Handling in Snow

God can't read the plate. Not mine. I have to say my wife made me drive the Beast (Ford Explorer) when the snow started. I took Belle out today and she was a champ. OEM tires a bit of traction control and front spoiler scraping the snow but that was all! Now it was wet snow the best kind if it freezes tonight I will try in the am. Dave are you out there? Looks likes numbers and letters not DualPower

 

I don't have anything special on my Camry and I did fine driving in Colorado (other than my car sliding into a curb on a particularly icy evening).

My Prius will have VSC, should I need to worry about getting better tires or anything? Are the Goodyear Integrity tires OEM? That is what I have on the Camry now.

Thanks!

 

Good winter tires make the difference between night and day! Remember that winter tires will hurt your gas mileage, but I rather spend a little more on gas to be safe. I have a big rear wheel drive 7 series BMW with traction control and with my 4 Blizzaks on it the car handles almost as well as our "Beast" (Olds Bravada AWD). I think the Prius will just stay in the garage when there is snow on the road this winter.

 

Yes, Goodyear Integrity tires are OEM on the Prius. I have 25,000 miles on mine and have had no problems driving in our Puget Sound area weather. Several trips over the pass and never had to chain up. They are not snow tires, so if you ski it would probably be wise to change, otherwise they are more than acceptable.

 

OK, thanks! If we do decide to go skiing, that is where my husband's car will come in handy.

 

That's good to know. I did go out to try to slide around in the snow. Needless to say I had no problems. I could not make this car misbehave. What a bummer no more donuts. Belle takes care of me! If we got snow more often or if I took Belle in to the mountains regularly I would get snow tires.

 

I really have to question how hard you tried to make it slide. I tested out my prius on dry pavement with the integrity tires and taking a tight turn at 30+ mph, the front tires slide a bit and the TC or VSC (I forget which) kicks in. In snow, I'm sure I could get it to do it, although I've got snow tires on now (Blizzak Revo-1).

My testing of the Revo-1's was not as agressive as I'd like yet, but each day I pull into my driveway faster than normal and it only slips a tiny bit. If I pulled the same manuver in my jeep (which I dont' have anymore), I know all 4 wheels would have slipped. At most, only the front slipped a touch when pulling in. I still have to hit an empty parking lot with snow to test it fully though.

 

Yep you can make it twitch, but a 4 wheel drift is out of the question. I guess I am going to have to find a 66 Sunbeam Tiger to do that.