How does the Prius handle in the snow? In NH we can get some heavy sleet, snow etc. Right now I have blizzak's and they do great, but wanted to see what people's experiences were.

 

This goes for any car... have 2 sets of tires... winter and everything else and you will be fine. I have a set of blizzacks for the winter and summer set for everything else (dry and wet weather specific). I get the benifets of the best of both worlds. So what you are doing is the right thing. A prius like any car in snow with all weather tires will not handle as well as a prius with snow tires on, especially in the snow of New England.

 

It depends.

The traction control feature is perhaps the one that may give some of us problems - especially when the wheels (with winter tires) are riding on ice. It can be quite aggravating for those of us with 6 month long winters, because we can get stuck without any easy means to get out. This pretty much forces me keep my Prius in the garage in the worst of days.
In all fairness, the problem is less prevalent in the 2007 and newer models -I only got stuck twice this winter.

Other than that, it is a pretty stable vehicle and should do the winter duties without any other significant issues. In terms of rubber, I prefer Michelin's X-ICE for my cars.

Cheers;

MSantos

 

Most manuals will say that on ICE turn off TC. (From a start that is)

 

The TC on a Prius cannot be (easily) turned off. There is no toggle switch or setting that disables the system - at least not on mine.

MSantos

 

Toyota engineers took note of the many threads and complaints of the first Gen and early 2nd Gen owners regarding the TC system. Through the 2005 MY Prius it certainly would be possible for the TC system to override your efforts to rock and roll your way out of a mess.

Beginning with the 2006 MY they made a change in the TC system that allows the wheels to slip somewhat to allow movement. The complaints seem to have gone way down since then.

 

Since nearly every factor of the Prius is governed by software, you'd think that a software update to older Gen2 Prii would cause our traction control to be less aggressive.

 

Hi Battery Buddies - Time for winter here in eastern Oregon.

Pulled my P195/55-16 (Touring model) standard tires off, and down-sized to 15x6.5 Motegi Type MR7 wheels with Toyo Observe GO2+ Studless m/s - size 185/65-15.

The Observe tires are heavily siped, but still pretty quiet - about the same as the electric motor when coasting to a stop.

The very cool spoked wheels use a very narrow splined lugnut and include a special thin-wall socket.

YIKES! Just realized I should have kept five regular Lugnuts in the storage space to use with the Temp Spare!

The stock wheels seem much sturdier, but we'll see.

Mileage? Hard to tell, so far, but cold warmup will mess up the numbers, anyway.

Odometer seems spot-on, with taller tires on 1” smaller rims.

Did NOT move (or install new) tire pressure monitoring system. No lights have come on - was it working in the first place?

Wheels @ $70.20 ea
Tires @ $89.82 ea
spin balance @$11.00 ea
Chrome Valve Stem (and CAP!) @ $4.00 each
Lug nuts @$1.50 each (20!) - jeez!
Total $730.08 - no sales tax in Oregon. Go Les Schwab!

http://www.toyo.com/docs/tires/tires...ategory=winter
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...&view=1&N=700+