How does your Yaris handle in the snow?

[Kal-El]

Originally Posted by ddeschen

Been driving for 40 years and this is the worse car I ever had to drive on an icy or "slushy" slab. OK in snow, not great but OK.

On ice or slush with light to very light cross winds, I feel being on a very delicate balance where I drive with 4 fingers on the steering and super smooth acceleration and braking (which is BTW the easiest part with ABS...). I clearly feel the back end very loose and asking only for a stiffer move of the steering to go in place of front end.

Did my homework; tried different tire pressures to end up with 32F 30R, alignment well within specs (checked 2 different places), no tire deformation for the Toyo GO2+, tried 2 x 50lb sand bags in the trunk, all with no significant improvement.

Now, the potential culprit(s)... My guess:

Light car combined with;
Cross winds pretty high sensitivity and;
185-60-15 (recommended) tires that are too large for winter driving. The car is so light and with this tire size it "floats" on the slippery surface.

Now your opinions...

It's not the car as much as it is the crappy stock tires. The stock tires are among the worse rated for snow, well actually for anything. Only summer tires are worse in the snow.

It's essential to throw on snow tires, especially when you're in Canada.

I have a Wrangler (wife's really) and a Yaris that I put winter rubber on.

Guess what I take out in the snow? The Yaris! Yup, you read that right!