When and why should someone their traction control off button?

Answer 1

Under some conditions, traction control can do more harm than good. In heavy, sticky snow, it's sometimes better to let the wheels spin to keep them from caking up; traction control will prevent this from happening. Allowing wheel spin can also have the effect of grinding through a thin coating of ice (though this can be useful, it's brutal on the tires); traction control must be disabled to allow this. Finally, the traction control systems on certain (mostly Japanese) models will cut engine power so severely that the car appears to stall; this is usually a bad thing and it can actually be dangerous. In any of these scenarios, it can be useful to disable the traction control system, keeping in mind that the car's stability may suffer, though it shouldn't be any worse than it would be on a similar car that's not equipped with traction control.

Under normal conditions, traction control should have almost no effect on gas mileage (since it only engages after a wheel starts to slip).