Prius SUCKS in the snow...

All the more reason to move to Florida - weren't you considering that?

I've owned other vehicles that had a little push-button switch that would turn off traction control. Wonder why it's not avail on the Prius?

I grew up driving in the snow but have not had the chance to drive in the snow with the Prius - how is everyone else approaching these situations?

 

When i was driving in Colorado with snow. I learned to just floor it. The system knows you want to take off. As you slowly gain tractions, it will start to accelerate as quick as it can. So.. my advice.. floor it when starting. slow starts dont' work with this car. It's either a Go or a No

 

You didn't happen to mention it, Squid, so I have to ask: You've got snowies on, right?

And it has to be better than the crotch rocket, yes?

My grandmother could never understand why I didn't put snow tires on my motorcycle instead of taking the bus in the winter. :blink:

 

Answer: True traction tires such as Blizzaks or chains as well as sane use of power. No problems with going thru either the Blues or Snoqualmie pass (both know for horrible winter conditions) last winter on lesser tires than the ones I mentioned above, though far superior to the OEM GY Integritys which are poor in snow and ice.

PS. Spinning the tires much is liable to ruin the transmission which is why even the non VSC equipped Prius has TRAC

 

The Prius is not as much FUN to drive in the snow since it's hard to get out of control unless your on ice but it's far from dangerous unless your driving style is dangerous to begin with. I've never had the wheels just stop..I think what happens is it drops into electric only when the wheel slips -- which of course robs you of some power.

 

The Prius is fine in the snow as long as you're moving. If you're trying to accelerate... well, 'trying' is probably the best word for it. Sometimes it'll take you a long time to get moving because the traction control is overzealous.

And don't forget, the traction control is *NOT* there for your safety. It's there for the safety of the transmission. The fact that protecting the transmission overlaps somewhat with assisting with traction is a bonus, not the intended purpose. That's why you have those frustratingly slow crawls away from intersections and lights when there's snow on the ground. A normal traction control system would allow for some wheel spin. The Prius's system allows for virtually no wheelspin.

 

The Prius is probally so advanced it reads this forum and saw the awful picture you are using of this certain person and decided to give you a hard time... :lol:

 

i learned to drive in northern climates with all-season tires (couldn't afford snow tires) and no anti-lock brakes. i can't imagine how frustrated i'll be when we go back with this whole trac nonsense and what not trying to drive the car for me.

sure, i realize its integral function in protecting the car. and if i didn't, between priuschat and my husband it would be drilled into my head. but when i'm on snow i don't really care about anything other than being able to go where i need to go, when i need to go there, to avoid collisions.

guess our trip back in a few weeks will teach me a thing or 2 about driving in the snow in the prius. to be honest, i am a little nervous about it.

 

Hey, Squid. Maybe you should talk to Jayman. He thinks the Prius is a veritable snowmobile.

And don't get mad at me - I mean this in a nice way - some of us have changed our driving habits since we bought a Prius.

 

I live near Philadelphia, and we got the same wet snow today that you got, and I didn't have any problems. Bucks County is very hilly too, so I had to go up and down many hills.

I left a 6:30, before most of the back roads that I take are plowed. There were only a few spots where I saw even a hint of pavement.

Now, along with the other cars on the road, I was only going 20 - 25 mph, even on 45 mph roads, and I accelerated slow, and I gave myself longer to brake. But the roads were covered with snow after all. You can't expect to drive on them the same as when their dry.

I never got stuck. I could climb hills with no problems. I could accelerate at rates appropriate to the conditions. The only time I even felt like I was loosing even the slightest amount of control was on a steep downhill that was slightly banked to the right. My car, and everone elses, kept trying to slide towards the shoulder. My car pretty much stayed oriented straight on the road though, but the Jeep Cherokee in front of me spent most of the time at an angle about 10-15 degrees off from the road.

Sure it took twice as long to accelerate as it would if the roads were dry, but given the conditions, it was an appropriate rate. I wouldn't have tried to accelerate any faster if I was in any other car, because if I did, I would lose traction and my rear wheel drive Explorer would fish tail, or my front wheel drive Malibu would cork-screw it's way into the curb.

I'm guessing that Mystery Squid expects to drive and accelerate in fresh snow just as fast as he would on dry pavement.

 

I find the TRAC annoying on mostly dry pavement, when you expect to pull out fast and you hit that one little patch of ice that gives you a one second feeble acceleration penalty.

But in actual snow, it worked great for me. No feathering or constant adjustment of the gas pedal required. If you want to go, just push down the gas pedal and it goes.

 

I must say that my experience with this "first real snow of the season" has been very similar to Marlin's. I have an '05 with the stock tires that everyone complains about, and was really dreading trying to drive anywhere today. Imagine my surprise when I had NO problems. This includes getting out of a parking space where I was basically plowed in (OK; the wall of snow was < 12 inches, but still. . . ), driving on roads that had been well plowed, some that had ice on them, and some that were completely unplowed. By adjusting my driving habits in a reasonable way (slower accelerations, slower braking), I had NO problems. I think the TRAC only came on once; and that was when I tried to floor it to see if I could get it to come on.

Basically, despite the lower clearance, I think the Prius performs at least as well in the snow as my previous car, a 16-year-old Jeep Cherokee (which was RWD, but still. . . )

You can't drive it like a rally car, but I've found it totally acceptable for basic "driving around" in the snow.

 

I drove my Prius yesterday during one of the worst snowstorms in Chicago in quite some time (about 9 inches in only a few hours), and I have no complaints whatsoever.

 

I have to agree with squid that it doesn't seem like it takes much to get the car to slip. I don't have VCS since I've got a pkg 3 but TRAC comes on a lot. The integrities just don't seem to grip very well in snowy conditions. Someone mentioned (TidelandPrius, perhaps) that they thought the tread thickness was quite shallow on the OEM tyres. I haven't pushed the car hard at all in the lame excuse for snow we got earlier in the week. On all snow sections it doesn't take much too feel the tyres' tenuous grip on the road.