Prius is a dangerous vehicle in snow

I put 4 snow tires on my '08 Prius, and it drives great through the white stuff. If you typically have alot of snow in your Winter season, I recommend the snow tires.

 

Our experience with the traction control on the 2010 has been only positive thus far. Many posters in other threads have said the same thing. We haven't had undue issues getting started on snow and ice.

 

I have experienced the stall that the OP talked about. It was my 2003 Olds Aurora, when the tires broke loose and started to spin...the brakes would come on that spinning tire and stop you dead in your tracks......sometimes actually stalling the engine.
the best part of this was that I had control over the traction system.....I could turn it off.....which I did many time.

I do wish that the Prius had that option...

Where are you modifier ????????

 

i have driven an 04 and 08 through the last 6 winters where i think it's a bit worse than virginia. i have never experienced this problem with the stock tires. must be how lightly i touch the gas pedal.

 

I do find it sad that many people just shouldn't drive in adverse conditions. You can't handle when things aren't perfect. Sheesh, drive with some sense and the rest of us will thank you. Really, pulling out in front of oncoming vehicles with slick areas just as if it were dry and tacky? Please, tell me more about your driving skills. Pay attention to road conditions instead of texting and you'll be fine. NO ONE is above bad road conditions. Deal with it by allowing more stopping and starting distance. In a hurry still? Please, stay home until things are perfect again.

 

Over a decade of Prius being on the road and I have not heard about any deaths due to the traction control kicking in. I've heard of people being scared but no deaths. Did you have a timeline in which these deaths will eventually occur?

I agree with the others. Buy a decent set of tires and you'll be fine.

 

My personal experience: this car hooks up much better than the Prius, and it has nearly 3x the power. May not be so good in snow, but it doesn't see those conditions.

Also sticking to my guns regarding the traction control. There was ample time to make it across, if the car didn't suddenly cut the power and creep across at 3mph.

 

Interesting side effect of relying on electric motors for traction, the on-off , all or nothing availability of torque when running in electric mode can cause the symptoms you just describe, especially at low speeds. Without a transmission, there's no graceful increase in torque and acceleration from slow speeds, is there ?

 

There's no need to be condescending.

How does this reply of yours address the OP or PG's post ?

 

Bingo. That's it exactly.

It's funny, in the political discussions here, hard lines are often drawn.

Same too with the Prius.

I think I've said lots of good things about it, drove one for a while, may well drive another in a year or two. But I can also be realistic about its shortcomings, at least based upon my personal experience. The '08 I drove was better, I could spin the tires a bit and it was nice to have that control again.

I think Toyota tacitly acknowledged the issue by dialing the traction control back further and further as the car matured.

As far as folks being killed by it, I hope no one has. But I also wonder how it could ever be proven, should it have been a contributing factor.

You clearly know nothing about me, and I have no need to enlighten you.

 

Yeah, the political discussions can be entertaining at times but personal attacks on anyone's driving skills are uncalled for.

Later..

 

artful1,

I don't know if it has been stated in this thread or not but the 2004-2005 Prius had a very aggressive traction control system. There were revisions in 2006 that reduced the sensitivity of this system and in 2010 sensitivity was reduced even more. This doesn't help you but know that the system had been changed and the newer models are more properly designed for snow and ice.

 

The most thorough discussion of what to expect the late Gen II
traction control to do in snow is in posts 3 - 9 in this thread:

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...on/42846-traction-control-worked-i-think.html

Although there isn't much direct evidence to support this next idea in
postings, given what I sensed was a sharp reduction in traction control
issues in post-2007 cars when I started the above thread, I believe
there were some traction control tweaks for MY-2008.

My experience; the traction control takes some getting used to...

find an empty, not quite level, snow covered parking lot, play around in
a scientific way. Make sure you try up-slope starts with the front
wheels turned sharply to the right and left... this to simulate turning
onto a crossing road. Step on the go-pedal really hard and watch/fel
what happens. Do this at least twice in each direction. In one try, keep
the go pedal depressed to induce initial traction control power shut
down, see what happens. On the second try, ease off on the gas and
see what happens. Like I said, play around with the intention of
creating learning situations...
pay attention, the nice person you save may be your own.

Hope this helps.

 

Yep . . . you're right. The Prius IS dangerous in the snow. It's also dangerous on dry roads, wet roads, cold roads, and hot roads. It's even dangerous sitting in the drive way and in the garage. So are guns. And transformers. And electric trolleys. And drill motors. And toasters. And blenders. Why? . . . because humans use them. But when they're used by folks who use them right ... they're fine.

.

 

I think it is fair to say that the Prius can be very different from most cars.

You can't jump start another car, you can't drive down a steep hill and expect to be able to reverse back up, your regenerative braking will disengage over potholes and your traction control will pause your car when you floor the gas pedal over a very slick surface.

I wonder if it would be best for Toyota to acknowledge these differences or if it would hurt the Prius sales. I think it would be fair for customers to know these things before they get their car. I would have still bought a Prius even if I knew all of the above.

 

The Prius "Traction Control System" is basically acting as a poor man's transmission since the Prius does not have a real one. It dials in the torque and motor speed it thinks appropriate for a particular condition.

When the computer guesses wrong, you get unexpected behavior. You can't control what the TCS does directly.

Simple as that.

 

I believe Ford made the exact same claim about the Bronco.

 

no offense to anyone having trouble, but my 22 year old daughter drove my 04 with 50,000 miles on it from burlington, vt to middlebury every day for 3 years. she has had it from 35,000 to 80,000 miles, 2007 until now, and she has never mentioned having a single issue to me. makes me wonder why some vehicles have problems and others don't.

 

Huh?
Along the same line of thought, there hasn't been a major earthquake here for almost 20 years.