Here in the D.C. area, people are nuts driving in snow. I may take my car over to the high school parking lot when it snows one day to get a feel for how it performs, but generally speaking, when it snows here my $31k Camry will stay in the garage so some kid in a $2k Camaro doesn't slam into it.

 

When it snows in Houston (once every 10 years), you should see how people drive. I won't even go out then. They just don't understand the concept of no traction and think they can drive just the same as on dry pavement. What is worse is when it snows here, melts and then freezes at night. And since the road departments don't deal with ice all the time, they don't really have the infrastrcuture in place to keep the roads sanded, and I don't think they know what salt is.

 

Fully agreed, Houston is definitely NOT the place to be on the roads whenever it's wet & below freezing... The whole city shuts down from a driving perspective (no adequate support from the DOT), yet enough dummies give it a try anyways - and fail miserably.

 

Living here in Maine - I too am anxious to test it out in snow. Trouble is we've had a record breaking warm December. No snow at all (except an inch which melted after a day or so.

But, living here in Maine, it's coming.......

 

I have driven in some snowy and icy conditions recently and so far the TCH has worked well. I am very impressed with the stability and traction on the ice as I skate down our driveway and at the corner stopsign. So far it hasn't given me any feeling of being trunk heavy.

When the traction comes on, there is a little light down in the lower right of the main display (by the trip ****) that comes on. It looks like the slippery road ahead sign.

 

I live in the snow country.We have had a good amount of snow. I've driven accross the mountains when chains are required without chains. The car performed perfectly.So far the problem has not been going;stopping on ice can be a challange. I think i'll get studded snow tires just for safty.

 

Thanks everyone for the replies so far. It sounds like the general consensus is there shouldn’t be problems driving in the snow. I figured that would be the case. I mean if Toyota didn’t take that into account when designing the vehicle it would have been an engineering nightmare LOL. On the other hand the engineers could have found a better place for the batteries so the TCH didn’t lose so much trunk space. That’s a whole other subject though. Here in East TN we don’t get a whole lot of snow with the exception of the Smoky Mountains so the thought of driving the TCH in snowy conditions doesn’t bother me. We do have a problem with black ice but that’s a problem for everyone including those with four wheel drive vehicles…

 

I am more than happy with the way Traction Control handled our recent snowfall.
We had about a foot of snow here in the Vancouver, BC, Canada area about Dec 6 when I headed off to my office. There had been a few vehicles out of my street before me so I only experienced a little sliding, along with a lot of scraping on the bottom, going up a slight slope where the others were not able to stay in the same track.
When I got to the office I had to navigate along our sloping parking lot uphill at an angle to the undercover parking. I didn't make it as the snow had drifted a little deeper in the lee of the building. Since the snow was cold, dry and freshly fallen I didn't think I could hurt anything so I had just kept my foot on the throttle. It was really weird to have the car gradually slow down and come to a stop with no spinning of the wheels. Especially with the engine not running and the throttle to the floor.
I dug out the front and downhill side of the car as it had drifted sideways a few inches. On starting again it went ahead a few inches further before stopping. Again with no spinning. Eased off the throttle and it rolled back a few inches, then more throttle and it gained a few more inches. Did that a few times before realizing I had the parking brake on and had been dragging the rear wheels. That it moved at all is impressive. Anyway, after that it went uphill with no trouble.

I do wonder though if it will work so well with a few inches of wet snow when I know to let the wheels spin down to pavement, then back off a bit to rock your way out. We may find out soon.

I am still not used to having to release the parking brake. I didn’t have to with my ’95 Taurus. I got very flustered in a ferry lineup one morning at 5AM when I put it in drive and applied throttle to get on and nothing happened. I couldn’t find anything wrong. It was in Drive, the dash light said Ready, but no sound, no nothing except that the ferry was leaving soon. Finally, I remembered. Whew.

I am not so sure I like the Vehicle Stability Control Function as I think it may have applied the brake to the rear wheel on the inside of the skid when fishtailing a bit trying to maintain speed in snow, on a curve, on a steep hill. I didn’t think the vehicle should have slowed as much as it did. Perhaps it did have to to maintain traction. Not sure.
I know I don't like it on wet pavement as I can feel and hear it when it happens regularly as I come out of a particular lane onto a busy street which is steep. Obviously, substantial power is needed to merge going uphill and the Traction Control works wonderfully. But the brake comes on in the right rear brake as I am turning right. I would rather it did not as it is slowing my merge, and I am fully aware of the possibility of the rear of the car sliding into the lane to the left and am prepared to deal with that. By the way, I am normally a very conservative driver but tend to think merging quickly is simply good driving.

 

How well does the Camry Hybrid do in the snow? You be the judge..

http://community.webshots.com/album/556538738UxPClF

 

I don't see your point here?

I see a Camry buried in snow, I don't see it moving anywhere.

Perhaps a video on YouTube would be more appropriate.