[bagekko]

Driving the X7 home at 2am from the airport, still had the blizzaks on, have all the good options, wife & kids in the X7. Two lane highway, started clear, then a bomb squall of ice/rain/slush/etc. When it first started had sensed a tiny slip, slowed to a normal speed, after a few mins then the highway had about just under an inch of coverage on it, pretty much no other cars around.

Started to lighten up on the throttle to slow down a little more and bam they X7 completely breaks traction. Without any brake or throttle I began trying to regain control, went side to side on the highway maybe 3-4 times, once the X7 was maybe half over the line to breakdown/shoulder. There's not much room on either side of this highway and no rails/barriers, it's just down into a ditch. Managed to save it luckily, didn't help that I had to do this on a bend/turn, was on a straight section finally when had her under control.

After the fact, I wondered if maybe a throttle tap or two would of helped, obviously any brakes would of been bad. What surprised me is I don't really feel like any system on the car helped, my friend was surprised too, which is my thinking that a light throttle might of helped. My main focus was not putting it in the ditch, I was being more cautious because the family was in the car, if they weren't I would of been a little more aggressive in getting it under control. At no time did I feel like it was going to roll, it was very stable for a large SUV, almost felt like a sedan under the circumstances. I'm really curious what the integral steering was doing the whole time, not sure if it helped or made the slides worse.

Under exact controlled circumstances I would love to try it again. Wife was pretty freaked out, kids not as much, one joked he had his arms up like we were at the amusement park. 8yr old tells me the next day we need a BRaptor instead as we could of just jumped it into the ditch and out of the ditch and kept going LOL . Probably won't be in snow again this year, hopefully every time we are the wife won't be in panic mode over happening again. She knows I have driving skill and definitely realizes now that only a fraction of a percent of people could of saved the X7 like I did. Freak conditions, wrong place, wrong time, and luckily without incident.

[FlyEagle1]

Thank God you and your family are safe. Sounds like you handled it perfectly. I have had the X7 save me a time or two in lane changing situations and with very capable braking. The times when it has let loose it was definitely troubling!!! I believe I handled it much the same way as you releasing throttle and mild correction to see where I was headed.

[Propofoln]

Glad you’re ok! Sounds scary

[sharp]

I'm glad you and your family is okay.

[Tyriondo]

Glad to hear your family is okay! This is also a good reminder to all of us that safety is first.

[DisonKlaud]

glad to hear you and your family is okay .

[Photographer918]

Glad you’re ok. In those situations I take my hand off the wheel and my feet off the pedals for a split second - in my experience removing inputs allows tires to roll, and find traction. Then gentle inputs usually get me back in control.

Either way - good job solving the problem.

[bagekko]

Thanks everyone. Surprised no one else has chimed in about similar experience, guess I am the only one to lose it at highway speeds LOL, was hoping to compare notes.

[gsobol]

If it was ice, and all four wheels lost traction, no system in any car can save you from that. All the safety systems are there to help with loss of partial traction. They still rely on laws of physics to help by transferring or cutting the power, pulsing the breaks to help to regain control. All the systems might have been going nuts and you would have not noticed if none of the wheels were able to retain at least a partial grip. I also believe that your trip across the edge of the highway might have been your saving grace, as most likely that's where the vehicle found some grip. Considering how tall X7 is and how heavy, where the center of gravity sits as well, it would be really difficult to recover from a complete traction loss without at least some of the safety systems actually kicking in. Remember, X7 will not notify you when it's saving your ass, you have a lot going on in the moment and you don't need extra lights, beeps, etc. You are a good driver, X7 is an excellent and safe vehicle, ... and you got lucky too.

[Madsen203]

Do you have staggered wheels? They are more prone to hydroplaning and issues with snow/ice.

Glad you didn’t end up in a ditch. I recall landing in a ditch back in 94. Pretty terrifying how quick it went.