Prius is a dangerous vehicle in snow

sure, but when there is one and your car falls in, you'll blame it on the traction control.

 

NASA already put alleged Prius isues to bed, agreeing with all the experts ... that the problem is "drivers" ... to put it kindly. But you, are intitled to your differing view . . . just as Mr. Sikes is entitled to his opinion.

Did Bankrupt Runaway Prius Driver Fake "Unintended Acceleration?"

You see, once folks talk about the Prius and snow, it polarized folks. NO it's horrible ... no you just don't know how to drive ... no blah blah blah ... downward spiral. Go back and read the scores of threads for your self.
.

 

are you sure about nasa? i thought that i read that as well, but when i tried to find it for evpv's u/a thread, all i could find was articles from march saying they were going to research it.

 

I finally had to opportunity to drive my 2010 in some wet,sloppy,slippery(because of salt) snow. I'm overly impressed with it's handling, when I purposely tried to spin the tires taking off from a stop sign, yes they actually spun....they did not lock up like my previous 2003 Olds Aurora. When I locked up the tires coming down a hill, I still had complete control over the steering......
From my experience with it tonight........I don't know where you complainers are coming from........for me, it's great !!!!!!

 

You are conflating the "unintended acceleration" issue with the "traction control" issue.

I can understand the defensiveness of folks because the "traction control" problem is a fundamental characteristic of the one-speed and max-or-none-torque properties of the Prius HSD drivetrain. The low speed/low traction handling is the exact scenario where a real multi-speed transmission will help and yes clutches too.

The more powerful the HSD drivetrain is, the more pronounced will the problem be. In fact, that's EXACTLY why the higher powered Lexus HSD variants are clutched based.

The Prius HSD variant is not scalable.

 

Tire spinning is not a controlled maneuver, not sure why you would count that as a plus.

 

It proves that the traction control is not overly aggressive, which is a complaint often targeted at the Prius.

Tom

 

I have a 2006 Prius. I have Vredestein Quatrac 3 all-season tires. The have the snowflake in mountain symbol. It drives GREAT in the snow. I see a lot of other cars getting stuck, where I have no problems. It's all about the right tire.

 

I'm not sure if you have ever driven in the conditions that I described. But for us, spinning is much better then having the brake lock up the wheel and lose all the momentum that you had, even if it's only a little.

 

We have a 2005. Although it's primarily my wife's car, I drive it fairly regularly. I actually held out a week to get a model with Traction Control (if only I'd known).

The TC is abysmal, and it has been like that since Day 1. And no, not merely when I floor it on really slick roads. Pulling away on the flat or uphill, the tires spin and TC engages as soon as the tires touch the crosswalk or white "STOP" stripe on the pavement. It's hard to pull away gently enough to make it over them without triggering the TC. My wife has the same problem.

I've driven a few hundred thousand miles, about half of them professionally. My wife and I both grew up in northern climates, where driving in snow was routine. I'm not Lord of the Road, but I know how to drive. I really like the Prius -- and my wife LOVES it -- but neither of us has ever before found such a negative automobile feature.

 

Hi NCPrius,

Which Prius do you have? And did you ever get a BT Tech plate on it, and are you driving on the original Goodyear Integrities??

 

You say this happens "whenever the front tires come in contact with snow from stop and go": clearly you are are making jackrabbit starts. Cutting in front of oncoming traffic is never a good idea. In snow it's just plain stupid. Traction control may be a tad more sensitive in this car than others, but this problem, as described, is driver error.

 

If memory serves, it's impossible to get a Prius w/o traction control since its purpose to to protect the transaxle.

Regardless, what tires are you running with? I think the universal answer here is to get proper tires for the conditions, usually snow tires.

 

Re: Prius is not a dangerous vehicle in snow

Sorry to chime in on this thread as it really is a re-hash of others here concerning traction control and peoples resulting confusion as to the variables involved in getting going when theroad becomes slippery....

Don't forget that we have ECO mode to feather the throttle response when theing gets slippery. Your yellow vsc light will flash sometimes when you hit the gas a little too hard for conditions.

If you are accustomed to running the car in NORMAL mode, or do so to not have the a/c system overly tamed when cold wet weather can make keeping your windows defogged and safe, pop the ECO mode on when you need to get going, and it might be that you will not cause wheel slip and trip the traction control genie into life.

Roland.

 

Re: Prius is not a dangerous vehicle in snow

The OP's info says that he has an 08 and this was posted in the Gen II area. There's no eco mode on Gen IIs nor is there a power mode. Those are new features that first appeared on the 3rd gen. The EV button also didn't appear in North American Priuses until Gen III.

 

Spinning wheels proves there is NO traction control.

 

Re: Prius is not a dangerous vehicle in snow

Roland,

The focus on the TCS is really a red herring since it is only trying to compensate for the one-speed transmission in the Prius.

ECO mode is just a fancy term for a degraded throttle response curve (and reduced A/C performance). The fundamental torque curve of the HSD and the torque transfer to the wheels are unchanged , just it's relationship to the throttle.

 

The Prius stalls because it only has a one-speed transmission. Traditional transmissions do a great job of matching engine performance with the road conditions.

Wow, now that's uncalled for. What's your beef ?

 

There were actually TWO kinds of traction control...

VSC = vehicle stability control, and the other, premium traction control that not all Prius have (our 2007 doesn't. It was offered on the higher-packaged Prius).

I think that's the one he's talking about - the special, extra traction control.

[NOTE: I may have them backwards. All Prius have regular traction control, and the higher packages had VSC. Regardless, they were two different critters]

 

VSC systems prevent the vehicle from under/over steering.