How is the Protege5 in the snow?
 

I'm going to be heading over the pass next week and might get into some snow. I see a lot of the PR5 owners here live in snowy conditions. How does it drive/handle in the snow?

Heh. I guess there are some benefits of living in this part of Texas. It was like 73 today... :cool:

although i live in southern CA, i go snowboarding often and there was some snow and ice in the parking lot and it handeled ok, but i was going pretty damn slow. I did get stuck on ice but got out of it pretty quickly. i dont think you should really use my expirience as a good judgment though, just wanted to offer my .02

no snow here yet which is fine with me, cuz when it snow that means i have to work. I plow snow in the winter.

-Andrew

Snow here in Calgary.
The car is great in snow, and Ice also. Running the all season tires on factory rims and I have yet to have any difficulties.

Don

Very good in snow
 

We had snow once here, and with my 185/65R14 Hakka1 studded, it was awesome !!! I just didn't slow down. It seems that the short wheelbase helps a lot and the rear end just doesn't wipes out!!!

Windsor VT
 

No snow here yet, but I have a set of 4 Michelin Arctic Alpins (195/55-15) on steel wheels (15") ready to go on! :-)

I've driven lot's of FWD cars in our snowy winters, and with good all-season tires and smart driving, they are very safe and predictable. I expect that iwth dedicated winter rubber, it will be fantastic.

I'm in Calgary also running the factory rims and tires on my P5, and I have not had any issues yet. I am pretty surprised with the traction of these tires in packed snow particularly. Just take it easy.

Dale.

We had our first snow storm
 

OEM tires and rims.

Braking is very good with the ABS.

Grip when taking off, not bad.

I found the steering needed a little getting use to......does not react very good.

If I lived out of the CITY I would get snow tires.

After much debate on whether to get winter tires or not, I have opted to wait till Calgary's next winter. The all-season factory tires and rims are fine so far and I have yet to encounter any difficulties driving my car on snow/ice...except maybe when I was trying to leave the Big Bucket Car wash and forgot that there was ice by the exit...only the one time though.:cool: :cool: :cool:

Anyone experience starting difficulty in the cold weather? Although it didn't snow here in IN, it got pretty cold. It took like 4-5 seconds of cranking before the engine would start up! (it had 3/4 tank of gas in it). I really don't expect this to happen in a 2 month old car that has less than 2000 miles on it. My previous 6 year old Honda civic starts right up in less than 2 sec even in sub zero windchill temps!

I'm putting my money to new rims and tires for the summer, stock ones are fine for winter.

Cold starts...
 

Yup, I too am dissapointed by the engine behavior under cold starts...

Re: Cold starts...
 

I e-mailed my dealer and this is what he said:

But does anyone actually believe what a dealer says? :)

Cold Start
 

Your dealer is right about the fuel pump : it is true that the fuel pump is energized when you turn your key to full accessories and pressuring the system so that it is ready when the sparks start.