Snow

[valve]

Living in a snow prone area of Western N.Y. makes me wonder about the driving characteristics of the Camry Hybrid. I wonder if the electric motors silence could be a detriment while trying to plot along on a snow filled roadway. We do so much more by sound than what we realize. The hum and RPM of the engine tells us alot about the condition of the road we are driving on. Has anyone driven this new model in adverse winter driving conditions!! I'm just curious. Also: how is the balance of front to rear weight considering there is a heavy battery pack sitting over the rear wheels!!! Possibly a Prius owner would be able to shed some light on this subject.
Thanks

[spiff72]

Living in a snow prone area of Western N.Y. makes me wonder about the driving characteristics of the Camry Hybrid. I wonder if the electric motors silence could be a detriment while trying to plot along on a snow filled roadway. We do so much more by sound than what we realize. The hum and RPM of the engine tells us alot about the condition of the road we are driving on. Has anyone driven this new model in adverse winter driving conditions!! I'm just curious. Also: how is the balance of front to rear weight considering there is a heavy battery pack sitting over the rear wheels!!! Possibly a Prius owner would be able to shed some light on this subject.
Thanks
[/b]

I read in another forum that the Camry Hybrid is 54/46 F/R.

I doubt that there is anyone that has had theirs in snow, considering it is June right now and they didn't seem to start arriving until the start of May.

The Camry Hybrid comes standard with Toyota's new VDIM system (Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management, I think), which is actually a more advanced version of their Vehicle Stability Control system (I don't recall what their other one is called). This gives the Hybrid a step up on the rest of the Camry lineup, since they only come with the "old" system.

[Droid13]

From what I've read about the VDIM system, the TCH should be awesome in the snow. I read a posting in some Lexus forum about someone that took a Lexus with VDIM out onto a snow covered empty parking lot and he could not get the car to lose control. The only negative was the car would widen out turns to maintain smooth control if going too fast (it would also back off throttle also to prevent you from pushing even faster). So if you come up on a snowy curve way too fast, you'll still enter the ditch but in a nice controlled manor instead of after spinning out. If you are mindful of your speed the only thing going to slow down the TCH is snow depth and nasty hills.

[Tideland Prius]

I'm not sure about the Camry's VDIM but the Lexus versions will also adjust the steering angle (up to 2°) in addition to the throttle retardation and brake applications.