This may not be the right forum but will post a couple of questions on the Camry Hybrid.
Am very interested in the Camry Hybrid and would like some owners opinions, advice, pros and cons welcome.
Wonder if any owners have had expeirience with the car in snow? Hear the Prius is not to good. One owner of the prius I know said it limited his speed due to the CVT to maintain traction and would only due a few mph to make a fairly steep snow covered hill. Wondering if the Camry would be the same in climbing snow covered grades as the Prius? Also wonder if it would be very low speed traveling on all ice or snow covered roads if flat too?
Any comments to help in my decision will be welcome.
I only had to drive mine in very light snow this winter. No problems but could feel it starting to lose it on some hills. The traction control works reasonably well.
In my opinion the best thing for dealing with snow is a set of real snow tires. I used to have a Rav4 and used Blizzaks on it in the winter. It would go through 6" of snow with no problem.
I found my Camry Hybrid has been operating very well in the snow. I have not ventured out into the four blizzards we've had here in Maine over the past two months, but certainly after the storms and on snow-covered and ice-covered roads.
I did not even know the car had traction control until the first storm and then it only kicked in when starting up from a stop. The traction control feature and anti-lock brakes come in very handy in winter driving. Both work quite well on this vehicle.
I also think the balance of the car is excellent with no rear-end slipping on turns.
The tires, which are standard-issue, all-weather Bridgestone radials worked very well. I was concerned because my previous experience with Bridgestone/Firestone tires was not good in snow/ice.
I'm not sure how to respond to your question about driving uphill in the snow in anything other than slow speed. Having lived in snowy New England for almost 30 years, that's the only way to drive up (and down) a snowy hill - slowly.
One thing that I need to mention is that my gas mileage dropped considerably when the cold weather arrived. I've asked for others opinions on this in this same NG and gotten the same report from other hybrid owners. There is lots of speculation as to why, some think it is related to "winter-blends" of gasoline, but I personally think it is related to the heating system which uses a supplemental electric heater to support the standard heater - at least that's my understanding from reading the owner's manual. You can turn this off by pressing the ECO button under the dash. When ECO is on, the heat takes longer to come one, but I find the gas engine turns off more frequently at stops, and it rides more frequently in all-electric, in this ECO mode. My gas mileage has improved dramatically with it on. But I am still experimenting.
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