NO to the Prius!

Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience your first time out. I have no problems driving in the snow ever, cheap tires from Costco, whatever. I've never had snow tires on any car, so I can't compare, obviously. I have a long steep driveway, and no problems getting up in snow, once I blast through the pile of crud the snowplows leave at the bottom.

My daughter prefers to drive my '04 Prius in snow, rather than her Saturn, which is so horrible in the snow, it terrifies her. I let her borrow my car for a week when she had to do some long commutes for school during a snowy period. She was thrilled.

 

I've never driven a better car in the winter, and I've owned a Jeep C-J5, a Subaru all-wheel-drive, and a Ford Aerostar four wheel drive. With good tires the Prius is as good or better than other front wheel drive cars. It can't wade through deep snow like you can with a truck; it sits too low for that, but that is typical of cars. You needed a Prius with good tires and you need more winter Prius experience. The Prius has its own set of tricks and techniques for winter driving.

Tom

 

Must remember wise old sayings such as:

Don't judge a book by it's cover.

Don't judge a Prius by it's rental. It could have taken some abuse at the hands of rent to joyriders.

 

We have an `08 Touring with Package 6, which includes the VSC. We also live in Colorado. As soon as we bought the car, we went to Discount Tire and bought a set of wheels and some good winter tires. We are very happy with the way our Prius handles in the snow and use it as one of our designated bad weather cars. We have a Touareg and I would rate the Prius close to the Touareg on snow and ice. Keep in mind, it is only a fwd car and it is fairly light. I also have a Porsche, so I know what "sucks in snow" is. I am sorry about your poor rental experience, but if you have lived in Colorado for any period of time, you should recognize that summer tires don't cut it here in the winter. This is particularly true with the crap OEM tires, the Prius uses.

 

The high torque avaiable from the Prius was previously mentioned. The gas pedal (power-by-wire) allows such fine control that with a light touch, extremely low torque can be applied to the drive wheels. Assuming a decent snow tire installation, this car can crawl through/up just about anything.

 

I too will state that my '08 has worked well during this year's tough winter in Boston. We have a steep driveway that has always been a pain in the winter and I was really worried about getting up and down. We own a 4wd dodge truck, a Honda CRV 4wd and our '08 Prius. Our Prius outperforms (granted all of this is somewhat qualitative) our previous Accord and is almost as good as our 4wd vehicles. I attribute this to overall weight due to the batteries, but don't know if there is anything to this claim of mine.

I find it surprisingly good for snow driving compared to the other FWD cars I've driven in the same conditions.

Jon

 

I had an experience similar to yours and went out and bought Michelin Ice-X tires and had them mounted on new steel rims. In the Spring, I had the GY Integrities removed from the aluminum rims and replaced with Michelin HyroEdges. Since all eight tires were bought from the same tire dealer, switching the wheels in the Spring and Fall is free. It was a high initial outlay, but the summer and winter tires are excellent and I don't regret spending the money.

 

My oem integrities have 34,000 miles and I live in the midwest. It is either me or the tires but even with a few inches of snow I do not trust the traction and take another vehicle with 4 wheel drive.
Yes they are 5/32 but they can be very scary to drive with and next season I will be searching deligently for a great all season tire to put the tire question to a rest. It is good to see that many have wonderful snow driving experience.