Just had to tell someone, this seemed like the place! Got to work this morning, the day after the blizzard here in Boston, and there were no problems at all - and my route is mostly back roads. The traction control came on many times, but overall I felt amazing safe and secure. What a great car - it handled beautifully!

That's my bragging for today - first one in the office!!

 

I have had the same experience. I cannot say my wife's XC90 AWD is any better. We had a 2000 E320 wagon which was pretty bad in the snow. Maybe improved traction control tech on w211?

 

They key for good snow traction (even in rear-wheel-drive cars) is good tread depth in the tires and good weight on the drive axle. I imagine that you still have the stock tires and since the W211 has almost a 50/50 weight distribution it should be very good for a RWD car. The electronic driving aides are wonderful! But, if you have the aftermarket aggressive sport tires, you can forget driving anywhere in the snow.

I personally had a lot of problems getting up to my house in the mountains with my W124 (even with studded snow tires). It is really hard to get going on any kind of uphill with a RWD car, and there are a lot of those here in Colorado. There is nothing worse than getting stuck on an intersection with cars behind you!

I was wondering what we were going to hear on this board after your storm over there. That kind of snowfall is not uncommon here. The last time they cancelled work for a snow day here it too 4 feet of snow to do it. Since it caught the DOT here by surprise, we got 3 snow days out of it!! No luck getting another one since though.

I use the 4 Matic's snow agility all the time in the winter. Even with the 4 Matic and Blizzac tires, the traction control turns on (on occasion). The main problem with snowstorm though is the other idiots on the road with bald tires on their SUVs that run into you!

Steve

 

Well, you are certainly correct about the tread depth. I replaced the stock Conti Sport 2's (summer tires) with the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S's, and last year through a pretty big storm in upsate NY, I was able to sustain 30-35 MPH on the highway (although NO traffic). They were just about a month old at that point. This year though, I was sliding around much more. A lot more fishtailing.

 

This is the scoop on tread depth for any tire in the snow:

The average tire comes with about 8 mm of tread. They are legal (as per the DOT) until they wear down to 1.2 mm. The tread-wear indicators are set for a depth of about 1.2 mm. The same depth as the Penny coin trick. When you are around 2 mm it will be pretty darn hard NOT to hydroplane in heavy rains, no matter what the tread design is. However, as the tread wears lower and lower, your dry pavement traction will actually get much better.

Snow tires come with about 9mm of tread. My Blizzack tires have two tread-wear indicators. The first one is set to about 4mm and the second in the standard 1.2mm. The 4mm mark is very important because that is when the snow traction becomes impaired. Any time you have less than 4mm tread, the snow packs in the tread and makes the tire equivalent to a slick tire. So when my snow tires wear down to about 4mm, I keep them on for the summer and wear them all the way down to about 2mm. A snow tire with 4mm is still legal and perfectly good for rain, but no longer adequate for snow traction.

Snow tires have a totally different rubber compound that is still very soft at sub-freezing temperatures. They also have a more aggressive tread design that includes much more deep and pronounced siping (I have no idea how it is spelled). Even all season tires have compounds that get way to hard in the cold. I have never believed that an all-season tire is a real substitute for snow tires. They are a compromise, at best. So back to snow tires, if you drive snow tires in hot weather, you will wear them out very fast! The compound is very soft and gets totally worn in hot temperatures.

So, if snow tread tires are already bad at 4mm, you can imagine how all season tires get when you get below 4mm. They are slicks! Unfortunately, the DOT still considers a summer high performance tire with 1.5mm of tread totally legal to be out in a snowstorm. I find that hard to believe, but that is the way it is.

I use mm instead of 32nd of an inch because I grew up suing the metric system and it is a lot easier to understand when you are talking about comparative tread depths.

Just be 2 cents worth,

Another week of record high temperatures here in Colorado! Highs in the 60s with totally clear and sunny skies! The snow is coming later this week.

Steve

 

Amen on the tires! I use Michelin Alpines on all four wheels and it's no problem driving after this weekend's snowfall here in CT. The 211's traction controls are way better than the previous models (I've had a few). Just watch out for the morons compeating for the dumb driving prize!

 

Good tires are key - I replaced the 16" stock with 17" Conti Extreme Contacts this past August (had ruined (AKA gouged!) two rims and needed to replace them anyway, so changed to 17") and they have been great. Not driving like a nut in the snow is a close second!!

 

Wow. Its nice to see there are other like minded people out there.
I have Blizzaks on my SLK350 and it is actually more sure-footed in the snow, ice and slush than my C320 with all season.
I have to tell you, it is a very pleasurable experience to dirve briskly past a 4WD vehicle with spinning wheels in my RWD coupe.

 

I agree at how well the traction works. I decided to test mine out. I tried to fish tail while rounding a corner to see what would happen. I hit the gas hard while turning and the car started to fishtail. Then, one of the rear brakes kicked in almost immediatley and stopped the slide. Makes me feel very confident

 

I have to admit I was a little worried with the rate the snow was falling this past weekend, but the E performed flawlessly. I have the stock Continentals on, and I did not slip once. Needless to say I was very impressed.

 

My first E500 came with Conti's, I had this car for the winter of '02/'03. It seemed that it handled the snow and ice better than my current (Nav Replacement) E500 which came with all-season Michelin Pilots. I wouldn't trade though because the Pilots are much better in the dry, I was surprised how I could feel a difference - the Pilots are less harsh and are smoother overall.