just back from a ski trip in Lake Tahoe. my E was dumped with 5+ feet of snow and ice while driving up and down the Sierras in two major snow storms. never feel the need of snow chain, and never once feel the car slipped. for those of you on the fence, 4WD EX with ABS is the right way to go if you love to play in the snow cladded mountains.

now, the problem. i noticed quite a few visible scratches on the rear side plastic panels. Mostly located on the front edge of both rear wheels. not too surprising judging by the sand and ice my E has been through.

has anyone had similar problem? are these scratches caused by the front wheels shooting sand/ice at high speed? i form this hyposis due to no other visible damage on both front plastic pannels and front/rear bumpers.

will mud flap help?

:twisted: I noticed the same problem. My wife and I we're driving from Portland to Los Angeles and encountered snow on the mountain passes. When I was cleaning the car I realized that right in front of the rear tires the plastic was pitted really bad. I'm hoping that mud flaps will help but it really shouldn't have happened in the first palce. I'm going to look into replacing the plactic there and add the flaps and hope for the best.