[Darth_Focus]

First snow of the year and the car was pretty much immobilized. I have Michelin Alpin snow tires and this car was pretty much stopped in an inch of snow . Could not make it up a slight grade. Got so bad I had to shut the traction control off. It's a bit of a weapon. I barely make it through an intersection before the light goes red. Not impressed.

 

[mikebontoft]

Dct?

 

[Kabigon]

First snow of the year and the car was pretty much immobilized. I have Michelin Alpin snow tires and this car was pretty much stopped in an inch of snow . Could not make it up a slight grade. Got so bad I had to shut the traction control off. It's a bit of a weapon. I barely make it through an intersection before the light goes red. Not impressed.

Why is it bad? No traction (tires)? Traction control?

 

[Monkeygrits]

Mine goes great. Its not as good as 4wd but for a Fwd i was impressed. Are your tires new? Mines a 5 speed

 

[13ingothatch]

Are you trying to gun it or what? Not trying to be rude but I just drove through 3 inches of snow and slush with the oe 16 continental tires. I never even had the tcs turn on. With a light foot and slow steady movements this car is pretty capable in the snow. Now I did get stuck in my girlfriends driveway but it is super steep, gravel, and iced over. I could've made it with snow tires though.

 

[suss6052]

Car has 7800 miles or near as makes no difference, but the o.e. continentals in the 215/55/R16 seem to have pretty poor snow traction as it keeps engaging the traction control at light throttle application as well as locking up the brakes and setting off the ABS seemingly well below the typical ABS thresholds on the previous cars I'd driven with ABS. (I.e. at 5-10 mph instead of just over 15).

Yesterday was the first day I'd actually driven on fallen snow deep enough to be a concern, when light/ wet flakes were falling it wasn't an issue, but on compacted snow and fresher snow its slippery and it didn't really want to track straight.

If I had to guess at the root cause of the issue would probably be the tires have no traction for snow/ slush/ etc but then again they would spin or trigger the tcs with anything approaching a quick start on dry pavement.

Are you trying to gun it or what? Not trying to be rude but I just drove through 3 inches of snow and slush with the oe 16 continental tires. I never even had the tcs turn on. With a light foot and slow steady movements this car is pretty capable in the snow. Now I did get stuck in my girlfriends driveway but it is super steep, gravel, and iced over. I could've made it with snow tires though.

Even when I was very light on the throttle the TCS was kicking in immediately, and the car felt very unstable.

I was able to consistently provoke it with a heavier throttle when I wanted to test the theory, but that's not the same as the problem I was having with just 7800 miles on the tires.

I would feather the throttle and the car would jump and jolt and dart side to side, if I tried to basically drive without the throttle it would crawl, but it still didn't feel like going straight without a lot of effort.

TCS and ABS were a lot more intrusive than anything I've experienced before.

I had driven my old car over 44,000 miles including a lot of time in the snow, it lacked any abs or traction control though so I had to keep a light but steady throttle pressure and plan out my braking moves properly without killing myself. I was sorely disappointed with how unstable it felt. It seemed like the tires had zero traction most of the time.

The car which felt very planted on dry or wet pavement for the most part felt like a nervous poodle on snow/slush.

 

[felixdd]

First snow of the year and the car was pretty much immobilized. I have Michelin Alpin snow tires and this car was pretty much stopped in an inch of snow . Could not make it up a slight grade. Got so bad I had to shut the traction control off. It's a bit of a weapon. I barely make it through an intersection before the light goes red. Not impressed.

I'm currently in Toronto going through the same snowstorm too and I'm riding on the 17" all seasons that came from the factory for the sports package. I guess since I have a manual, that may help?

Anyways, I actually thought the car did wonderfully. I was plowing through at 60+km/h. Stopped and started fine. Granted you have to be gingerly with the throttle or all you're going get is the traction control light. I was getting way less understeer than I would have expected for the conditions too; did a right hand turn at 25km/h with hard packed snow and had zero plowing.

You're going to have to expect some slippage with packed snow on the ground, but you shouldn't have problems unless you're trying to change speeds quickly. Snow doesn't kill speed: it kills acceleration/deceleration. Come drive in the snow belt for a few seasons and you'll get what I mean .

 

[Joeywhat]

I have zero problems in snow (3+ inches today) with mine. You must be doing something different. No problem starting and stopping, even on inclines.

Should probably turn traction control off...it doesn't need to be on in most cases.

 

[felixdd]

...

If I had to guess at the root cause of the issue would probably be the tires have no traction for snow/ slush/ etc but then again they would spin or trigger the tcs with anything approaching a quick start on dry pavement.



Even when I was very light on the throttle the TCS was kicking in immediately, and the car felt very unstable.

I was able to consistently provoke it with a heavier throttle when I wanted to test the theory, but that's not the same as the problem I was having with just 7800 miles on the tires.

I would feather the throttle and the car would jump and jolt and dart side to side, if I tried to basically drive without the throttle it would crawl, but it still didn't feel like going straight without a lot of effort.

TCS and ABS were a lot more intrusive than anything I've experienced before.

I had driven my old car over 44,000 miles including a lot of time in the snow, it lacked any abs or traction control though so I had to keep a light but steady throttle pressure and plan out my braking moves properly without killing myself. I was sorely disappointed with how unstable it felt. It seemed like the tires had zero traction most of the time.

The car which felt very planted on dry or wet pavement for the most part felt like a nervous poodle on snow/slush.

Wow that sounds pretty nerve-wracking. I'm glad you made it home OK! I didn't have darting (thankfully!) though maybe on one occasion I did feel the car deviate a little bit. Maybe the areas I was driving wasn't as bad as where you are -- more drifts in your area? I drove from Kennedy and Steeles to hwy 7 and Carlton, back to don mills and Steeles, and then back to warden and hwy 7 without much issues. I took Kennedy north, then 404 south, then woodbine/hwy 7 back.

 

[suss6052]

I have zero problems in snow (3+ inches today) with mine. You must be doing something different. No problem starting and stopping, even on inclines.

Should probably turn traction control off...it doesn't need to be on in most cases.

You had snow tires though, and if the tcs was engaging turning it off should theoretically mean that the wheels would sit there and spin/ slip.

 

[Joeywhat]

You had snow tires though, and if the tcs was engaging turning it off should theoretically mean that the wheels would sit there and spin/ slip.

So does the OP, and that's my point.

My tires still spin plenty while I'm moving. It's just a slower rate and more controlled. They're going to slip no matter what tires you have when you're on very slick surfaces like packed snow and ice, the difference is that most all seasons will just lose grip and be useless, while the snow tires seems to continue working and still move the vehicle.

That's why I say to just turn off traction control. I've never used it in any of my vehicles, and I maintain it's not needed unless you drive a rather powerful car, especially if it's RWD and light in the rear. You don't lose control as easily with a FWD car with a lot of wheel spin, unlike a RWD where if it really lets loose you'll probably end up bass ackwards pretty freakin' quick.

With my specific setup, when starting at lights or when accelerating quickly I get decent wheel spin, but I still accelerate. Once I'm at speed there's little to no slippage. With my previous all seasons, a healthy gust of wind was enough to get it sliding on very slick surfaces, and it had a tendency to get stuck in the paths made from the vehicles in front. They're just not good tires and don't work well in cold temps or with snow on the ground.

As far as the OP is concerned, considering the traction control on these cars kicks in when there's even a hint of wheel spin, it should just be turned off. The wheels will spin a bit, it's not a big deal. Been doing that with every car I've owned (well, the ones that actually had it), and I haven't had any major problems in snow (even with crap all seasons).

 

[Doctor Drew]

I was tooling around southeast Michigan all day in my car, on the stock tires, and I must say I was rather impressed with her. It was certainly as good, if not better, than my previous Taurus SHO's and their BFGoodrich KDWS's and Goodyear Assurance Tripletreds.

 

[suss6052]

I was tooling around southeast Michigan all day in my car, on the stock tires, and I must say I was rather impressed with her. It was certainly as good, if not better, than my previous Taurus SHO's and their BFGoodrich KDWS's and Goodyear Assurance Tripletreds.

I don't know how you could have had such a good experience if you're tooling around on the 16" continentals, either that or the roads where you were were cleaner, as the car slipped and slid all over the place and was not at all confidence inspiring even with light throttle applications, or what I felt was very light, it turns out that what's really light on dry pavement is lighting the tires up and slipping/ sliding in the deep tracks left by other cars.

It was definitely side stepping and slipping through the deeper stuff.

 

[Doctor Drew]

I don't know how you could have had such a good experience if you're tooling around on the 16" continentals, either that or the roads where you were were cleaner, as the car slipped and slid all over the place and was not at all confidence inspiring even with light throttle applications, or what I felt was very light, it turns out that what's really light on dry pavement is lighting the tires up and slipping/ sliding in the deep tracks left by other cars.

It was definitely side stepping and slipping through the deeper stuff.

Ehh, it wasn't terribly hairy. I've had much worse experiences driving in Kalamazoo when a normal snow is pretty much 10-12 inches.

Here's a bonus picture of my father getting his 5.0 stuck in his driveway. He made it all the way from Detroit only to get fouled by a slight incline. The guy is nuts.

 

[suss6052]

Ehh, it wasn't terribly hairy. I've had much worse experiences driving in Kalamazoo when a normal snow is pretty much 10-12 inches.

Here's a bonus picture of my father getting his 5.0 stuck in his driveway. He made it all the way from Detroit only to get fouled by a slight incline. The guy is nuts.

Considering it was the first time I've driven the car in snow like this it was not at all what I expected, especially after having driven my old car for over 44000 miles including several winters between metro Detroit and Flint. I was used to having to threshold brake as well as gingerly accelerating with a manual, but with the new car it did not behave properly at least with the TCS on. Even at low speed the abs was freaking out and the wheels were locking up at just 5- 10 mph let alone from slightly quicker.

Either my light foot was wasn't light enough (even though I was able to get the TCS to not kick in and occasionally it felt ok, but it was still a lot more work than it is normally), or the tires just had zero grip in the deep slush/ piles built up by other traffic did cause the car to slide around a lot.

The thresholds are way lower than it is normally that I already understand, but it felt like the traction control was intruding way too frequently and I wasn't really able to exceed 30-35 mph comfortably at points, and sometimes stuck as low as 15-25 when rolling or 5 mph in traffic to keep a decent gap and not hit anything.

Some other people were speeding around like nothing was happening but it was not as smooth sailing as you seem to say you had.

 

[Doctor Drew]

That's weird. My TCS light flashed a few times today while accelerating, but not once did I feel the ABS pulse.

I think I did smell some clutch though. I swear these DCT's are frying themselves.

p.s. My poor friend has a 3 liter, 2wd ranger. I can't believe he's still alive after today. Haha.

 

[TheGlassMaker]

I can see this guy being one of those the firmly plants his foot to the floor and can't seem to figure out although the speedo is reading 120 the car has barely moved a few inches.

I have found in my experience with automatics at least, just simply taking your foot off the brake in drive, the car will simply move on it's own once it gets moving then I apply some power.

 

[suss6052]

I can see this guy being one of those the firmly plants his foot to the floor and can't seem to figure out although the speedo is reading 120 the car has barely moved a few inches.

I have found in my experience with automatics at least, just simply taking your foot off the brake in drive, the car will simply move on it's own once it gets moving then I apply some power.

The OP perhaps, but I know in my case I was very light on the throttle yet the car was still jumping around. I also know that if I were to plant the throttle to the floor the tcs would clamp down on the power and the car wouldn't move any faster than the conditions allowed.

The car was still quite a bit twitchier than I recall from my last car on similar conditions, but I might have had a touch more feel with the throttle as it was mechanical.

My last car was a single clutch sliding gear manual, the new one is an automated dual clutch automated manual, not a torque converter automatic, so the responses should be roughly similar to a manual at least as far as the low speed behavior.

I was more perturbed by how frequently the traction control was stepping in at low throttle applications as well as how often the abs was fighting to prevent brake application (to prevent lock up) even at speeds normally below that of which the older cars worked. That and it really didn't want to go in a straight line without a lot of effort, or so it seemed. I haven't put too many miles on the car in the snow yet however.

 

[TheGlassMaker]

Yes I was aiming at the op my appologys.

Sent from FBI surveillance van 2

 

[Darth_Focus]

I can see this guy being one of those the firmly plants his foot to the floor and can't seem to figure out although the speedo is reading 120 the car has barely moved a few inches.

I have found in my experience with automatics at least, just simply taking your foot off the brake in drive, the car will simply move on it's own once it gets moving then I apply some power.

Ahh, no. I do know how to drive in the snow . After all this is Canada. I had a sunfire on all seasons that was pretty much unstoppable. It is the DCT. 16" snow tires. Im running a used set of tires but they have at least 1/2 the tread life left. Maybe the rubber has gotten a bit hard over the years. Im no white knuckle driver, and snow does not phase me, but it drove like i was on the summer tires. Tread blocks were clean when i stopped so they are throwing snow. If most of you are having no trouble, then its the tires for sure. I just got this car. I had to get rims and tpms sensors, as well as the weathertech floor mats. Well, didnt have to, get those particular mats, but ive ruined enough carpets over the years. I wanted to keep cost down so I was hoping to get two seasons out of the tires. Guess thats not going to happen.