2011 Toyota Corolla with terrible winter traction

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It should be noted that the BF Goodrich tires you buy nowadays are made by Michelin, and are of good quality. The “old” BF Goodrich tires were…not so good.

I believe that Coker manufactures those replica BF Goodies themselves, and that they have no connection to Michelin, however.

@cardud Assuming you’re old enough to say “when I was a lot younger,” when you were a lot younger it was astonishing for a car to make it to 100,000 miles, tires lasted maybe 25,000 miles, routinely failed catastrophically, and required chains to get traction in any appreciable snowfall.

Or put in another context, today’s minivan is as fast as yesterday’s Ferrari. Things are a LOT better today than they used to be, but unfortunately we have yet to repeal the laws of physics, which means that we need soft, pliable tires with deep tread for good traction in the snow.

And tires like that make for a wiggly, crappy handling experience when it’s dry, not to mention the accelerated wear from the softer, crumblier rubber. Which is why if you live in a state that gets a significant amount of winter, it’s a good idea to have winter tires on their own rims to change to when the snow starts flying.

It might be totally bogus but my BIL in South Dakota just got rid of his claiming it was terrible in snow due to a balance issue in the basic design. It wasn’t his first Toyota and I don’t know which model it was whether the Camry or the Corolla (whichever one is more expensive). I think it was a 2012 bought new. He had put new tires on it too but just gave it up. He just showed up with a Chevy SUV instead talking about the handling issue of the Toyota. I don’t disagree with the whole tire issue, but there may be something more basic going on too. Like I said, that’s all I know, and its free.

I owned a 1996 pontiac sunfire that i felt was aweful in the snow/traction. I felt like outside of snow and rain, it was great. I tried multiple kinds of tires but never satisfied, as i continued to get stuck. Slightly wider tire (for the time) and maybe a front to back balance issue. Sold the car at 195K miles after 8 years of driving when the fuel pump stopped working. I thought that was a good value, even though traction was not the greatest. Some cars just don’t grip.

My wife bought an '82 Camaro and drove it for several months until I got orders to Loring AFB, Maine. I suggested that she sell the car because I knew it would not get around very well in the snowy Maine winters. She insisted on keeping it so we towed it to Maine behind a large moving truck. We were not there more than a couple of weeks before we got a good snowfall. That car wouldn’t move because it just sat down on the snow. New winter tires were not much help. The good news is that the Camaro sold for a premium in Maine because they were very rare up there at the time. A local car dealer gave her almost $1000 over the original price and the kicker was…it was a 4 cylinder 5 speed car. She bought it because it sat on the dealer’s lot so long that she bought it dirt cheap to begin with. My wife always has a knack for coming out of most situations “smelling like a rose.”

Has the alignment been checked?
If the tires are trying to go in different directions, like if the toe is off, there will be more slippage.

“…it was a 4 cylinder 5 speed car”

Until now, I hadn’t been aware that Camaros were available with anything smaller than a six-cylinder. I like to learn something new every day, and I guess that this qualifies as my new knowledge for today!

I’ve worked on a few 4 cylinder Camaros of that era. They’re a bit anemic and most people in the market for a Camaro did not want an anemic 4 banger; no way, no how.

2011 Corollas come standard with traction control. It helps two wheel drive cars immensely compared to those without. But it isn’t a miracle worker and is still limited to the traction available with the tires. We had three Corolla type ( Prisms) and all were excellent in snow with snow tires. They were fair to terrible in snow without, depending upon depth and snow type. Snow depth and snow type has a lot to do with snow traction. Even a decently rated all season in dry snow can really be poor if the snow is wet. The only thing that gives you a chance in heavy wet snow which we see a lot, is dedicated winter tires.

If you want to see what the 2.5L “Iron Duke” looks like in the Camaro engine bay:

The “Iron Duke” name was just GM’s step back from the dreadful all aluminum 4 cylinder they put in the Vega. It had such a poor rep. they wanted people it know it was not the same motor…but still absolutely nothing special about it. It was just cast iron, like everyone else at that time.

In the 70’s you could get a Mustang with a 4-cylinder also. Basically a rebadged Pinto.