yaris in snow

[dandj]

I have not been impressed with the handling in snow. I believe the bridgestone tires to be most of the problem. I think a good set of snows on the front will make all the difference.

[Yaris]

Originally Posted by dandj

I have not been impressed with the handling in snow. I believe the bridgestone tires to be most of the problem. I think a good set of snows on the front will make all the difference.

It's better with 4 snows. It would be cheaper to buy winter tires than to be liable for a wreck when your insurance company finds out how you drive in snow.

[XSarge]

I think mine drives almost as good as my Neon with snows. The only problem I forsee will be because of the light GVW.

[swng]

Originally Posted by XSarge

I think mine drives almost as good as my Neon with snows. The only problem I forsee will be because of the light GVW.

Nice to know because I have both the Yaris and some snow here. It snowed this morning!
In fact the Yaris can take your comment as a compliment. In the review linked below, the Neon is described as handling well in rain and snow, even better than the Yaris' bigger brother, the Corolla. You have to go to the middle of the page where the comparison is and find the relevant comments under the sub-heading "Handling":

http://www.allpar.com/neon/neon2.html

[spkrman]

Originally Posted by dandj

I have not been impressed with the handling in snow. I believe the bridgestone tires to be most of the problem. I think a good set of snows on the front will make all the difference.

x2


My 99 monte carlo driven sanely would slide all over the place :(... and my 2wd blazer loves to fishtail... the yaris doesnt require anything special in the snow, but its also not excellent.

With snow tires I think it would be a great winter car, but for my purposes with mostly plowed roads... the stockers hold up great.

[60 Somethings]

My sister says her LB ran really well the last three mornings here in Portland, OR.

Here's a shot of ours earlier this week - it just sat in the drive until yesterday aftenoon.

[mkaresh]

Originally Posted by dandj

I have not been impressed with the handling in snow. I believe the bridgestone tires to be most of the problem. I think a good set of snows on the front will make all the difference.

If snow traction is poor, it's usually the tires. Just about any winter tire will be a large improvement. I live near Detroit, and just don't get why so few people buy winter tires. Sure, they're inconvenient, but the improvement in safety is dramatic.

[Pars]

We just had really nasty weather here in Toronto and I was in the thick of it for most of the night. My Yaris is running on the stock Potenza tires and they've got 35,000km of hard use on them, so they're well past the half life. It was awful, not the snow traction, but all the ice build-up on the windshield whle on the go. The -45C wiper fluid wasn't working and I went through a 4 gallon bottle in 30min, then had to make an emergence stop at a service station to buy another bottle of wiper fluid. The new bottle was rated -40C and did a worst job at keeping the ice off the windshield.

Even with constant use of the wiper fluid, I was still driving half blind..very dangerous... In my 20+ years of driving, I've never had it that bad with ice forming on the windshield and the weather wasn't' even that cold (at only -6C while doing about 70km/hr on the highway). After last night's miserable winter performance, my next car is going to have heated mirror and I'm going to have to experiment with different brands of wiper fluid to find a good that can keep the ice off the windshield and then stock up on it.

Regarding handling in the snow, the car was awesome but only at speeds under 60km/hr. Braking was good, the rear end stayed planted during rapid turn-ins (it could be better, but for a short wheels base car, surprisingly stable), controlling the rear end with the hand brakes was predictable and intuitive, ABS did a good job at stopping the car, especially when steering clear at the same time (however, it be nice if the system shut itself off at speeds under 3km/hr). Initial take-off traction was very poor and having to keep the speed down to about 60km/hr was pathetic, but a good set of snow tires should fix that problem.

[YANGSTER]

Originally Posted by Pars

We just had really nasty weather here in Toronto and I was in the thick of it for most of the night. My Yaris is running on the stock Potenza tires and they've got 35,000km of hard use on them, so they're well past the half life. It was awful, not the snow traction, but all the ice build-up on the windshield whle on the go. The -45C wiper fluid wasn't working and I went through a 4 gallon bottle in 30min, then had to make an emergence stop at a service station to buy another bottle of wiper fluid. The new bottle was rated -40C and did a worst job at keeping the ice off the windshield.

Even with constant use of the wiper fluid, I was still driving half blind..very dangerous... In my 20+ years of driving, I've never had it that bad with ice forming on the windshield and the weather wasn't' even that cold (at only -6C while doing about 70km/hr on the highway). After last night's miserable winter performance, my next car is going to have heated mirror and I'm going to have to experiment with different brands of wiper fluid to find a good that can keep the ice off the windshield and then stock up on it.

Regarding handling in the snow, the car was awesome but only at speeds under 60km/hr. Braking was good, the rear end stayed planted during rapid turn-ins (it could be better, but for a short wheels base car, surprisingly stable), controlling the rear end with the hand brakes was predictable and intuitive, ABS did a good job at stopping the car, especially when steering clear at the same time (however, it be nice if the system shut itself off at speeds under 3km/hr). Initial take-off traction was very poor and having to keep the speed down to about 60km/hr was pathetic, but a good set of snow tires should fix that problem.

Snowed on the 18th here in Tdot? i didnt remember that....but i do remember few weeks back....DA MONDAY....it took me 2.5 hr to get to work (usually 55 min.)
Seeing all the lamps on the QE went out at once this moring was priceless (small blackout to refresh ur memory).
I'll take a pic when i got sometime in the morning....i pretty much have to swipe my car every morning for the past 3 weeks.

for the windshield....try some rainix product or the rainix washerfluid...it works out great for me.

[Pars]

Originally Posted by YANGSTER

Snowed on the 18th here in Tdot? i didnt remember that....but i do remember few weeks back....DA MONDAY....it took me 2.5 hr to get to work (usually 55 min.)
Seeing all the lamps on the QE went out at once this moring was priceless (small blackout to refresh ur memory).
I'll take a pic when i got sometime in the morning....i pretty much have to swipe my car every morning for the past 3 weeks.

for the windshield....try some rainix product or the rainix washerfluid...it works out great for me.

Hey Yangster, I would have liked to the all the lights go off the QEW after the provinial-wide power blitz. I recall 2003 N.America blackout, I acutally went cruising downtown/gardiner just to witness the chaos...priceless.

I'll give RainiX a try. The last time I tried it, I didn't like it, but that was during summer, I'll have to re-visit.

[hystria]

rain-x it's amazing
it never freezes on the windshield

[hystria]

Originally Posted by dandj

I have not been impressed with the handling in snow. I believe the bridgestone tires to be most of the problem. I think a good set of snows on the front will make all the difference.

don't ever think of using OEM tires in snow. Times are changing, soon there will be no need to have 2 sets of tires for different driving conditions. Here's a hint, Nokian sells the very first REAL all-season (in fact they call it all-weather) tire, the WR with a thread wear of 50000miles. It is the only one in the world to have realistic performance for the summer AND the winter weather. http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/hl/nokian.htm

I have the Michelin Harmony all-season tires on my Yaris. Here in Montreal there's no need to ask for arctic temperatures or snow/icy/slush driving conditions. No question, the Harmony doesn't perform as good as a good winter tire, but up to now they feel safe enough to run through the winter. And in dry weather they perform just wonderful and the thread wear is 80000miles

hope this helps

[boris13]

Originally Posted by hystria

don't ever think of using OEM tires in snow. Times are changing, soon there will be no need to have 2 sets of tires for different driving conditions. Here's a hint, Nokian sells the very first REAL all-season (in fact they call it all-weather) tire, the WR with a thread wear of 50000miles. It is the only one in the world to have realistic performance for the summer AND the winter weather.

I would think that the Nokian WR tires, coupled with the addition of a rear anti-sway bar, would make the Yaris very decent in the snow.