We had a few inches of snow here night before last. I had several appointments I did not want to miss so I ventured out in the morning. I live in Seattle and we get snow several times per year. I am pretty comfortable with driving in it but I always worry about the other crackpots on the road. I have a 2013 Prius IV with original tires. It handled great. I had several pretty good hills to climb and descend and not a slip, slide or shudder. Mostly compact snow with some icy and chunky sanded spots. I am use to driving my Audi with Blizzak winter tires but do not have them for this car yet. I must say I felt very comfortable that this car will handle most anything Seattle will throw at us. LUV my Prius. Now it is time to give it a good wash and vacuuming!!
Snow tires will make you a lot more secure. For two reasons: 1. Softer rubber compound that stays pliable in lower temperatures. 2. More aggressive tread. Brand new all seasons will be "ok", for the first winter or two. But especially when they're getting worn, their traction tanks. FWIW: There are some Corolla steel rims that are perfect fit. (Reading your post a bit more thorough, I see I'm preaching to the converted. Anyway ) (It's still white, but pretty wet, in our neighbourhood. Downtown, near the water it's pretty much all gone. Was hoping for a white Christmas, but do not know if we're going to get it.)
I will agree that a Prius with fresh OEM tires will handle a big portion of the snow thrown at us around Seattle. But 'most anything' goes too far, as my old Subaru could attest after being high centered several times (mostly in our own driveway), and having the ABS defeated by untreated glare sheet ice when all four wheels locked simultaneously. And my first Prius' tires lost a considerable portion of their winter ability between the first and second seasons, so be ready to put better tires on this car too. My second Prius hasn't been out in this stuff yet, we took the new Subaru re-shod with true winter tires up to Stevens Pass yesterday.
For work, I drive all over the lower mainland - My new Prius handled the 5 inches of snow dump we got here without a hitch! Mind you, if the west coast gets walloped like it did in 2008, the car would probably be stranded. And perhaps Mendel is right, the new tires will handle great but will suffer in a year or two when they get worn past 50% Glad you love your car too!
I am new to the prius world "have my car since 5 days" but i know a bit about winter driving. Born and raised in Quebec winter is part of our life, in all honesty my prius is doing a really fine job in the snow we just had a snow storm and the street haven't been clean yet and i am surprise how my prii is doing a good job. Downside is mpg suffering Of course i have winter tire "it's the law here in Qc"
I have 15" gen II wheels with Firestone winterforce snow tires in them and wow. I can plow the streets with the Prius. Only downside is that the gas mileage takes a huge hit and the road noise is pretty bad. I love these tires.
I have the persona, and this past weekend we had 13" of snow, and frigid cold temps. The high yesterday was -13 (and that's not factoring in the windchill). We decided to venture out yesterday to see how the Prius handles and we also needed groceries. I was really happy with the way it handled. We even drove through our local park, which has some pretty steep hills, and the roads through the park still had a lot of snow/ice on them. The Prius never faltered. This morning, our office reopened, and I didn't have any trouble. The roads were like washboards, because it was so cold that treatments couldn't work, so they were all ice/snow covered. Again, the car handled great. Other cars would stop at a light on a slight incline, and not be able to get going again, but I didn't have any problems. Even saw one guy stuck in the McDonald's drive-up. Bring on spring!
