Traction Control.. 2006/07 models

I live in (mostly) sunny California. Several times I've had the TC cut in on my '06, on only moderately slippery roads from rain. It is most disconcerting, when you pull out to make a right turn into traffic, and it
j u s t b o g g s d o w n. My other cars are AWD Subarus, and I actually look forward to rare occasions that we have slightly slippery conditions to play with the AWD. I did an autocross during a rain storm, and it was really fun, to only have to worry about maybe hitting a few cones, instead of something more expensive. I can't imaging living somewhere where you have to deal with snow, ice, etc in a car with such obtrusive TC. Great car otherwise, though, I wouldn't say they fixed the TC on the '06, at least not mine. If I lived in snow country, I would certainly hang on to my Subarus, or some kind of AWD. Leave the Prius in the nice warm, dry garage.

 

Traction control comes up enough it really seems to merit a poll. Maybe something along the lines of

Have you had Traction Control cause you problems (leave you stuck)? Y N

but broken into a few subcategories, i.e.

Rainy Winter Y N
Snowy Winter Y N
Mountain driving Y N

and then the model groups
year of Prius 2001-2003, 2004-5, 2006-7

Any suggestions? It would obviously need to be simple, but have a few categories (i.e., climate, model year) so all our fair weather drivers don't skew it. Just a thought.

 

Whats the difference with Traction Control and Stability Control? The Prius I got w/ Package #1 has Traction Control, but not Stability..

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fugsco @ Mar 1 2007, 02:53 PM) [snapback]398602[/snapback]</div>

Interesting. Same thing happened to my 2004 while I was out at the hobby farm, during the Dec 30 blizzard. I got snowed in again last weekend and wisely didn't leave the garage, just waited for the plows and missed a day of work.

I have studded snow tires, I can only imagine how awful it would be with "all season" tires. At least on glare ice I have traction.

I'm still convinced only a handful of Prius experience the lack of snow traction. Some Prius owners claim that with the factory tires, their cars are unstoppable. Not sure how ...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MegansPrius @ Mar 1 2007, 05:30 PM) [snapback]398709[/snapback]</div>

I like that idea

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(desynch @ Mar 1 2007, 07:16 PM) [snapback]398744[/snapback]</div>

Traction Control: as implemented on the Prius, it briefly cuts power to the drivetrain if wheelspin is detected. For example, the light turns green and one wheel is on ice. Wheelspin is detected and power to the drivetrain is cut.

Some vehicles not only cut or reduce engine power, they also apply a brake to the spinning wheel to help transfer power to the wheel that is on firmer ground. My co-workers 2006 Range Rover HSE does that. Last week I test drove an FJ Cruiser and in 2wd, you could feel the rear brake pulsing the spinning wheel.

Stability Control: if a vehicle skid is detected, one of the front wheels is briefly braked to veer the Prius back to the drivers intended direction.

Since the Prius can be optionally equipped with VSC - like mine is - I really wonder why the engineers couldn't have used the same system to apply the brake to the spinning wheel.