Does that include the dealer's charge for reprogramming the sensors twice a year?

 

I took the plunge and bought some new rims, snow tires and TPMS sensors at Discount Tire. I have a friend who works there.

Wheels: buying 16" MB Mesh X- I am having my stock Michelins mounted on these for summer use.
Tires: buying General Atimax Artics to mount on my stock alloys.

They are going to put my stock TPMS sensors on the new MB wheels with the Michelin tires.

The after market TPMS sensors will go in my stock alloys with the snow tires.

He saved me a lot of money and is doing some of the dismounts and remounts at no charge. He was able to discount the wheels, tires, sensors, lugs nut kit, and remount kits for the sensors. They should arrive around the end of the week since he had to order the tires and wheels in. Looking forward to having better traction on snow and ice. I am still trying to decide on studs or not. We have had some nasty ice this year.

I got lifetime repair or replacement on my stock Michelins as well as the new General tires. If they are road damaged and can't be repaired they will give me a new tire as long as it has usable tread life (2/32").

Anyone have experience with the General tires? They are directional snow/ice rated. They look very similiar to the Hankook 409 I think it was. Good reviews on Tire Rack web site.

 

I am very interested in others comments. I have a 2008 Camry Hybrid, and i find it the worst car I ever had for driving on snow. It is great in many ways but every other car has outstripped this one. Last year, I was the only one that could not get up the hill with a few inches of snow. In fact, the car would not move at all with very light or heavy acceleration. The car just could not bite into the snow. The car has 28K miles now but had 15 K during that incident.

Lately, driving at less than 10 mph, I could not stop the car on a slight incline. The back end slid right out and i had no control. To me the car is unsafe. I have taken it to the dealer every 5K miles for checkups and complained of stearing and braking consistently.

ABS light goes on at the merest hint of snow.

Any one else have such results. This is this fourth Toyota that i have had and the worst handling.

 

Agreed...but I think the ABS light is a good think. I like that the car can't go into a skid.

 

My 2008 TCH does fair in the snow and ice with the stock Michelins. The all season Michelins are really no good when the temperature gets below about 35-40 degrees. The rubber compounds are too hard. I have driven in some nasty ice/snow with them using extreme caution. I decided to put General Altimax Artics on it about 10 days ago and there is no comparison. The car does very well now on the snow and ice. Tires do make a huge difference. Don't blame the car if the tires could be the problem. What tires do you have on yours?

 

I have no experience driving in snow, but I have read here on this forum about other's experiences, and I seem to remember that there is a way to turn off the traction control. Perhaps this is your issue in trying to get up the hill? Just a thought. Perhaps a search on traction control will help?

added: I have no idea why the ABS light would come on at the merest hint of snow. Perhaps there is a problem that needs to be looked at again by the dealer, specifically mentioning your exact experiences?

 

I don't think it's all that bad in the snow but I'm glad I'm not testing it in the DC area with 2 to 3 feet in the weekend storm and another 1 or 2 feet coming...

 

My wife had to turn off the traction control to get up our driveway, which has a 6 foot incline in 75 feet, with the stock Michelin all seasons. So far with the winter tires we have not had to disable it.

Another storm is moving in for the next 36 hrs. Will probably drive my 4x4 because we live in the country and there is severe blowing expected. Probably drive the Camry the Thursday. The low ground clearance is not good on the country roads.

 

Some excellent suggestions. I will look to see how to turn off TCH. I don't see any obvious way. Back to the manual. The car has Bridgestone Turanza EL400 tires. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....=Turanza+EL400 Looking at this site, they are not well received and listed as only fair on snow.

 

Our TCH lives in snow for 4-5 months out of the year. Temps vary from 0 to -40 with an average of -20.

The TCH is no worse in snow than any other FWD car I've driven. We use winter tires. My in-laws driveway is steep and I've never had a problem getting up on it. Maybe because I back in, maybe not.

As for driving in deep snow like DC and the rest of the snowbound area, I think the Hummer H1 would probably have a tough time in it...