I have a very steep driveway. Sometimes I dunno what I was thinking trading in my 4wd for this car. I've been late to work I don't know how many times because I've had to scrape the driveway bare + put salt/sand on it to get out. It's really irritating especially since it seems to be winter 8 months out of the year up here! I've also slid through intersections 3 times despite going VERY slow and using the B gear. I liked this car a lot better before it started snowing!!!

I got this car to save money on gas, and it's doing just that, being parked in my driveway for weeks and all :-p Good thing my boyfriend has a truck!

Hm. Never had much problem sliding around.... I mean if the road conditions are that bad I'm probably going to be coasting or very light on the brakes to slow down for a good distance before the stop, but other than that I don't know. I mean sure there's bits of slippage here and there, that's pretty much a sure thing with spots of ice all over, but driveway aside, not sure what to say about the sliding into the intersection thing....

It sounds like you don't have snow tires. Unless you crash, the car only touches the ground with its tires and when traction is the limiting factor, there is little that can be done by the car.

There's no advantage to using B gear and several disadvantages including the fact that it only brakes using your front wheels which encourages the car to yaw or fishtail.

Neither AWD or B mode is going to keep you from sliding through intersections if your tires don't have enough traction.

With snow tires, I have no problems even in CO. My old car didn't have snow tires and it didn't even have good all-season tires. It would slide around like crazy even if there was only a light dusting of snow.

I'm definitely getting snow tires this week, I have to drive to Boston on Christmas to get a flight to Atlanta and I can just see myself getting stuck in a snowstorm between here and there

Wrong! take your car out on a frozen lake a play with it you will find B gear very usefull.

TCH-43mpg
VW TDI--48
08 LS 600 HL-20
08 LX 470-16

I'm not going to drive on a frozen lake but I've tried B mode a few times in the snow and ice and it's no different from braking lightly.

A car can only slow down by pushing against the ground using its tires or against the air. There aren't any other realistic ways to slow a car down. Unrealistic options include parachutes, retrorockets, and ejecting parts of the car at high velocities opposite the direction of travel.

Under normal circumstances (e.g., not a collision), a car cannot convert its kinetic energy into any other form (engine compression, charging the battery, heat, spinning up a flywheel, etc.) without using its tires. Thus, B mode is no different from braking though it has decided disadvantages.

Lastly, if you do a Google search for engine braking and snow you will see a lot of stern recommendations against it.

Agreed, after having played with it over the last couple of days, I would recommend against B mode for anything but long descents. The car is way more responsive and predictable driving in D, and letting traction control do its thing. Oh, and winter tires are worth their weight in gold. Don't believe otherwise. All-seasons should really be called three-seasons.

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Randy

Well B can help reduce the speed without upsetting the balance of the car too much (which braking can do).

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[quote=Noni;154411]...Even when we threw salt under the tires to melt the ice and give traction, the wheels kept slipping on the salt!
quote]

Salt will not help unless the temperature and ice layer are correct to permit the salt to defuse the ice layer. I have found coarse road sand to work better in a situation like this. It is sold in small tubes that can be used to sprinkle a light layer on the drive, and that layer provides traction over thick ice that salt cannot melt.

It is the ignorant among us that will eventually destroy us all.

No, it can't, because both braking and B mode apply force through the tires against the ground to slow the car.

It doesn't help that B mode only brakes the front wheels. If anything, that's going to upset the balance of the car.