Drove my TSX in our first significant snowfall here over the weekend. I have to say I was impressed. I live up a pretty steep hill and was convinced I'd need Blizzak's to make it home in this car, but that wasn't the case. In fact, while other cars were slipping and sliding all over the ice-covered roads, the TSX stuck to the road quite well and went up the hill with minimal slippage (thanks to the VSA)!!!

I even took it to an empty parking lot and tried to spin it around a few times just to see what would happen. With VSA and anti-lock brakes engaging all the while, it was a fairly boring event! Where I got slippage, the car regained control very quickly.

However, do recall that this is a 2wd car. There was one episode where the car slipped a bit unexpectedly. This happened while driving on a road with black ice and the road surface was tilted towards the curb - so as with any car (even 4wd), be careful on the black ice. It's somewhat-heavy weight may cause such slippage to occur more frequently than other cars.

My previous car was a Jetta withOUT anti-lock breaks although I did have studded snow tires. Still, I'd say this car performed just as good, if not better, than the Jetta with the studded snow tires on it.

Anybody else have winter driving experiences to share? While this first experience was an excellent one, I'm still wondering if I'll need those Blizzaks...

 

what is your mileage? TSX with new tires has deepter thread and may improve traction in snow.. but i am sure VSA help as well !!

 

don't cheap out..get winter tires... All season tires means it sucks in all seasons...once the snow melts a little or has been compacted you will lose a lot more traction..fresh snow is easy to get traction in .

 

It is so hard, for me atleast, to tell whether a car handles well in the snow, every situation is different and I never get what I expect from a car. I do think the vsa is handy and it has helped me creap up icy driveways. I do plan on getting winter tires as I think that is the only way the TSX will handel WELL in the snow.

 

How does VSA help you get up a hill? I thought VSA just helps in the event of oversteer and understeer... and has little to do with traction control which is another system all together.

Anyway, what type of snow did you get, were the roads covered? I doubt the tires on the TSX will do well in a real snow storm.

 

Why is that? or do you mean without snow tires?

 

Yes without snows I mean. Now, if there are low amount of miles on the tires (brand new OEM tires), they should work ok for the 1st season of snow. The reason being the tread thickness is at optimal levels for handling snow.

 

from acura.com

"The Traction Control System (TCS) component of VSA uses sensors that monitor the front wheels and computer-controlled modulation of engine power and front brakes to help prevent wheel spin when starting out or accelerating. If the sensors detect excessive front-wheel acceleration, TCS automatically closes a secondary throttle valve until wheel spin stops. This helps the TSX maintain traction during acceleration and helps the driver retain steering control, even when accelerating on slippery surfaces. "

The Acura website does mention the traction control system, though it still has a steering/ control slant instead of taking about just getting the car moving. It seems that a lot of new cars have TCS and their snow performance is quite varied, so I am curious to see if the TSX can hold its own or not.

I am not going to say that I could care less about stability and steering control in snow, but that is not nearly as important as being able to just get a car moving from a dead stop on a patch of ice or hardpacked snow. This is where 4WD and AWD cars really make the difference and RWD cars are worthless.

 

yeah what calbear2k1 said!

"even when accelerating on slippery surfaces."

 

My driveway is a little steep (about 5-10 degrees incline) and I could'nt drive up because the driveway had 5" of snow. Had to shovel it before I could pull into the garage. The VSA/Traction control light lit on the console but the car could not move. It did a little better on the icy streets though.

 

If you had turned off the VSA, the wheels would have spun but you may have been able to drive your car up your laneway. There are situations where we may want our tires to spin a little on startup in order to get going in the winter and we may have to turn off the VSA

 

VSA on or off... there will be times with the OEM tires that you will be stuck... while the tire is still new you will get some grip. Try to use those same tires next year and you are going to end up in a ditch or worse. And I'm not talking about areas that get the occasional snow storm... for those people, just don't drive that day if possible. So if you want good traction you are going to have to get snows or a tire slanted more toward snow traction.

 

Agreed; I installed my snows earlier this week.

 

VSA is a gas in snow. We got 6 inches in Minny last Sunday. When I drove to work, I could get the VSA to come on all the time when pulling away from a stoplight in my usual lead-footed manner. In a straight line. They do a pretty good job in the metro area of plowing and salting, so it was not nearly as much fun coming home.
You don't need snow tires on a TSX unless you live in the country.

 

What everyone has to remember is that although VSA, AWD, and ABS are wonderful technologies, they do nothing to increase the amout of traction you have . They simply make the most of the traction that is available to you. The only things that increase traction are better tires and better roads.

 

True however it does remove the driver from being an inefficient monitor of when wheel slippage occurs. As we all know, if you gun it at a stoplight on snow or ice, it'll take you much longer to get moving than if you slowly pull forward. It becomes a vicious cycle if you gun it...and since our gas pedals do not always accurately gauge the amount of slippage occuring at the wheel, I attribute the TSX's better snow performance to the VSA...the VSA removes human perception from the whole slippage equation and figures it out itself real-time and even when it's not noticable by the driver - case in point: the VSA went on a few times where I had no idea the car was slipping!!!

So, technically VSA does not increase your tire's physical traction to the road - yes. However, it does prevent the car from unnecessary slippage through efficient use of power and steering...and as mentioned, after my Jetta, I can attest that this thing *does* make a difference.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think that VSA and ABS are amazing technologies and I wouldn't buy a car without them. I was just trying to point out that they can only do so much for you. I just wouldn't say you can replace winter tires with electronic aids.