Finally had a couple inches of snow last night. Went into an empty parking lot to get a feel for things. I'm still amazed at how stable it was, doing insane turns and sliding. Even with traction control off. Too much fun!

Only stayed a short time because I didn't want to explain to a police officer why a 37 year old was out doing doughnuts in the snow. No one around, and completely safe, but not sure what the official law is on these sort of things!

 

Yes, where did that come from? Only supposed to be 1/2 inch; we have 4 on the ground at our place.

Enjoy while it's here. It'll be slop tomorrow.

 

+1` with snow on the ground noting beats M&S tires in 4 wheel low range with all the wheels driving.

 

No kidding, it came down fast too, and right on our way home Saturday night. Finally broke the "no-snow" jinx, in place since I bought this car!

 

I drove home thru a snow storm last night on untreated/unplowed roads for 40 miles. TL was amazing. Even with the less than awesome stock michelins I never slipped. Granted, you still have to be smart and safe, but I was plowing thru 2 inches of snow at 45-50mph. once into town I got to make my own roads as the plows still hadn't come out (probably waiting to sober up from the game). I passed 2 officers in newer impalas that were only going 15-20mph on our 4 lane main road thru town, luckily I know them so we just waved, but I'm sure I'll get a call today about *safe* driving HA

 

I do some instructing at a local winter driver training school, so I have learned a lot about the car this winter driving on snow/ice. The SH-AWD is great on the slippery stuff. I have never gotten stuck, even in some deep snow drifts... so no complaints there. However, there are two things that I don't like about the TL when driven in the snow/ice. The ABS kicks in too easily... which extends the stopping distance when you have snow/ice. Usually in this type of conditions, you let off the brakes to a point just before ABS engagement to get the best stopping distance, but in this car it means that you are so light on the brakes that it takes a while to stop. The second issue is that the engine cuts power if you are on the throttle and left foot brake at the same time trying to rotate the car when it understeers wide from where you want to go... however, that's a more advanced technique that most people wouldn't use.

 

Sounds like brake torquing to get a good 0-60. Never tried it in the snow, nor would I, because I believe it damages the transmission.

 

The ABS only kicks in when the system detects slippage on any of the four wheels. The threshold is determined solely by the amount of road traction supplied by the tires.

Therefore, the ABS won't kick in as easy when winter tires are used on snow and ice covered roads.

On the other hand, the ABS will start working overtime even with the slightest touch on the brake pedal, when summer tires and/or insufficient-tread-depth tires are used on snow/ice.

 

Right and my understanding of ABS is not to shorten the stopping distance but to rather give the driver the ability to steer.

If ABS did not activate when there is slippage, its not doing it's job and defeats the purpose. Now if there no slippage and the ABS kicked in... I would take it to the shop to have it fixed.

 

This weekend should be the true test; 10-15" of white stuff expected in NYC.
We'll see how the SH-AWD TL handles things

 

Im in NYC and ill take her out when they plow the streets, im on coil overs and dropped preety low so dont want to take any chances.

 

we're getting approx 1 foot today.
my office got shut down early, this is after a 50km drive

I can't recall ever ploughing thru 2-3 foot snow bank before with the TL.... but good news is, it'll do it with the proper tires

 

^^^ Sh awd will def get tested today, I passed a few Tls on the road and they were doing good

 

^you're missing out kk!!!!
the vsm on the TL actually lets the car kick out a bit if you play the throttle properly. even with vsm off, the car was pretty stable today. it'll rotate pretty quickly if you're not careful because of the SH (which also means very tight lot donuts), but it's still VERY manageable.

 

Yeah probably lol,and while you guys love this weather to drive the Tl and test out the Awd,this is exactly why i park mine,crazy huh.

 

finally got a chance to test the TL in snow today. We got around 25cm of snow. Handled most of it pretty good, but got stuck on my street which wasn't plowed. Had to dig myself out for the last 50 meters. Overall not too bad I was flying compared to other cars on the road.

 

^ are you fwd? do you have snows?
i went thru 2 feet of snow bank after the ploughs today on the 401, and 427, multiple times as i had to exit the lane to pass a few cars that got stuck, and a bunch of small streets that connected to larger streets... 25cm for the TL AWD-SH should be no problem at all.

 

yes, I am SH-AWD and have snows. It was on my street and the snow was more like 30 cm to 40 cm. I am lowered on coils so that did not help.

 

Actually this was on full tread winter tires (Michelin X-ice 3) but on pure ice. At the next school I will try to pull the ABS fuse and see what happens.

As an aside, last time out I was instructing a student with a BMW M5. That car also had full tread winter tires but the car had so much power/torque that it was nearly impossible to get it off the line. Once it got going to some kind of reasonable speed, it was difficult to change direction. It either plows through small change in directions or oversteers through the big turns. You have to be very careful on the throttle when correcting in order to not spin the car. That's a car that truly needs studded tires in such an environment in order not to be frustrated with it. On the other end of the spectrum, I drove a MR2 with studded tires and it was a dream to drive on the frozen lake and much faster than my TL on a course that we've set up.

 

I am with you KK.....I would never be able to take my TL is such weather, it would break my heart

 

My 2012 TL SH_AWD/Tech passed with flying colors, in NYC
No slippage, whatsoever; brakes were awesome; very secure
If you drive DEFENSIVELY, can't feel safer; be extra careful on turns

 

On Friday, took the day off and polished and waxed my TL figuring there was no need to go anywhere over the weekend. I just couldn't contain the urge to drive in snow. Took the car out on Saturday but to my disappointment, most of the roads were already plowed in my area. The car went back into the garage dirty again.

 

We had a little snow over the weekend here in Boston...22 inches in my driveway. TL stayed in the garage until the heavy stuff was gone. MA Gov. Patrick banned traffic for 24 hours...so I stayed home.

Once freed, I found an empty, nicely-cleared parking lot with a slick layer of cold (15F) snow on it. First test was ABS. Repeated stops from 30mph were straight and true. Stops with some turning (as if avoiding an obstacle) were easily handled.

Acceleration on this icy/snowy surface was fast, but with some wheel slippage. TL would keep straight, and an abrupt front-wheel movement would break it loose. That said, any sideways motion did not last long, as the VSC seemed to intervene. No 360s possible either to the left or the right.

After my skid-pad (so to speak) work, I was back home on local roads...some of which were down to bare pavement, but most of which had anywhere from 2 to 5 inches of snow/slush still on them. TL was mostly stable, but I was driving in a sedate manner. It had no problem at all, but I think narrower, snow-pattern tires would be a good thing to have in any environment where the TL would have to go frequently on poorly-maintained snowy roads.

This experience gave me a lot of confidence in my new car.