Just wanted to get some other feedback on how other 3's handle in snow. I am in NE Ohio and we have been hit pretty good with snow. First I found that the tires (17" Goodyear)which come with the car (4dsGT) really SUCK.Man they are really bad for what are classified as all season. Also I found that I had to turn mytraction control on and off depending on the slope of the road. With it on I could not get up a snow covered hill. the engine would crackdown to a stall point. I turned it off and used 2nd gear and clutch control to get up the hills. It did seem to helpwhile sliding around turns.you can feel it brake in the back when sliding through turns. Overall Igive it a C- for handling in the snow.

Also the autoWWwipers seem to getweird whenits snowing. sometimesthe windshield is getting abunch of snow build up and they do notwipe and then there is just a small amount of water on the windshield (maybe its just right at the sensor) and they wipe like crazy..

Oh hell my wife was right, I am never happy. Oh wait I am a man.. it all fits now.

Comments???

 

since when do mazda3's with manual tranny's have traction control??
mine sure as hell doesnt. and i love it. i drove my parents auto alero the other day, it drove me nuts. literally. i vouche nover to drive that car ever again.
buti have Toyo Proxes all season tires, and they are pretty ****ty.
but that makes for better drifting, so its kinda all good.
i live up in Burlington (southern ontario) and we got about 50cm of snow in some spots. and i almost got stuck at intersections numerous times.
and at times like these, im never in 1st gear when i start moving.
i always start in 2nd, cuz theres more traction in second.
like, the gearing is lower or more torque?? i dunno, something along those lines)
but i just have to be more careful, like watch my backside and brake sooner when making turns and stuff

 

Mrgaragal, yes I have a comment and the solution for you. You need to pack the family up, load everone into the M3 , and move down here sunny FLA and be done with that COLD AND SNOW . ISSUE RESOLVED FOR YOU.

 

War, that is a very tempting offer. There would only be two main problems. First, if I lived in Fla I would never drive the 3GT because I would be on the my bike (VTX1300) all the time. And two if I left the cold, who would keep all the snow bunnies warm?? Believe it or not you get a lot of snow bunnies that want to be warmedup here. LOL.

 

I had to dig my car out of 2ft snow drifts, then use myfront fasciaas the plow to establish the new height of the snow on the road in my sub. (6-12" deep pretty much everywhere, with tiretracks to follow) At least my Proxes FZ4's seem to dig into the snow well...they spin, but they seem to get me going. I really didn't think I was going to make it through. I drove the 25 miles to work in 1 hr 20 minutes. It tracked straight (as straight as anyone else was) so long as I kept the speed down. With a set of snow tires on it I bet there would be little to stop it. Maybe if I get my wife something new later this year I'll be able to steal herWintersports......Her car had no trouble whatsoever driving in these conditions.

 

thats what my grandparents do. they live in a retirement comunity in gravenhurst (near barrie) from april to october, then they drive down to Tampa Bay (in another retire. comm.) for the rest of the year.

and once you take a 1 week trip to florida, you dont wanna come back home. like, its fun on the way down, cuz the snow slowly goes away, and it slowly gets warmer, maple trees and such begin to disappear and palm trees start appearing once you hit georgia.

then the ride home is just depressing...lol

 

with my worn down dunlops i wasent making any progress, since they didnt plow my neighborhood it was snow in the street and i was surrounded by un breakable ice, so i had to stay home from school.

 

Here in central NC, we don't get a lot of snow. But we do get our share of ice storms. When that happens, I stay home. Even my 4 x 4 in dangerous in that stuff.

 

I normaly don't mind driving in the snow. The crap a%% goodyear tires that came on my car suck. I wish i had a button to turn my traction control on and off. Driving in the ice sux. That is what we got in MD tue and wed .

 

from SE Ohio here...I feel your pain!! [:'(]My stock tires are "ok" but could definitely use anupgrade. I was thinking about buying another set of stock rims to fit withsnow tires for the winter?!?