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So the snowstorm for this past weekend wound up being snow followed by sleet and later rain which partially froze. In NH-Rt 16 (2 lanes and later 1 lane highway in each direction with 55 mph limit) in the White Mountains, surface was either wet pavement or thin layer of ice (black and gray) and/or frozen slush in parts of the lane.
My TLX (Advance, SH-AWD) has 19" rims with all-seasons. On a side note, a few days back, I increased the air pressure to 34 psi (cold) as I found that really improved the handling of the car on dry pavement with hardly any change in ride quality (bumps, tire noise). The car was delivered by dealer Dec 19th initially with 31-32 psi during significantly warmer weather (50-60 degrees), and the front tires both dropped to 29-30 psi in the 10-15 degree temperatures about 10 days later and handling got sluggish -- I filled them up to 34 psi since the temperatures will be going well below zero later this week as winter finally arrives. Besides, I always ran my 2002 Civic with upsized rims 2 psi higher than the rating and found an equal improvement in handling, especially in cloverleafs.
The TLX handled this storm pretty easily -- you could feel the AWD working as it hit the frozen slush, especially if only one side of the car was in the slush, and the car basically drove where you pointed the steering wheel without me having to make any corrections. The frozen slush/ice between the tire tracks on the road did sometimes confuse the lane departure warning, with it emitting beeps and displays and nudging the steering wheel even when the vehicle was still within its lane. I also got real departure warnings anytime I intentionally drove over the white line to avoid large patches of ice, but that didn't bother me too much. I didn't dare try lane keep or adaptive cruise control in these conditions.
Stopping at a burger joint, the parking lot had 6" of unplowed snow and the car maneuvered fine, with a tiny bit of loss of traction in sharper turns. The SH-AWD display was neat to look at as you could see (and feel) the car vectoring the torque to the appropriate wheels -- this is the only time since I've owned the car that I've ever seen this display not have left-right symmetry with regard to the wheel torque. There were too many cars in the parking lot to try any aggressive maneuvers to test limits of the car.
The parking lot at the ski slope was frozen ice with a thin layer of wind-blown snow on it, and the car put out equal torque to all 4 wheels -- never felt any loss of control or precision. The forward and rear parking collision warning systems got really confused by the snow covered parking spot and emitted false warnings -- it probably couldn't figure out the difference between the snow covered parking spot and the snowbank which was 5 feet away. The rear view camera was coated with salt/snow most of the drive so I had to resort to backing up the old-fashioned way
The V6 power was fantastic for passing cars even uphill in the limited passing zones you get in the mountains (highway was one lane each direction). The blind spot alarm and forward collision warning seemed a bit too sensitive for this type of mountain highway passing, but are easily ignored.
So far, I'm happy with the snow performance. Waiting for a real snowstorm to truly test out the SH-AWD, especially on the steeper 10-12% grades on the snow-covered ski slope entrances. Might go with some higher rated all-seasons on my next batch of replacement tires a few years down the line for even better snow performance.
My TLX (Advance, SH-AWD) has 19" rims with all-seasons. On a side note, a few days back, I increased the air pressure to 34 psi (cold) as I found that really improved the handling of the car on dry pavement with hardly any change in ride quality (bumps, tire noise). The car was delivered by dealer Dec 19th initially with 31-32 psi during significantly warmer weather (50-60 degrees), and the front tires both dropped to 29-30 psi in the 10-15 degree temperatures about 10 days later and handling got sluggish -- I filled them up to 34 psi since the temperatures will be going well below zero later this week as winter finally arrives. Besides, I always ran my 2002 Civic with upsized rims 2 psi higher than the rating and found an equal improvement in handling, especially in cloverleafs.
The TLX handled this storm pretty easily -- you could feel the AWD working as it hit the frozen slush, especially if only one side of the car was in the slush, and the car basically drove where you pointed the steering wheel without me having to make any corrections. The frozen slush/ice between the tire tracks on the road did sometimes confuse the lane departure warning, with it emitting beeps and displays and nudging the steering wheel even when the vehicle was still within its lane. I also got real departure warnings anytime I intentionally drove over the white line to avoid large patches of ice, but that didn't bother me too much. I didn't dare try lane keep or adaptive cruise control in these conditions.
Stopping at a burger joint, the parking lot had 6" of unplowed snow and the car maneuvered fine, with a tiny bit of loss of traction in sharper turns. The SH-AWD display was neat to look at as you could see (and feel) the car vectoring the torque to the appropriate wheels -- this is the only time since I've owned the car that I've ever seen this display not have left-right symmetry with regard to the wheel torque. There were too many cars in the parking lot to try any aggressive maneuvers to test limits of the car.
The parking lot at the ski slope was frozen ice with a thin layer of wind-blown snow on it, and the car put out equal torque to all 4 wheels -- never felt any loss of control or precision. The forward and rear parking collision warning systems got really confused by the snow covered parking spot and emitted false warnings -- it probably couldn't figure out the difference between the snow covered parking spot and the snowbank which was 5 feet away. The rear view camera was coated with salt/snow most of the drive so I had to resort to backing up the old-fashioned way
The V6 power was fantastic for passing cars even uphill in the limited passing zones you get in the mountains (highway was one lane each direction). The blind spot alarm and forward collision warning seemed a bit too sensitive for this type of mountain highway passing, but are easily ignored.
So far, I'm happy with the snow performance. Waiting for a real snowstorm to truly test out the SH-AWD, especially on the steeper 10-12% grades on the snow-covered ski slope entrances. Might go with some higher rated all-seasons on my next batch of replacement tires a few years down the line for even better snow performance.
