Prius worst car in history in winter

Having lived in NJ, I can concur with you as for the snowy conditions...there may not be enough snow days..but when it does snow, it seems like they take forever to plow the roads. Again, folks don't do a 'must' on snow tires..so that might solve some of your issues..But having driven two other kinds of front wheel drive cars in NJ, I can say driving in snow can be frustrating with any car. Thankfully, I dont have to deal with snow at present

 

I love my Prius in the snow.
It always gets me where I want to go.
OEM Toyos are all it requires.
So I'm not spending a k buck on winter tires.

 

After owning my Prius for a year and living in Jersey, I have to say it handles quite well in the snow with stock OEM tires. Even though my prius has dropped 8 mpgs, it didn't bother me cause i know the car has to use more gas to heat up the car (I live in an apartment complex). Plus, getting 44 mpg during the winter isn't too shabby when compared to other cars on the road.

So don't hate it just enjoy it!

 

Check tire pressure for winter driving!!

Lower your tire pressure 2 psi yes lower, this is for all season(stock) tires, you will have better traction and stopping! a lot of Prius owners over inflate tires for better MPG It's great in the summer But makes your car feel like it's on Ice skates.

32K I'm with you!!

 

I'm in the snowbelt of NE Ohio and have no problems. I do have Michelin X-Ice snow tires which are very helpful.

 

Indeed.

 

Aside from better snow traction, will winter tires then help with MPG?

 

sorry, not you mg, TM something or other, further down on page one.

 

no and probably a bit worse on clean surface.

 

that was excellent! very skil-ful.

 

There are some valid points here, but not enough to say don't bother buying this car if you live in a cold climate.
The heater, when on standard A/C setting (kinda counter-intuitive right there) is smart enough to not turn the fan on high until the engine can actually put out heat. So you think it's not working just because you don't hear the fan right away, but truthfully, any car is not putting out much heat for the first couple miles, it's just blowing a lot of air around.

Mileage does go down in winter, especially if you have a short commute (bigger percentage of the drive is with a cold engine). Again, this is true for all cars, but more noticeable in a Prius because it tells you what the mileage is, and 10% (for example) of 50 mpg is a lot more than 10% of 20 mpg.

Stopping distance? Okay, can't defend that one. I drove on the OEM Integrity's for 4 winters and never had a serious problem with braking. Pretty typical FWD handling in my experience, altho other owners have had problems getting moving with the OEM tires. I did switch to Michelin Energy Saver all-season tires this year, since the OEM tires were getting bald, but haven't had enough slushy or icy conditions to really put them to the test this winter. They work pretty good, and being Energy Savers, there's no hit in mpg.

Overall no complaints from me, altho I wish the mileage would stay high all year round. (Yes, I do have the EBH, but with a short commute I just have to suffer with filling it up every 3 weeks instead of every 4 weeks as in summer.)

 

Winter fuel blends are not great for mpgs, storms (rain or snow) and then low temps will hit your mileage. However, it does the exact same thing to non-hybrids but as one other poster said the MFD screens put it right in your face so difficult to avoid noticing the hit. Two things that would definitely help is grill blocking to help keep your ICE temp up and a block heater to help speed up warmup times (I grill block in the winter even here in Texas). Lastly on nasty days drop a couple PSI (other posts suggestion) for better traction - I forgot that trick as I used to do that in Canada all the time.

 

1. I live in the suburbs of Washington, DC. It was 21 degrees this morning and has been close to that most mornings since early December. I tend to have a lead foot (not the ideal Prius driver) but that said, I still average 45 mpg year round. I'm happy with this because I've doubled my mileage compared to the last car I owned. I haven't noticed any reduction in mpg from running the heater. Last summer we had a long stretch of 90 + days (it even broke 100 for a time) and likewise, running the AC had no significant effect on mpg.

2. Last winter, we had record amounts of snow in this area and I had no problems stopping my Prius, even on some twisty back roads that didn't get plowed very often. I still have the factory tires on it...never felt I needed to change them.

3. Warm up time is about the same as other cars I've owned.

I've had my 2010 Prius III since the summer of '09. When I bought it, they were selling like crazy and I got the last one on the lot. I haven't posted here in a while. I happened to stop by to read about the new Prius models coming out and your post caught my eye.

I think like most folks on this forum, I have no complaints about my Prius. It is, by far, the best car I've owned. I have proudly shown it off to family, friends and even curious strangers in the Giant parking lot. I'm sorry about your negative experiences with the car but that is not what most of us have experienced.

 

From cold, snow, central Vermont, I disagree completely.

I've had mine for a month, nearly all of which has been bellow freezing and with two, foot+ snow storms in there as well.

I had my car delivered with Hankook iPike's on it, and it's been as good, or better, then every other fwd car I've ever owned. The ABS and TC seem tuned just-fine to me.

Cold start ups kill the per-tank MPG average but I'm still right around 40 overall and I expect that to be even better when things warm up. Once warmed up I can reset my Trip odo and get near 50 the rest of the day.

I haven't even started experimenting with grill blocking yet. With just under 2k miles on the car I'm just getting it broken in. I'm supremely happy with 40 mgp since my last vehicle got 16.

IMO, running the stock, LLR tires in cold and snowy parts of the country is just asking for trouble. A good set of snow tires will cost you under $400… cheaper then your deductible. Why anyone would skimp on the only part of your car that actually touches the road is beyond me. You don't wear sandals in winter and expect to not fall, you put on some dern boots!

 

Yeah, snow tires are a no-brainer up in the Granite state, but they may not get enough snow in Joysee to justify the additional expense, TPMS hastle, storage, etc...
You're right about one thing though. One accident, and your deductable will be the least of your worries. I dig Priuses, but they have a glass jaw. One accident, and your resale value will drop faster than my Commander-in-Chief's approval ratings!!!
(and you'll fork over $$ when your rates jump, in addition to the deductable)

 

I love the my Prius in the winter!
A: My wife and I use the Regen B mode to slow the car down when we see a slippery section before a stop at an intersection, avoids the fish tailing from braking hard. The car has more weight in the back of the car than non-hybrids do to minimize fish-tailing or skidding. I use defrost on the Hi temp/fan setting and works fine to clear my windows. No car gets great mileage in the winter for a number of reasons. I feel safer in my Prius than the pick-up truck I had years back in the winter time. I had to put sand bags in the bed for extra weight and still skidded. I also drive more smoothly with my Prius than any other car I've had in the past. The only drawback I can see is that the Prius has a low ground clearance and makes it more difficult to drive in snow drifts. I drive in winter conditions for about 7 months of the year.

 

Last week after the snow storm, I drove to East Brunswick, NJ from Queens, NY. I made it back the same night.

I got stuck at the Route 18 highway entrance because it was not plowed. Prius swam over 6 inches of compacted snow until it came to complete stop. Prius ground clearance is 5.5". I got out and dug it out with a shovel. Reversed the car back and went a different route where the streets are plowed. Prius performed well.

 

That's a key concept.

Nobody denies there is a significant fuel economy hit in cold weather. If it drops to freezing I lose 5mpg, so I don't doubt the hit is more in NJ. But it still gets better mileage than other cars in the same weather. (Running the front defrost in cold/wet weather seems to cost me about 7mpg)

The snow handling is subjective and tire selection will make a difference. If you take a good slide, the adrenaline will burn a nice memory for you so I can see an angry post. The Prius is definitely not a burly 4WD truck.

The Prius seems to be a little slower on warm up but not too bad.

Overall I think the original poster is just pissed off at recent experiences and not a true troll. The points may be exaggerated but are not completely invalid.