Re: Experiences with Prius in Winter
 

does all priuses come with traction control?

Re: Experiences with Prius in Winter
 

Yes, they all have a form of traction control, partly required to protect the electric motors from over-spinning because they are powerful enough to do so quite easily if left unchecked. The Prius II has optional vehicle stability control, and that helps in the snow too, but not for traction, it's more of a braking / steering compensation thing to keep you driving straight.

Re: Experiences with Prius in Winter
 

Thanks Tom, that was a really helpful post. Sounds like you have a driveway situation a lot like mine! I am thinking of parking my Prius (when I get it in January) up on the shoulder at the end of the driveway, so I won't have to go over the "hump" left by the plow. Of course, that will (1) increase risk of the car actually getting hit by the plow, and (2) make it more likely that the snow will be dumped ON or RIGHT AROUND the car, making for a digging-out scenario.

There is just no good answer (OK, garage the cars at the end of a VERY SHORT driveway that you can clear with a snow blower, or move to Hawaii... looking better and better...) when you get a foot or so of snow, and the plows come...

Re: Experiences with Prius in Winter
 

hajahha i was having so much fun with that simluation prius in your sig schawa, do you have any links to a civic hybrid powertrain or a updated prius one? lol you only get 4 percent battery back if you coast from max speed 85 miles! **** no wonder everyone hates regen when it comes to achiving maximum FE.

Re: Experiences with Prius in Winter
 

Hawaii... Hhhhmmmmm. We've had an 18 degree Thanksgiving here; Hawaii sounds pretty good. (don't get hit by the plow) T.

Re: Experiences with Prius in Winter
 

Unfortunately I haven't come across any newer Prius simulators or Civic sims. I wish it simulated the 2001-2003 model Prius, that would at least be useful.

Re: Experiences with Prius in Winter
 

Last winter I plowed my Prius into a deep snowy street parking spot. The traction control didn't let the car move, until I turned the tires left & then right, It grabbed the snow, and got me out of the spot with no problem. I have no problems with snow!

Re: Experiences with Prius in Winter
 

The only problem with the Pirus 2 in the winter is that if one tire is on ice and the other is on dry ground; you wont get anywhere. There is a slight hill up from where i park at work and if i get snow/ice under one tire i have to back all the way down on flat ground before i can get going up. Flooring it does not help.
It's otherwise a great car but it's bordering on dangerous not to have a proper traction control or a limited slip differential.
In the situation where you break on ice/dry then the tire with traction will get most of the braking power. Why doesn't the tire with the most traction get the power when you want to start? I haven't hear any good explanations for this.
It would be interesting to hear how they do it on some of the AWD hybrids: Do they shift the power over to the one tire that doesn't have traction too and then brake it down because it's slipping? That would be funny...

Lars T

Re: Experiences with Prius in Winter
 

I have been fairly impressed with the Prius' ability in snow. The other day, I got a couple of the wheels into some fairly deep (6-8") snow, when I accidentally drove off of a driveway that had so much snow blown across it that I couldn't tell where the pavement was. I thought I was going to have to call AAA (fairly embarassing for someone who is known to go anywhere and everywhere in her AWD FEH!), but with a bit of care, I was able to coax the Prius to "crawl out" of the snow and back onto the driveway. I haven't even gotten stuck in my own driveway yet, and it tends to be very icy and nasty in winter.

And the VSC seems to do a very good job of dealing with icy or slippery conditions while driving. I have made it down a couple of nasty hills, taking it slowly, when other vehicles were clearly having difficulty.