I'm new here (a "veteran" at PriusOnline) and although I am a happy and proud owner of a 2005 Prius, I registered here just to post my awed observations this morning here in snowy central Vermont. A neighbor in a silver Insight (not sure of the year) drove by the road that intersects my road (dirt roads) in a steady snowfall. Mind you, I could have driven the Prius today but in these conditions, I like to fall back on the trusty old AWD Outback. I followed the Insight to the main road and expected it to turn left, going down toward the valley. No, it turned right, the same way I was going, headed toward the top of the mountain. It was moving along at a steady pace, 45 miles per hour on the snow covered, frost heaved road. It had one more chance to turn and take a northern route to skirt the mountain, but no, it went straight. I felt a pang of sadness as I knew this meant the Insight would go over the mountain, not so high, but 1,300 ft. in just 3 miles with about 6 hairpin turns on each side and assuredly more snow at the top.

I continued following at a safe unpressured distance of about 8-10 car lengths. The ascending Insight was not slowing down at all. I kept up but it wasn't all that easy. It went around a hairpin turn seemingly in full control. I did it with my 4 snows (I believe the Insight had 4 snows but can't confirm) and slid a bit in the same turn, losing a bit of ground! Anyway, I kept up with it and didn't push it to the max limit of safe driving, but close. Going down the other side, pretty much the same. I was amazed at how well it did. I thought maybe the driver was going too fast for conditions in that car, but never saw any loss of traction. I was shaking my head in awe a lot this morning.

After seeing how well the Insight did, maybe I'm babying my Prius (with 4 Hakappellita RSi snows and VSC) in the snow too much, not pushing it at all (but it seems fine). If I have a question at all (this is meant to relay how awed I was), it would be does the Insight have some special traction features like the Prius' VSC?