Anyone have experience yet with how the traction control in the 2006Sonata actually performs in the snow? We are considering the purchaseof a new Hyundai vehicle, and are actually looking to replace an older4-wheel-drive car (AMC Eagle) that was recently totalled in anaccident. We're in the Northeast and have a fairly long, uphilldriveway that the Eagle was able to navigate with ease even after afairly heavy snowstorm.The Tuscson looks attractive, but I'm concerned over reports about verypoor gas mileage -- on the order of 15 to 20 mpg. (This is about thesame as the ancient AMC with its emissions-strangled, carbureted 4.2liter six and 3-speed automatic!) With the rising price of gas this isobviously a concern. Hyundai is still using their older series enginesand transmissions in both the Tuscon and Santa Fe, but the design isnot *that* old -- I would have expected some improvement in efficiencyover an AMC drivetrain that dates to the 1960s!designs, gets decent mileage (mid to high 20s) even with the V6. I'vealso heard people say that with traction control you "don't need4-wheel drive," but how true is this? Would a Sonata with tractioncontrol be able to scoot up a snow-covered driveway?

My driveway is 1700' long and the last 600' or so is uphill, but not super steep. I can ride my bicycle up it, but I'm completely winded when I get to the top and that is in 1st gear on a 27 speed bike. :-)Then again, I'm 46 years old and no Lance Armstrong.My 06 Sonata has handled my driveway fine so far this winter, but we've had no snowfall that exceeded about 4". The ESC light has only come on a couple of times while climbing the driveway so I can't really say if it helps much. The Sonata goes better than my Chevy truck in 2WD and better than my Dodge minivan, but I have no delusions that it would match my truck in 4WD. And it certainly won't match an Eagle.Keep in mind that traction control only helps maximize the traction available to the FWD car, it isn't magic and certainly can't match the traction that the additional two wheels will provide in an AWD vehicle. Also, the Eagle had very good ground clearance for a car, almost as much as some pickups. The Sonata has decent...

get some good snow tires, you wont have a problem with the sonata unless its passed the bumper deep..

2006 Sonata traction control vs 4WD?

Jan 20, 2006 21 Replies

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Jody 20 years ago

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gerry 20 years ago

Well Compaq sure worked over DEC employees, you might be interested in

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It sort of bugs me I tossed out 3 11/23s and 1 one 11/83 with enough stuff to put together 2 systems in working order.

re memory - I recall the 11/04 bootstrap that had to work with RX01 and RX02s with 32 words! (64 bytes). It took 8 authors!

I don't recall the company but a German outfit had the right to build

11/83 class systems and used it at least until 1999 so you can be sure they still are in use. Unfortunately I lost my contact during the Compaq changeover.

An interesting recent Alpha article

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gerry

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