Prius in snow/ice?

I put aggressive snow tires on all four wheels last winter and did fine on the few days that it was an issue.

 

It won't do as well as a 4x4 Jeep, but my 2008 Prius does well in snow and icy conditions.

 

It will do as well as any front wheel drive car with similar ground clearance.

 

Driving in snow is more of a driver art than a car's capability.

A moron driving a 4x4 will not necessarily drive better than someone in a FWD vehicle. We have 3 AWD vehicles but more FWD and RWD. I almost always drive the Prius which is FWD through the snow and mountains. Everything from climbing thousands of vertical feet to get home (live on a mountain) or driving a couple hours into ski country on back-road passes to avoid the tourist trap route. The Prius does just fine.

The most common route of mine in the snow and ice is up a steep couple mile long 2 lane residential road that is 1 of 3 that snakes up the front of the mountain with homes on it where we live. In the snow, every type car would be abandoned on the side of the road or at the bottom of the "hill". AWD, 4WD, pickup trucks, cars, everything. Meanwhile I would deliver food up and down the same hills in the Prius, or my civic going up and down 10+ times a night.

If you know how to drive, and have decent tires (not necessarily the best), it is no issue. If you have the best vehicle and best tires, you can be a horrible driver and maybe be ok but that is really just compensating for the lack of knowledge behind the steering wheel.

The first winter I had all seasons on the Prius. It was a lot harder to drive, but it still worked fine. I replaced them with Michelin X-ICE2 which I have previously put on all other vehicles and it performed much better. It was a lot easier to drive, less concentration needed keeping it in the right power zones for the road.

With any car, in the snow drive slowly, drive continuously, and drive smoothly. Fast driving leads to less time to correct. Stopping means the potential to not start again. Being ADD with the accelerator pedal makes things squirrely.

Enjoy your Prius.

 

Before I got my prius, a big ol 4x4 was close to the vehicle I had, and it was horrible in the snow... >_<
The prius also has digital traction control and less torque, so I would bet that it'll do fine (or better) as long as the snow isn't a foot deep.

Psst! We get 100" of snow+ice a year...drive safe and let the idiots pass you!

 

Hitting the ECO button may help

 

Yes. If you cannot modulate pedal power yourself, the car does a pretty good job if you use ECO mode. There is no change in maximum power available, it just changes the power output for a given pedal displacement. Same thing you could do with your foot but some people need a little extra encouragement.

Of course if you want to drive in the snow dangerously and for fun in an abandoned parking lot, invert the advice! Which as a general safety tip is a good thing to do for any vehicle you own that you anticipate will ever be driven by you in the snow. You need to know how it feels and what to do in an emergency situation. Trying to figure out what to do and learn your car during that emergency situation is probably the worst possible time.

Find a parking lot and do some donuts and spins. Swerve and make it fishtail, make it spin, and correct for it. Brake hard and miss "fake" obstacles like your previous tire tracks. All cars behave differently, and you should know how your car behaves before you go out on the road with other drivers. For instance the Prius is much more back-heavy than my other FWD cars. If I brake hard on ice, make sure not to turn the wheel too much or your back end will fish out from behind you and put you into an almost unrecoverable spin. This was at high speeds (>45mph), with heavy braking and poor balding all season tires. One reason why on FWD vehicles 99% of drivers should put their best tires on the front. Only if you are uber experienced at rolls and spin outs should you attempt to put the extra traction in the rear because natural instinct is wrong and will cause a spinout. Racing driver's training for situations makes them able to handle it, but majority are not race drivers!