Thread: Traction Control

In my case, this storm hit right at dusk.. temps dropping, mix precip. Roads froze. Rush hour was already started and since VB doesn't have a lot of snow-savvy drivers, it's ultra-unnerving to drive in this weather regardless of your experience level.
I do have common sense and experience, grew up driving in CT. The car just didn't handle well on ice/packed snow and I wasn't the least bit surprised. I WAS surprised that shutting off TC helped so much.
I am not testing my car out in this weather, I am a pet sitter and it's my job to not flake out when we have bad weather. I happened to be in between 2 different jobs when this hit, with 3 more behind it so I had no choice but to go slow and pray.

remember its ESC (electronic stability control) that you can turn off not TC (traction control) - two different things.

What is stability control? How is it different from traction control? - Ask.cars.com

I shudder to think of how Souls with, say, the OEM Hankooks handle on snow and ice. Especially the + and ! models, with their wider and longer contact patches. Way too many square inches given the light weight of the car. And on top of that, those Hankooks turn into granite at 50 degrees or below. I imagine the OEM Nexens are about as bad.

But once you make the investment in 15-inch steelies with good snow tires, the Soul turns into a pretty decent snow car. I was amazed at the improvement.

I have excellent winter rubber on all 4 tires on my soul and so far, the times I have thought traction control might help things along, it seems to have done almost nothing to affect wheelspin or slippage. In fact all I have really perceived it doing so far is blinking that little light on the dash to let me know that it knows the tires are slipping, but it can't do anything useful about it.

If you're stuck in snow, the traction control is your worst enemy. You have to turn it off to get unstuck.

It's good for rain slippage. For snow it hurts more than it helps.

^^^

Agree with Bodycount.

TC doesn't seem as intrusive as I would expect, but we don't see snow here that often.

I live in vermont, we get a lot of snow and ice. This is the first car I've ever owned with traction control and I was actually impressed with it. The downfall of getting around in winter with a FWD car is getting up slick hills, the TC has helped me climb hills pretty easily. It has also helped a lot with acceleration through thick slush. The way my soul + performed this winter with the all-season Coopers has been fantastic.

I have not had to turn it off yet. The Soul has been pretty responsive in the snow here and I believe that is in part due to the TC and in part due to my comfort level driving in all types of weather.