Comments on: Overzealous traction control leaves Prius owners stuck in snow?

By: anderson_b76

anderson_b76 — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:25:27 +0000

LamborghiniZ….I actually have a Mercedes in the garage and a Boxster. And since we are comparing Dads…lol…he has a Lexus RX and Acura RL…either way, I would much rather have either combination then your NERD of Dads Prius and BMW 3-series. You and your Dads income together don’t match mine….SHUT IT!

By: Warz

Warz — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 05:30:57 +0000

Domestic dumb fuaks wow. No brains I’m assuming. Well flame all you want, either for racism or other discriminative issues you guys have. I love my imports. I don’t care if either way the wheels are going to spin, wtf is the point of spinning the tires? Also at least its not going to be dead on the side of the road at 0 blow like domestic cars.

By: Piablo

Piablo — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 23:15:09 +0000

Keep on crying Lambo, I’m going to get you a ba-ba, and then of course a bar of soap. For a little boy, your mouth is filthy.

By: anderson_b76

anderson_b76 — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 21:49:23 +0000

Lamborghini…the Prius is for NERDS…..INCLUDING YOUR DAD!

By: CTS DRIVER

CTS DRIVER — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 14:50:02 +0000

well i guess gm is ahead of the europeans in the hybrid race, thats why bmw is interested on gm`s hybrid tech.

By: NOS2006

NOS2006 — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 13:20:21 +0000

I’m with bb_454. GM’s had more innovations than any other manufacturer out there in the industry, but Toyota comes out with a “60 MPG” car, which doesn’t hold up to the economy they say it will, and it’s suddenly the greatest thing since GM hit a roadblock in the 70s.

By: Piablo

Piablo — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 13:17:52 +0000

^^Huh?

By: Piablo

Piablo — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 03:17:34 +0000

What do you expect from someone who supports the hell out of the Prius yet goes by a login inspired by a vehicle with just about the worst gas millage out there? His poor brain is just trying to deal with the paradox.

By: LamborghiniZ

LamborghiniZ — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 00:49:55 +0000

Hey mujician, show me a GM hybrid that actually works

By: illwill

illwill — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 00:35:49 +0000

I hope GM produces a Volt based hybrid soon, so they can put this piece of **** econobox prius out of its misery.

By: mujician

mujician — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 22:55:18 +0000

Hey Lambo, show me a Toyota plant that is envirnmentally friendly. I know that Ford has a couple and so does GM. They use solar power, wind power, plants in the factories for CArbons, etc. And I don’t think Toyota or Honda come close to contributing the millions of dollars Ford and GM invest in annually.

By: bb_454

bb_454 — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 22:17:55 +0000

The Prius saves you at the pump and does help the environment, but the helps destroy the environment in other ways.

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=417227&in_page_id=1770

BTW GM was making hybrids back in the 1930’s, it was in trains, GM has done its share of innovating over the years. It’s just easier for a company that already has a name to get lazy, their working to correct it, but it takes time and money, Toyota has more of both. Why do you guys hold such a grudge towards things? Bunch of whiny ass babies. IMO

By: LamborghiniZ

LamborghiniZ — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 20:57:50 +0000

All of you ridiculing Toyota and the Prius, you know, being a pioneer and a leader in technological developments has never been easy. And if the Prius was such a bad idea, then why have they made a huge amount of money from it, saved tens of thousands of tons of noxious chemicals from polluting our atmosphere, and influenced the likes of GM, Ford, and everyone in between to get into the hybrid game? Sorry that GM doesn’t have the initiative/balls/caring to start making changes first, they’re too stupid/slow to do that on their own, they have to wait until someone innovative like Toyota does it first to finally realize they can make some money off of it, and even then that’s not the right reason for doing this, the right reason is to be ecologically friendly, but once again GM is too ignorant to give a damn about that.

By: 1c3d0g

1c3d0g — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 18:17:32 +0000

Hahaha…told ya it would come back and bite you in the ass! Toy Ota is a piece of **** car maker, period.

By: chuckles

chuckles — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 15:18:42 +0000

Toyota has agreed to settle with thousands of owners of its cars who sued the company because they claimed that oil-sludge build-up ruined their car’s engines even though they followed maintenance guidelines. The problem, according to Toyota’s critics, was that certain oil passages were too small in some Toyota and Lexus engines, allowing them to become easily clogged by even tiny amounts of sediment. As a result, major components such as piston rings, crankshafts and connecting rods tend to fail, causing enough damage to require engine replacement. Although Toyota claims that the sludge didn’t result from any engine-design problem, under a pending agreement between Toyota Motor Sales and motorists who are part of a class-action lawsuit, the automaker will compensate owners of sludge-damaged cars for engine-repair costs and related expenses from towing and storage charges to rental cars, attorney fees and “inconvenience, annoyance, anxiety and aggravation”.

By: bb_454

bb_454 — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 15:11:58 +0000

Now Lambo finally gets a taste of whats its like to be a GM fan on this site, lol. I have TCS on my Monte SS and have yet to get completely shut down, although it lets me spin the tires a little bit if I want, I also have the ability to turn it off. I have a 98 Camaro, 91 S10, 93 Blazer 4×4, 95 Monte Z34, 86 Monte Carlo SS and the list goes on, and I have never been stuck in the snow in the 23 years I lived in Michigan. If the Prius is going to tear its self apart from spinning the tires they should be forced to inform a customer that the vehicle isn’t suited for winter driving, that way their not left with pissed off customers. Toyota is slipping in quality, they just kiss ass like none other to make up for it!

By: NOS2006

NOS2006 — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 13:22:35 +0000

How outrageous. Why do we need permanent traction control? We don’t. I live in Michigan and drive an ‘06 Cobalt SS Supercharged with a 5 Speed Manual Transmission, absolutely no traction control, and performance (note: summer) tires. I haven’t had one problem driving around this winter (this is my first manual transmission car and the first winter I’ve had it). Previous to the Cobalt, I owned a ‘98 Camaro 3.8 with SGS (Second Gear Start) and hardly ever needed the SGS in the winter. I don’t see why people whine about needing Traction Control…

By: Ricardo Head

Ricardo Head — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 23:38:22 +0000

Anyone who drives an abortion as bad as the prius deserves to get stuck in the snow and either slowly freeze to death or get hit by an oil truck.

By: Piablo

Piablo — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 16:15:20 +0000

Something tells me the traction control is working just fine, as they said. Idiots like Lambo Z tend to mash the gas (or battery pedal in this case) to the floor when they get stuck in the snow. The traction control probably prevents wing nuts from burning out the motors or tranny.

I just spent a weekend in Syracuse, and I didn’t have one problem in the snow behind the wheel of my gas powered SUV. Hmph!

By: jdepould

jdepould — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 15:58:25 +0000

Funny, my 1995 Mazda Protege doesn’t have any traction control at all, and I do okay with lake-effect snow . . .

The only traction control I need is my right foot. The wheels are going to spin in snow, it happens, just upshift.

By: murphy1

murphy1 — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 03:35:41 +0000

im with lamborghini, i have a prius and have been through many rainstorms here in fla without any problems whatsoever. i can understand how these problems in the snow and ice could happen, but for crying out loud, get a vehicle FOR those conditions. sheesh, move on already.

By: sampson

sampson — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 01:27:59 +0000

traction control on a FWD hybrid? What’s the point?

By: chuckles

chuckles — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 00:25:47 +0000

I need my boots…

By: MR2Max

MR2Max — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 23:37:46 +0000

I can speak, firsthand, about how absolutely horrible the Prius’s TCS is. A family member had one, which I often borrowed when my cars were in the shop, or when I just didn’t feel like driving around on rock-hard suspension and dealing with a race clutch…

Absolutely awful. If I went hammer-down, trying to pull onto a street from a driveway, for example, the car would just cut power. There is, however, a legitimate reason, although it’s just a different kind of stupidity on Toyota’s part. Evidently, wheelspin can over-rev the electric motor, which can cause damage.

I probably hold the honor of the only person in history to have done a timed lap in a Prius (I won’t say where!), and discovered that it actually isn’t a terrible chassis, the CoG is very low (thanks to the batteries), and it’s reasonably responsive. I lapped only 20% slower than I do in the WRX, but it took a lot of, well, confusing the car’s systems. See, the trick is to work faster than the TCS’s brain can.

What you have to do is out-think the car. It’s concerned with front-wheel traction. So, the trick is to force the car to oversteer without the car figuring it out. A combination of weight-transfer and perfect braking, to lock the rear wheels, can accomplish this, and you’re sideways by the time TCS kicks in. Here’s where it gets brilliant… The drivetrain disconnects, which causes freer control of the slide, and sometimes it even applies braking. This braking is actually pretty intelligent, and is good at reigning the car back into a straight line.

I’ll admit that I had a bit too much fun with that car once I figured this out. I used to be a very “active” canyon driver, and had a lot of drivers ask me for instruction. Imagine the surprise when I showed up with the Prius! However, the car was big and slow, which made it great as a “lead” car for teaching lines, and one incident does stand out in my mind, where the owner of a modified Miata was very surprised to see a Prius appear behind him, sideways! Wasn’t so surprised when he realized that he knew the driver… Also, an incident where I was bored, and chased down a 3rd-gen Eclipse (not exactly the paragon of performance cars itself, of course), and managed to get him to let me pass!

Such days of hooliganism are long-over, of course.

By: youngm7

youngm7 — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 19:54:55 +0000

HAHAHA!

By: LamborghiniZ

LamborghiniZ — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 17:58:16 +0000

Good point CTS Driver, also the Highlander Hybrid, Lexus RX400h hybrid.

PrimeGTP: Like i said my father owns a Prius, and oh guess what, you’re right, we have rain everywhere too, and there’s never been an issue! not once. that’s what i thought.

By: CTS DRIVER

CTS DRIVER — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 16:54:45 +0000

if you live in the snow and need to also have a hybrid wouldnt the escape hybrid 4×4 be an option? i mean the drivetrain is toyota based in the first place, wouldnt that be a good compromise?

By: MHW

MHW — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 16:48:15 +0000

I’m sorry, but this whole article just makes me laugh!!! I live where it snows and most FWD cars do great, there is no replacement for 4WD or AWD but FWD is the next best thing.

By: 55amg

55amg — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:48:23 +0000

how does he know that without the traction control the car will spin off. he is insulting our driving skills!!!!

By: golf4me

golf4me — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:44:10 +0000

Priceless…I hate these things and their owners…serves them right to buy into the hype of hyprids, then drive them 40mph on the freeway. 0mph is only fitting for them, isn’t it? They obviously don’t like to drive anyway…

By: mujician

mujician — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:19:07 +0000

I don’t know, all FWD cars that I see with or without traction control do fine, a car with rear wheel drive would do better with winter tires. Anyone that know how to drive in snow doesn’t need any special tire with FWD, just a drive that knows HOW to drive, and a car that actually moves. And I put alot of sarcazm in that last line.

By: Renton

Renton — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:17:42 +0000

“In my opinion, it’s better to have the vehicle stop then to have the wheels spinning and out of control.”

what a douche, this Bill Kwon is, “we’ll leave you just standed in a snow storm then..”

“Besides, we designed this car for smug rich southern California douchebags that never see the snow”

By: Renton

Renton — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:08:40 +0000

angelo –”two words: “winter tires”

absofarkinlutely

By: chevy490

chevy490 — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:06:05 +0000

toyota sucks!!

By: PrimeGTP

PrimeGTP — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 14:43:29 +0000

You might be surprised to hear Lamb, but RAIN happens everywhere.