yaris in snow

[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