Dealing with the Prius in serious snow and ice...

my driveway is also a slight incline. i have no problem at all. drove to work in a nor'easter today. didn't have any trouble, sit low and drive slow.

 

I had a set of Michelin X-Ice winter tires mounted on my factory wheels. I accelerate very gently to avoid all wheel spin. The traction control detects spin and severely cuts power to avoid damage to the electric motors. If you need to get up a sloped driveway, slow and steady wins the race. Attempting to power up a slope will result in parking at the bottom.

 

I had a set of x ice on my 2006 and they were great. I just got a new set of alll season Hercules tires. Hoping they get me through the snow ok. I live at the top of a hill. Prii do not like tire spin....

 

I would think it would do as well as any small front wheel drive car, especially when you use eco mode as this softens throttle input, I guess I will find out this winter as my weekly commute includes I77, Fancy Gap in SW VA known for it's snowy nights.

 

Get real snow tires if you live in an area that gets snow. It's not just forward traction you have to worry about.

 

I have had my 2010 Prius for 3 winters now. With snow tires it performs better then my 4 wheel drive Toyota 4Runner.

 

I wanted to start a post on my 1st experience in driving on snow and ice and can say that I'm impressed in the way it handled, one note is that I changed the OEM tires for a set of 17" Hancook Ventus and new rims and drove like a AWD...not sure how it would have been w/ the stock tires...they look cheap..

 

I suspect the OP doesn't have snow tires.

I agree. It seems many of the complaints about snow and ice performance are from people using stock tires.

 

Wait, what? Better than four wheel drive (with snow tires) And what kind of snows do you have on yours?

I am a newbie so please, please educate me - with snow here in CT my Prius has the day off and I am taking the truck in as I have visions of someone smacking into me as they learn their winter driving skills all over again...(oh, and visiting the diesel pump with the big girl was not pretty after not taking her out much...)

 

My first Prius was a 2006. I put Michilin X-Ice tires on her and I always called her my little snow machine. I'm in central Indiana, live on a decent hill, and we get some good snows. Never a problem. BUT with the tires that come on the Prius, you might have problems. The car DOES NOT let the tires move if they start spinning. Get Snow Tires.

 

4Wd doesn't help you stop and the light rear end makes overstear worse. So unless you need ground clearance they newer Prii with good snow tires are more than sufficient.

I noticed either your Fuelly report is wrong or you have a plug-in model that's not listed in your sidebar information. To ensure fuelly is as accurate as possible can you fix you tank report?

 

Agreed. Accelerate very gently, otherwise the wheels break loose and you'll lose momentum. I know I don't have snow tires but you get the idea w/ the video I posted in this thread (ECO mode helps if you have a lead foot).

Continential DWS performance in the Snow (video) | PriusChat

 

I'm ordering my Michelin X Ice 3's on a set of alloys this week. I already put my dunlop snow tires on my Scion.

I'll be ready!

 

With proper tyres Pearl is more stable than my FJ Cruiser. Low and light. Pearl S is still wearing the stock tyres, and is parked snugly in the garage. I'm driving the FJ and using up all that surplus gasoline.
Pearl had Nokian WR tyres, which work well in ice and snow and don't wear excessively in summer. Pearl S will be getting those eventually. Mainly because they also make the car more aquaplaning resistant. I don't plan on driving Pearl S in snow such as today. I feel if I have to plow the streets I should be also getting $150 an hour (or more) from the city like the other snow plow contractors.

 

My Prius performs great in winter too. It likes snow at least on Goodyear Ultragrip winter tires.
Hints:

1. Accelerate gently
2. If you know you want to get most of the grip and accelerate as fast as possible apply acceleration gently until VSC lamp start to blink and then floor it. VSC will moderate acceleration to keep best possible acceleration depending on the ground conditions
3. DON'T floor it from stand-still on slippery road. If you do it and VSC will not react fast enough to limit wheel slip your electric engine will desynchronise and you end up with about 0.5 sec of total lost of power. You can avoid it meanwhile accelerating fast by using technique from point 2.
4. When braking - keep in mind that even on the best tires you need form 2 to 4 times more road length than on dry conditions
5. ABS braking on prius feels a bit different. It will not knock you on the foot while working as it is typical to normal cars.
6. Loss of brakes feeling. You can google it on this forum. When you brake first part of braking is using only electric brakes. If for any reason ABS or VSC must work (one wheel sleep, hit the road hole/bump) Prius will switch to friction braking. Many people feel this switch as a short loss of braking power. Also brake pedal feels slightly different then. But car will stop anyway. It's only user feeling. Unconsiously you just apply brakes harder and everything goes fine.

And that's all. Prius drives on the snow just as any other car. It has a bit lower ground clearance so keep it in mind and you'll be fine.

 

My drive is a pretty steep incline, but I have a set of four General Altimax Arctic tires (in black-painted steel wheels) and have zero problems. It's superior to my Subaru Outback with all seasons on (but when I put her snow tires on she's unstoppable).

As others have noted, if you live where it snows, get snow tires. Preparation is more than key, it's essential to your safety. In the 30+ years and 1.5+ million miles I've accumulated (on many cars, not just the Prius - LOL) I cannot count how many times I've braked and driven around cars pirouetting off the road (or onto their roofs) in winter because of a refusal to get proper snow tires.

Since the late 80's I've always bought my snows as a bundled set of four, balanced and mounted on steel wheels, from Tire Rack. This way I can swap on and off on my own, for free, in about 30 minutes (every fall and spring).

Sorry if I sound like an ad for Tire rack, but I don't work for them. Just a long-term happy customer.

 

You could try backing into your driveway- sometimes that works with FWD cars... our tenant used to use this method with her FWD Hundi wagon (with almost bald tires) when she couldn't get up our driveway going forward due to snow.

I'll have the rims for my X-Ice snows on Saturday, but I drove the PIP on the stock all season tires last night during our nor-easter. The LIE was pretty snotty with a nasty mix of packed ice, slush and puddled water. If nothing else the PIP was predictable- I give it a rating of acceptable with the all season OEM tires. Can't wait to see how she handles with the X-Ice snows... since 2003 I've been driving a AWD CR-V, this is the first winter in a FWD car in a long time....

 

Hello all.
New Prius owner here. This post interests me, in that I've always driven a toyota 4x4 pickup (for the last 22 years anyway) and never had a problem in the snow. It's one of my fears being a new Prius owner = snow. Question to those who have the snow tires: Do you suggest getting all 4 new snow tires or will 2 in the front suffice?
It'd be great to see a poll on the brands of snowtires you all have too. Looks like the Mich X-Ice are popular.
Thanks all
Cyen

 

^^^ Winter tires on all 4 corners.