hehehe, this salesman didn't know it stuff very well...
ESP is always on until you turn it off (or partially off like I explained)
By the way, we had about 15 cms of snow here yesterday. I went out, turned the ESP completely off (partially wasn't enough to have fun), and engaged the forced 4wd mode and had fun in the parking lot of the shopping mall...
Men that was fun, there was enough snow and engine power that I could do tailspins in the 4wd mode like if I was driving a rear drive truck but had enough front wheel traction to remain in control of the truck.
There's was no way I could do this while ESP was on. And I was barely able to do it in partial off mode. The ESP is really good.
I also had to turn a corner which was very icy the other day, ABS tried getting control of the turn but there was not enough traction to be able to slow down while turning and getting through the corner, so I decided to accelerate a bit instead to let the 4x4 and ESP to its job and guess what, instead of hitting the curb, I was able to make it through the corner, gee that was a close one, I barely made it... This is a situation where snow tires instead of four seasons tires would've made a big difference I'm sure, snow is one thing but ice, there's really no way to get a grip on it without winter tires.
RedVortex