Has anyone driven on ice with the VSA on? We had a recent "icing" here in Texas, but I must admit, I left my Fit in the garage. There are too many people don here who "think" they know how to drive. There were 190 911 calls for traffic in Dallas on Monday night alone.

I would like to know how it reacts when you start to slide.

 

I dunno yet, since my car still hasn't arrived but by the time it comes we will definitely have some snowy/icy conditions up here.

But this might help you, from another thread...I read a couple other posts indicating the same thing, that VSA is definitely working nicely.

 

We now have snow here in STL and I have VSA.......I took it out late last night through the undeveloped areas of our neighborhood and culdesac's.....I tried just about everything to lose control and gave the VSA a hefty workout. It didn't matter how hard I tried to make the car go out of control, it always corrected things and kept it going in a straight line. I was impressed!

 

I really wanted to try it yesterday, but as I stated, it's the other drivers I worry about. My wife drove it to her work which is about 2 miles away, but I got no report.

 

I have driven my Fit and other stability control equipped vehicles extensively on ice and snow. I have also attended track events with professional drivers which illustrated the value of stability control systems. There are many videos that explain how stability control works on the internet. You can find some of them on youtube. For instance, search stability control or Bosch ESP on youtube. There are tons of videos. This should help you. Ultimately, you or any electronic system is limited to what traction is available.

The less traction available, the more critical that what little traction is available be used wisely and quickly. The difference between a human and a VSA system is that no matter how good of a driver you are, on a non-VSA car, you cannot control your braking to each wheel individually to make the car react. VSA can. Also, the electronics can sense and react to events many times per second, faster than you the driver in any event. Plainly, VSA is more efficient at controlling the vehicle in low traction and/or emergency situations than a human driver alone in most situations. You'll always have a few naysayers, but in this case I attribute this to lack of education and experience in the matter. To be blunt, detractors of VSA systems are either ignorant, inexperienced, or underinformed, no offense. You'll be hard pressed to find too many educated, trained drivers familiar with VSa systems who do not hold the view that in the vast majority of cases VSA is an asset. If they come out with a car that has 4 brake pedals, one for each wheel, and a human driver with 4 legs and feet who also has the reflexes and driving skills to individually manipulate all 4 brakes to react in adverse conditions, then I'll believe that a human can match the performance of VSA.

Look around on youtube and you should find some informative stuff. The videos and tutorials there will explain it better than I can here in text.

I personally went to the movies last night, and was greeted with a large, empty, icy/snowy parking lot. I used the opportunity to test out the Fit's VSA, and to educate my wife with some real world demonstrations of how the car handled in emergency manuevers with and without VSA on. Fun.

 

Yeah, I think vsa should help out a lot in snow and ice if not driving to fast...While back, I saw a tv program demonstrating the effectiveness of vsa in Norway. The road course was covered with 4-5 inches of snow, with vsa off the bmw x5 was skidding out of control everywhere and when they turn vsa back on, it completed the course easily. The x5 was traveling around 30 mph without snow chains, but did not recall if it had snow tires on. Also when my friend was driving his ,07 civic si with snow chains in snow...he was traveling around 25-30 mph...he then turned off his vsa and the car started to spin it's tires and slide, so he quickly turn back vsa on and it regain traction.

 

VSA Should be turned OFF when driving in snow or ice.

 

I couldn't disagree more! VSA should be left ON at all times. The only exception would be if you are literally stuck in snow/mud...it would be easier to get out with VSA off.