For those of you who insist the car is undrivable in the snow...

Mine is better in snow than the last 4 cars I owned. No problems this current storm so far.
Quite slippery today, and I seem to get more wheel spin, about as much as I could ask for, than I had last year
with the older code.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tomdeimos @ Feb 14 2007, 02:51 PM) [snapback]390355[/snapback]</div>

Are you saying that you got your '04 TRAC code modified? If so, how did you approach it with the dealer and where did you go?

 

I posted this same comment in another thread. I came home last night and my driveway was plowed in from the street. I plowed through the end of the driveway and up my driveway without a problem. When my husband got home in his Honda Civic, he had to keep gradually coming up the drive and then backing out. He had to repeat this many times to finally get in the garage. My experience has been very positive as well, EXCEPT don't manage to get yourself stuck or you won't get out via rocking! Now I'm going to get all angry thinking about it again.

 

No Prius problems driving in the snow here. My main problem is drivers either going way too fast or way too slow.

 

Likewise, no problems with the heavy snow/mush covering my neck of the woods either. Roads were marginally plowed, TC light blinked frequently, but never once got stuck.

 

I have had no problems using a gentle throttle foor and letting the traction control do the work.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Feb 14 2007, 02:10 PM) [snapback]390367[/snapback]</div>

Yep. We had a good half-foot of snow/salt (snalt?) on the roads, making for slippery conditions. I could make it spin and slide, but I was deliberately testing it. Went back to the hill I described in the previous thread about this. This time I stopped halfway up the hill, with a good 5" of fresh snow, and I was unable to get enough speed to make it worthwhile trying to continue. So I backed down to a more gentle part of the hill, and this time I was able to get to the top, albeit with a lot of spin & grip cycles, and never got over 10 mph. I'm not sure if I was getting down to the pavement or not, but it was definitely spinning the tires. However, when I got home I backed up the driveway halfway, knocked off the snow around the wheel wells, shoveled out the drift in front of the garage door, then tried to back up into the garage over the snowchunks I just knocked off (and I was partially in a drift as well). Didn't work. It moved maybe an inch, so I rocked it a couple times, then turned the wheels a bit, this time it worked and I powered up the slight incline and into the garage. My wife was watching and she reported the wheels did not spin. I wonder if that's because the reverse is motor-only, no ICE? But on the roads I had no problems, and deliberately cut the corners close to go over snow piles, took the lanes with more snow in them, etc. As good as any 2-wheel-drive vehicle I've had, and this is with the stock tires. Again, I learned to drive to northern MN, YMMV.

 

[attachmentid=6569] Here is my car in north shore of Lake Tahoe over New Years. I have chains on but no problems at all. It snowed about 7 inches overnight and that morning there was ice and snow everywhere. Other then the traction light blinking a few times, we did great.
-Paul R. Haller-

 

Chains is cheatin'

 

I just got back from my first day of driving it in the snow. What a great little car! This morning's ride was totally uneventful, and it did well on the ride home, too. It was sitting in a few inches of snow when I came out this afternoon and it definitely reduced torque to the wheels when I first started to pull out. But it didn't cut torque completely like some have reported...I just put my foot down and it found the right torque to turn the wheels without slipping. No sweat! Then it was 18 miles on snowy/slushy highways tracking dead straight, with very little steering correction necessary. Of course I live on a hill and my apartment complex has a steep driveway, which is the part I was most worried about. I chose to back into a snow-covered space up-hill and again it reduced torque when the wheels started to slip, but it just kept on churning slowly through it until I was right where I wanted to be. I don't know if I would want to try that without the appropriate tires, but then again I don't really like the idea of any car in this weather without winter tires on all four wheels. I'm really happy with this car right now, and glad that first storm is out of the way.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bohous @ Feb 14 2007, 02:54 PM) [snapback]390357[/snapback]</div>

I didn't do anything for the anti-spin problem. I think it got updated when I got the code upgrade for the stalling issue. It just feels different this year from last. And today was pretty slippery arould here.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SW03ES @ Feb 14 2007, 07:25 PM) [snapback]390533[/snapback]</div>

I think it depends what you're stuck "in". I was stuck in muck - very wet mud (on the side of my neighbor's how where his sump pump discharges). I just kept sinking deeper and deeper. My turf loving neighbor is going to have a nice surprise when the snow melts and he sees trenches in his lawn. I had a really bid strong guy and smaller strong guy pushing whilst I rocked - nada (or should I say "tow truck").

 

I find my 06 to be a great car in the snow and ice. Two days ago we got ~7" of heavy, wet snow on top of 2 hours of drizzle. Needless to say this place is a skating rink. Yesterday we got a couple more inches, and a thaw and freeze. Today we got another ~1.5" and yet another thaw and freeze. My traction control light flashes, and the VSC works wonderfully. The traction control seems to limit wheel spin, but I am yet to experience an issue with total lack of power as some have. The town I live in is on a mountainside, and is host to some extremely steep streets with several traffic lights. I am yet to have an issue starting from a standstill on an icy hill. It is often slow, but if I am light on the throttle, it does gain traction. I still have the stock tires with about 14k on them, so I would love to see how this car does with a good set of winter tires.

 

I was unable to power my way out of my space this morning, but then again, I don't think anyone else was too successful either. Just something about the way two inches of packed sleet, on top of a few inches of snow, on top of a sheet of ice worked out all wrong. I'm quite sure the problem was that the frozen sleet (which could be cut up and carried away in solid 2x2 foot squares without breaking) was just at the height of the undercarriage, that I was essentially trying to plow solid ice with the frame. So I shoveled out - but I certainly wasn't alone.

There were lots of folks who powered their way out of their spots, only to get high-centered on the ice in front of them, and ended up spinning their wheels without touching the ground...

-Ken

 

I'm of the opinion that a small minority of Prius cars will experience this problem. If you're one of the vast majority, that's great and the car appears to be working as it should.

As I've stated before, on "all season" tires my Prius was helpless when one wheel was on pavement and the other wheel was on ice. When my winter tires finally arrived, they really helped a *lot* but ice traction was - imho - subpar compared to other cars I've driven that were equipped with winter tires.

With studded snow tires, the only time I bogged down was in two feet of snowdrift that had been churned up by other cars. Otherwise in routine city driving, with icy stretches, no problems.

Just because a small minority of Prius owners have experienced a problem, doesn't mean the problem isn't real. For example, my 2004 was one of the handful that had the Stall.

 

No problems here! This car is great in the snow, It can't corner in the snow like my A4 with quattro did but eh,the prius is a front wheel drive, I didn't expect it to do so hot. I guess one thing that would be nice is maybe a traction system that was controled by the transmission gear ratio instead of the Fuel cut-off that it does, but it is still effective though.

BTW, does this car have an active braking system? what I mean is do the brakes engage themselves on each wheel independently when the car is trying to gain traction or stay on the road in an emergency maneuver?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TomorrowMatters @ Feb 15 2007, 08:46 AM) [snapback]390779[/snapback]</div>

I agree too. I do miss not being able to downshift. And my '00 Audi A6 with quattro that my 17 year old drives remains a gold standard. I also will state that our '04 Sienna AWD and '07 RAV4 are very stable too. How about an AWD option for the Prius

 

Yesterday/today were my first days of driving in snow and ice in my '06. I still have the stock tires on (gasp!) but even on packed down slush and ice it felt good. I found some clear spots and tried stomping on the gas, stomping on the break, trying to go into a spin, and the car handled it all very well.

I'm careful not to stop or even go too slow where it looks like I might get stuck, but I do that in any car. The worse experience was shoveling out my HUGE driveway last night. I moved about 4 tons wet snow and ice!