I was gentle at first, but then the TRAC steped in and I no longer had power to the wheels in contact with the road. Today, I managed to get up the drive wihtout a problem, keeping soft acceration in mind.

 

What exactly does the TRAC do? Does it cut power to any wheel that is slipping?

 

Yes, it basicaly brakes the wheels and cuts power to slipping wheels, it's standard along with stability control on the TCH. Vehicle Stability Control prevents the car from loosing control and possibly sliding or rolling over.

 

Before the person above decides against the Camry based on the traction control, check out other forums on other vehicles. This is not a Toyota or hybrid only issue. There are other cars from other manufacturers that do not have a disable option for the traction control.

I agree that it is not the greatest design, but it would be bad to buy another car only to find out that it gets stuck too!


Did the original poster try opening the drivers door and using his leg to help push the car? I have done this in the past with my old car. It might save a tow!

 

I did, I tried everything. My situation was by no means normal. My front tires fell though about a foot of ice, so I was stuck beyond normal condtions. I was not posting to bash the TCH, but rather the inability to disengage the Trac. Had I been able to do to that, I could have powered the front wheels to rock myself out. Still happy with the car, just had a bad snow day that day.

 

It probably wont swing my decision....I will just have a LOT to get used to when comparing a truck to a car. (I don't like being stopped by the weather.) But I do not like the technology "telling" me how to drive...that is one annoyance that apparently is on most cars. It is too bad they don't have a disable feature.

 

Well, I'm actually sort of a little computer geek, but there is nothing more I hate than computers taking over without an option to over ride. I totally hate the fact that TCH has no over ride for traction control and today I found another huge problem with the car. My car was totally frozen from the latest winter storm and I wanted to leave it running for half an hour for the ice to melt so I could scrape it later. Imagine my horror when I couldn't lock the car when it was running. I tried manual key, I tried to push mechanical switch inside, nothing worked, the car would unlock itself over and over again no matter what I did. I'm not ready to sell my car yet, but if those engineers don't provide some kind of over ride for all the automatic functions they provide, next time I shop for the car, it will not have any computers inside. At least my navigation system has over ride for that stupid programing lockout while you drive. There has to be some way to shut down traction control, even if it will require rewiring the speed sensors at some point I may have to figure a way, since I can't have TCH as summer car only. As a matter of fact in another post somebody complained about cruise control to Toyota, but I think we should actually complain to Toyota about missing traction control over ride and how unsafe it is for the car to stop moving in the middle of road if traction is not adequate.

 

Pete4 - Wow, I second that -- if I had the car I would submit a complaint. And yeah, I'm a computer geek here and I'm sorry but I do not trust computers with my or my loved ones lives. Heck I'd never make it up my apartment complex road if this traction control is as bad as it sounds....There really isn't anything wrong with spinning your tires...it can work.

 

All it takes is a good set of snow tires. Anybody who drives in the great white north would do well to have a set, no matter what the drive configuration. I drove my Prius through the same junk yesterday and don't think I would have made it with the stock Bridgestones. But I don't think I would have made it with those tires in anything. The two times I thought it was about to get stuck I just lifted off the throttle and re-applied, letting it grind its way out gradually. Without the right tires there is no traction and without traction there is no motive force to be had. The ability to spin your wheels doesn't do anything more than give you the ability to dig a deeper hole with wet ice at the bottom.

 

Yeah, I didn't mean it to be spinning yourself a hole. I'll have to see how it works when I get the car. I more meant if the tires spin a little but you are moving I wouldn't want them to just stop. Certainly if you arn't moving, then yes, you are digging a hole.