' but but not like our friends and neighbors in Buffalo N.Y. The terrain is hilly - at least for old guys cycling - but no mountains to speak of. This is cross county territory not for downhill skiers if you know what I mean.

I went on a limb and have installed a set of Nokian WRG3 'All Weather' tires on my 2008 Prius. I read all the stuff written about them, pros and cons, user feedback etc. We had a fairly major snow storm last week (not like Buffalo!) and had a good chance to try my tire experiment. Here rae the results: the tires worked very well on, ice, in slush as well as snow (3-10 cm/2-4" of the white stuff.). Perhaps not as well a dedicated Michelin XIce Xi3, but well enough for our travel needs. I don't push snowploughs. The asymmetrical thread design seems to work very well. Besides Nokian never claims that the 'all weat5her' tires are equal to dedicated snows for all application.

My biggest challenge is the loss of control provided by the manual transmission of our Corolla. Well, we just have to drive slower and learn. Like how on earth do you 'rock' a stuck Prius out of the jam??

 

You carry a shovel, kitty litter, an old piece of carpet or two to shove under the wheels. And you dig your way out and/or add traction instead of powering your way through. And you pray your tires don't go flat.

I recall one time getting ready for work when my wife called me from a mile away. Seems she had a flat. And so did 4 cars stuck by the side of the road just ahead of her. Seems the first car had wandered just 6 inches off the untraveled/unplowed snow covered road surface and hit a buried stake. And everyone else had followed carefully in the first car's tracks. I carry a shower curtain to kneel on while changing tires and had brought a scissor jack so with her full sized spare with air in it I just gave her my car and she was on her way while I went to buy a new tire in her car. Even snow tires can sometimes not be enough.

Be prepared. Full gas tank. Blanket. Dress warmly.

 

[QUOTE"]... kitty litter, ...[/QUOTE]
Make sure it is the old fashioned, non-clumping litter. Or if you must use clumping litter, test it first to make sure it doesn't congeal into a greasy, slimy blob when soaked.

Or get some sand instead.

 

My two cents on winter tires...

I live in Québec City, where it tends to get really cold (-30 Celsius) and where we can get a lot of snow at times (20-30 cm+)... Ok I do not drive a Prius at the moment, but basic winter driving applies to all cars who drive on snow and ice...

What I want to say is this : depending on where you drive and what conditions you encounter, tire choice will have a huge impact on driveability. A winter tire is always a compromise, you simply have to choose the right one. And YES, in this case, you GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

If I may use the Buffalo storm as an example (compared to Québec weather), there was a lot of SNOW. Now I don't know how a typical winter looks like over there, but it seems to me as if ICE does not have time to settle in over time. So people should use SNOW oriented winter tires. Of course, no matter which winter tire you use, any winter performance WILL be better than all seasons tires...

So depending on average driving conditions in your area, use a tire that will match the most common conditions. A snow tire will have bigger blocks with bigger space between them to bite through, hold and evacuate snow (and will have a harder rubber compound). An ice oriented tire will have smaller blocks with smaller space between then to maximize contact with the road (and a softer rubber compound). So the Michelin Xi3, for example, is a lot more ice oriented than, say, the General Altimax Arctic.

For those who want it all, you can use studded tires (the General is studdable). So you will have excellent snow traction, and grip on ice with the studs... The drawback here is that you will lose MPGs, the car will be noisier and traction will be greatly reduced on dry pavement..

I could go on and on with this... But, as I said, it's all a matter of choosing the right compromise! FWIW, I drive my Mazda3 (which has no traction control) on Toyo Observe GSi5 and I think they are great tires (good on snow AND ice, but not ultimate best at either)... Even better than the Gislaved Nord*Frost5 I used before, which were already great!

 

Modern studless nordic winter tyres are fine on ice too. Michelin Xi3, Conti Extreme winter, Nokian R2 and Goodyear Ultragrip Ice 2 (European model name, what is it in NA?) are great models to choose from. MPG is should be great with all of them.