Anyone have experience with driving the TCH in winter and/mountainous areas? I am looking at a taking a traveling job, approx 100 mi/day in the mountains of SW WV and not sure if TCH will work in the winter vs something like the Subaru Impreza (AWD, but only 28-30 MPG average tops)

 

With proper tires (for snow), the Camry will work just as well as most other FWD cars in the snow. When compared to an AWD drive car however, they will come up short getting moving in adverse conditions. Stopping distances however will be the same for both given the same tires ( a condition that young drivers with 4WD Jeeps find out the hard way every year). As long as snow is not a major issue and mileage is your concern, the Camry should beat the Subaru easily during the winter months and trounce it during the summer.

 

I am just coming to the end of the first winter with my 2012 XLE hybrid, and am located in Alberta, Canada. We see lots of snow. My vehicle came with the V rated Michelin Primacy MXV4 all season tires. I did not switch to winter tires. I have found winter tires are necessary on rear wheel drive vehicles, but not really on front wheel drive. AWD is nice, but certainly not necessary at least in our area. If you have very steep hills/mountains and they are not sanded or salted, then you may have to resort to winter tires or winter tires with studs if that is allowed in that state. Some Camry Hybrids come with Bridgestone Turanza A/S tires which are not nearly as good in ice and snow. I would avoid those.

On mileage yes you take a hit in cold weather. The hit is no larger than you would have on a conventional vehicle, but you notice it more because the mileage is so good on a hybrid to start with. The main problem is warm up. Just like in a conventional vehicle the engine runs in open loop O2 control until it is fully warmed up. That sucks some fuel. Once you are warmed up then mileage is close but not quite at summer levels. The worst service is short trips with a warm up for each short trip. 100 mile trips would be no problem at all.

If you really want an AWD and hybrid, I believe Toyota makes the Highlander in a hybrid version. Probably quite a bit more expensive than the Camry, and not as fuel efficient though. I drove a 4X4 Nissan for a while, and while it has some advantages there are lots of disadvantages too. They steer poorly when you let off the gas in snow. They accelerate better, but stop no faster than a 2WD. And they are much more complex and expensive to maintain. I would not touch another one unless I really had to go off road.

 

Yes, the only true advanctage to AWD is getting going.. stopping is pretty much the same. I am a experience winter driver, lived 10 years in MI and now 3 years in WV. I drove a RWD car for many years in MI (84 Thunderbird!). If I take the job, I plan to talk to some of the other staff. At least 4-5 of them drive the Rav4 which I am looking at, but not nearly the mileage. (Impreza is best MPG AWD vehicle out there that I've found)

It is a home health job, so I would be driving say 30ish miles to a patient's home, and then being there maybe a hour and then maybe 5-15 miles to another house and so for about 3-4 times a day and then 30 miles back home. From what I have read, the hour stop should not be long enough to let the car cool down correct? Is this too much stopping? Thanks!

I have been told the area kept up pretty well. It is in a different county then I live in, but I've been driving a 09 Corolla and an 03 Malibu just fine for 2-3 years so far (just not 100 miles/day).

Also, I believe TCH would be much better then say a Prius in the snow? Much heavier and more power.

 

Personally, and I came from a cold country with manual transmissions only, I found TCH to be very uncomfortable on fresh snow and hills. Like we have here in Seattle.
Personally, I'd not recommend her as a reliable go anywhere vehicle.
Personally, I am not sure, what do you mean by "stopping is the same" for AWD vehicles. I was SUPER pleased with my 04 CR-V AWD system. I TRIED to skid her on deep snow and packed snow, and I could not. She got me anywhere in any harsh condition.
Subies are great and best AWD cars, but they are not good on mpg.
You best bet, personally, is Ford Escape Hybrid, or its Mazda progenitor. Tribute. Unfortunately, they killed the marque. But those are the only AWD cars that go into above 30 mpg.

 

AWD does not really keep you 'safer', it just allows you to GET into more trouble! or rather, go places a 2WD would not be able to.

http://www.wheels.ca/setting-the-rec...inter-driving/

Also a good video review about AWD w/ all season vs FWD w/ winter tires.

 

The runs of 5 miles will be a bit of an issue, but will be just as much of an issue with a conventional vehicle. The hybrid does not warm up any slower than a normal vehicle. In my experience in temperatures around 0 deg F, the engine cools off pretty fast. We do a shop at Costco (less than an hour), and the engine temp is at the bottom of the scale when you start it up. If you get a block heater and can plug in at each stop you will prevent quite a bit of the cool off though.

On the Prius I'm not a big fan, but mainly just due to the appearance, smaller size, and lack of power. One thing it MAY have going for it is a thermal storage system. Some versions of the Prius, and I'm not sure if the current ones still do, have essentially a Thermos bottle (large one) that stores coolant (which is hot) when you shut down. On start up it pumps this hot glycol mixture into the engine to warm it up. Neat idea, which I'm sure helps. It is not available on the Camry.

I don't think it would be any better or worse than the Camry in snow and ice. One issue if deep snow is expected is ground clearance. Once you high center a vehicle it doesn't matter what you have for tires or AWD, you are not going anywhere. SOME of the SUV's have extra clearance, and some do not.

 

Just hope you don't have to drive up any snowy or icy driveways (mine can only do it if I give it a running start)

 

Well, looking into getting winter tires (? TPMS needed due to newer laws?), which should help. Also, long as the drive way isn't MILES long, I can just park at the bottom and walk up.

 

Our driveway has a fair incline and we park the Camry hybrid with Primacy MXV4 all seasons, and a F150 truck in the garage. The truck has quite aggressive M&S tires. However the 2WD truck is the most useless vehicle in snow that I have owned in the last 20 years. Often getting up the driveway is an issue, and I have to back across the street and run at it to get it in. Have never had a problem with the Camry, even when my wife is driving it. This winter we both went out on the same route with her driving the Camry and me in the truck. It was a heavy snow day and some roads were closed. She got there and back no problem. I got stuck twice in the truck.

On TPMS that is not required in Canada and the Camry built for Canada do not have them. So no experience. They seem like a good idea, but they do seem to cause major confusion for the drivers that obsess about using them. When they are rotated it changes the indication of which tire is which. Some obsess about the accuracy.

See this Tire Rack link. It sounds like you need them to be legal in the US if the vehicle is 2008 or newer. After market compatible sensors seem to be available if you want to dedicate rims to the winter tires. Some here switch the tires on the factory rims, but that means taking it in to a shop to switch. With dedicated rims you can do it yourself.

I also recall that for 2013 Toyota dumbed down the TPMS and just indicate low pressure and not tire specific pressures. That is probably a good idea. Might reduce the cost of the sensors??