Driving in the first snow storm in CO

@Blackat - FWD of AWD?

 

The sensors not working during snow storms happens on most vehicles with these safety systems.

I was on the Bonneville salt flats with my 4Runner, which only has pre-collision radar, and it was so bright and reflective that the system deactivated.

 

Had the first snow drive a week or so ago, and the amount of flashing and blinking on the dashboard was very distracting. It was determined to continuously cycle through two or three different left-side-of-MID pop ups about sensors being blocked, and there was no way to say "okay, I know".

I forget how many systems were down - lots anyway. Aside from the distraction, loss of the adaptive headlights was the biggest immediate thing - and actually took a while to spot it among all the other stuff going on on the dash.

I'm particularly not seeing the sense of continuously warning about 2 parking sensors being out while driving at 80km/h+.

I guess I could have gone into the settings to turn functions off, and maybe that might have calmed it down, but I didn't want to, because I wanted things to come back whenever they got unblocked (which they did - the weather cleared up.)

 

I noticed our car has heated windshield for wipers to the left of the heated steering wheel toggle! I wonder how the heated mirrors are activated or if they are heated? i’m just a little worried about big snow drifts or ice chunks here in the Upper Midwest…The front end seems a little flimsy below the license plate!!!!!
Yes rear visibility is not a problem the heavy rains we’ve had here last week! AWD seems to be sure footed also!

 

Same control as the rear window defogger. If fitted, there should be a second icon on that button to represent a mirror.

 

Blackat: I think we were driving around in the same storm! It wasn't nearly as bad in the Keystone/Loveland Pass area though. I got the parking sensor alarms too, but only when driving around slowly in a parking lot, so only distracting there. No issue while driving.

The one thing that did spook me a bit was that I *think* I hydroplaned a bit on US-6 between Keystone and Dillon! That seems improbable given brand new tires and the water didn't seem that bad, but it was a case of the road having "trenches" where tires are.

One lesson learned is (paraphrasing "Jaws") is "you're gonna need a bigger ice scraper"!! That is a BIG windshield! My little ice scraper took way to long clearing the windshield. I'm on the hunt for a bigger one.

I did try out the heated steering wheel and was underwhelmed. It worked just fine and I thought it was kinda neat, but can't see why folk swear by them. Maybe it will feel like a bigger deal when temperatures get a lot colder. My wife's Gen3 has heated seats and we have rarely used them, so not expecting them to be a big deal.

will

 

You have to let us know when you find a giant ice scraper. I’ve been using an old gift card to scrape my frosty windows of my 2009 over the past 8 years. Won’t be doing that once I get my new car with the giant windshield. Ha!

 

I'm having a hard time imagining a standard gift card surviving anywhere near that long on some of the winter ices I scrape from windshields. But large-enough scrapers seem readily available once winter season arrives.

Good gloves needed in my winter travels too, to prevent frozen fingers or skinned knuckles when scraping ice.

 

While getting all the extension cord stuff (separate thread), I did look for ice scrapers too and was told by the big box stores it was too early for them yet. Crud. I defintely need one before my big trip next month. Going to have to look harder~

will

 

Next month shouldn't be too early anymore.

When needing new ones to replace broken or forgotten ones during winter travels, I've had no difficulty finding them.

 

Amazon has them right now. A lot are 10 to 30% off right now when I checked. When the local store doesn't have it is a good time to look online.

 

I've never owned a car with a heated steering wheel, and I guess I don't "get it" either. I guess it could be useful for those early mornings where there's a bit of a chill. But here in the northeast, if it's REALLY cold I'll be wearing gloves until the whole interior warms up, at which point the steering wheel will be warm enough too. Seems a bit gimmicky to me, but to be fair I haven't tried one yet.

 

If you are wearing gloves, the heated steering wheel isn't going to have much impact. I prefer gloves off for driving.

The big deal of the heated seats and steering wheel comes to EV range. Even with a heat pump, heating up the entire cabin air volume takes a bit of energy. The seats and wheel don't, and could be enough for comfort.

 

Trollbait and Blackat: I've heard the point about less energy to heat the wheel and seats, so will be interesting to see--especially when it gets colder. Since most of my city trips are short I normally bundle up anyway since my old car didn't warm up much before I got to my destination. Maybe that will be different here and I'll find value. Fun thing to be playing with this upcoming winter.

For long road trips I fired up the cabin heat as much as I or my wife wanted as with my Gen1 being a regular hybrid, heat was "free" with the ICE running. If in HV mode is cabin heat still "free" on the Prime or is it still using the heat pump?

will

 

It will use waste engine heat when it is running. That's why the defog setting turns on the engine; heat comes from the engine while the heat pump drys the air.

Even with an ICE car, I'm finding the heated seats and steering wheel as they remove the chill from those surfaces before the engine gets up to temp for cabin heating. Friend also pointed out heated seats are nice on long trips for back cramps and aches.