your view on winter tires...

Hi There...

I have been driving cars for 40+ years and I drove in the north of Ontario and the North of Quebec and snow tires are no better than any other tires. I have never been stuck, or in a ditch or had an accident in the winter, nor did I ever missed time from work due to weather. Snow tires have one specialty that they are good at and that's all. If you are within other conditions they are useless. A good quality All Season tire is always best. Snow tires gives most people a false sense of safety and security and they start driving as if this was still summer.

Drive according to the conditions and an All Season tire will be your best friend.
 
ya thats true too because i have also been driving all season tires for lot of winters and never had problem..but this time a friend was selling his winter tires for super cheap price ..so i said why not give it a try this winter... i mean i wont change my driving habits. i will still drive slowly and extremely careful. But i just want to see how winter tires behave..plus my all season tire will run longer since i will not be using it this winter . :P
 
TID10 said:
I lived in Utah for a few years. While there I drove a Subaru. With the OEM tires the Sooby ate snow for breakfast. When the wore out I bought dedicated snow tires. Not only did the snow performance decrease, the traction on dry pavement stunk. Too mushy. I say stick with a good set of all season tires. Check out the ratings on Tire Rack and stick with OEM tires.
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I don't know what year it was you're talking about, or what brand of tires you bought, or what exactly you mean by "snow tires", because there are so many options now you could be talking about so many different tires, but I think you're over-generalizing from your single bad experience. It's pretty bad advice to tell everyone to stick to OEM tires, there's just too many good options available.
I have "performance winter tires" (Michelin Alpin PA-2) on a muscle car, and the car drives great all winter, and would be totally useless with the summer tires. I also had a WRX with another brand of performance winter tires, and it was great all winter also. Snow tires used be like driving on jelly- and some of now are still pretty wiggly. If you're going to use them, they need to be on all 4 wheels. But some of the newer winter tires are excellent, and the performance differences are barely noticeable, if at all, especially on the V,W, and Z-rated tires. Dedicated "winter" tires (not snow), are not only better in snow, but in slush, ice, and dry roads when the temps are below 40f. Once it gets that cold, summer tire compounds start getting too hard, and can't turn or stop very well, especially when wet. If you can afford it, and live anywhere that has real winters, I think they are totally worth the money.
Just make sure you're taking about "winter tires" or "snow tires", because they are two completely different categories, but people mix them together when talking all the time.
 
dtuna42 said:
I don't know what year it was you're talking about, or what brand of tires you bought, or what exactly you mean by "snow tires", because there are so many options now you could be talking about so many different tires, but I think you're over-generalizing from your single bad experience. It's pretty bad advice to tell everyone to stick to OEM tires, there's just too many good options available.
I have "performance winter tires" (Michelin Alpin PA-2) on a muscle car, and the car drives great all winter, and would be totally useless with the summer tires. I also had a WRX with another brand of performance winter tires, and it was great all winter also. Snow tires used be like driving on jelly- and some of now are still pretty wiggly. If you're going to use them, they need to be on all 4 wheels. But some of the newer winter tires are excellent, and the performance differences are barely noticeable, if at all, especially on the V,W, and Z-rated tires. Dedicated "winter" tires (not snow), are not only better in snow, but in slush, ice, and dry roads when the temps are below 40f. Once it gets that cold, summer tire compounds start getting too hard, and can't turn or stop very well, especially when wet. If you can afford it, and live anywhere that has real winters, I think they are totally worth the money.
Just make sure you're taking about "winter tires" or "snow tires", because they are two completely different categories, but people mix them together when talking all the time.
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Perhaps. I'm simply relating an experience I had. You certainly don't have to agree with me, it won't hurt my feelings. Granted, I didn't buy Michelin. However, I was simply stating that the softer rubber decreased my performance on dry pavement dramatically. In fact the tires contributed to an accident that almost killed me. My inattention did contribute, but with better performance from my tires I could have recovered. I won't go into too many details, but it just left a bad taste in my mouth for "snow" tires. I had great snow traction from the M/S tires the car came with. I should have stuck with them. That's all I'm saying. I'll work on not overgeneralizing. I will not, however, buy snow tires again.

We could go on all day about buying better winter tires, but at what cost? The M/S tires on the car worked great and gave much better traction for ME on dry ground. That's all I'm saying.

In case you are wondering, that is the head on imprint of a 1985 VW Rabbit at highway speed.

IMAG0741.jpg
 
I have snow tires on my Audi, its Pirelli sottozeros, way better than my summer tires. glues to the road with a footprint of 245 all around. Im ready for Northeast winter
 
TID10 said:
Perhaps. I'm simply relating an experience I had. You certainly don't have to agree with me, it won't hurt my feelings. Granted, I didn't buy Michelin. However, I was simply stating that the softer rubber decreased my performance on dry pavement dramatically. In fact the tires contributed to an accident that almost killed me. My inattention did contribute, but with better performance from my tires I could have recovered. I won't go into too many details, but it just left a bad taste in my mouth for "snow" tires. I had great snow traction from the M/S tires the car came with. I should have stuck with them. That's all I'm saying. I'll work on not overgeneralizing. I will not, however, buy snow tires again.

We could go on all day about buying better winter tires, but at what cost? The M/S tires on the car worked great and gave much better traction for ME on dry ground. That's all I'm saying.

In case you are wondering, that is the head on imprint of a 1985 VW Rabbit at highway speed.

IMAG0741.jpg
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I didn't mean to have a personal debate- it's kind of hard to get a point across in print and not make it sound personal when you quote someone, so forgive me- I just wanted to point out to others that while some people won't like the particular tires they bought, I don't think they should assume that the correct set of winter tires in some areas will not be worth considering. Just too many things to consider to be scared off by a bad review or two..
 
ya i agree..just too many factors for a crash..but from looking at your crash it looked like it had a heavy impact ..maybe due to speeding? well no one blames the driver..ahhah
 
Tirerack has a good article on winter tires here. I've been debating a set myself after my all season Falcon tires made travel in snow last winter near impossible. My friends have all said they are a night and day difference in the inclement weather, but dry weather traction does suffer a little. My stock all season Michelin's were pretty good in the snow so I may just go back to a set of those since my current tires are shot.
 
I did not like my OEM rims, so I bought a new set of rims and run summer tires on them. I put winter tires (General Arctic Altimax) on my OEM rims and run them in the winter. I can swap the wheels myself, usually late Fall and early Spring. It is pricey up front, but allows me to run w/ the right tires most of the time. Winters are no problem, even w/ a rear drive car, the front air dam is the biggest problem. When I sell the car, I figure I can recoup a chunk of the money by selling one of the sets of wheels.
 
polisher said:
ya i agree..just too many factors for a crash..but from looking at your crash it looked like it had a heavy impact ..maybe due to speeding? well no one blames the driver..ahhah
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I still think that tire and car manufacturers try to blend the best of both worlds when they make a tire. An all season tire is going to give a good compromise of all types of driving but not necessarily excel in all of them. To do better on a track you will lose snow performance and visa versa. If this weren't the case we would be driving on snow tires in the phoenix summer heat. The fact that we aren't proves my point. When I needed dry performance it wasn't there.

Nope, wasn't speeding. I just needed to make an evasive maneuver that my tires didn't allow. The heavy impact is due to the fact it was a HEAD ON CRASH.

I will just end the debate with the admission that i chose the wrong winter tires. :(

dtuna42 said:
I didn't mean to have a personal debate- it's kind of hard to get a point across in print and not make it sound personal when you quote someone, so forgive me- I just wanted to point out to others that while some people won't like the particular tires they bought, I don't think they should assume that the correct set of winter tires in some areas will not be worth considering. Just too many things to consider to be scared off by a bad review or two..
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No worries! Not offended.
 
just had the winter tires put on...and WOW what a difference!!!! in braking/acc/ in snow..m glad i made that switch and got a good deal on those tires too
 
polisher said:
just had the winter tires put on...and WOW what a difference!!!! in braking/acc/ in snow..m glad i made that switch and got a good deal on those tires too
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Please give us details on car & tires, along with the tire size and if they are on new rims or factory rims.

I have a 2006 Mustang GT with a Whipple blower, and it simply would not move in snow or slush on the all-season Perelli's, but it is awesome in snow, ice, slush, or just ice-cold conditions with Michelin Alpin PA-2 on the factory wheels.

Previously, I used Dunlap Winter Sport 3D on a Subaru WRX, also on factory rims, and that thing became basically unstoppable.

I am personally a big fan of winter tires- but neither of my sets are considered "snow tires", but instead are "winter performance tires". They were either V- or Z- speed rated, and there was absolutely no loss of traction or drivability in warm or dry weather. The only thing I noticed was the Dunlaps were a little softer cornering on the Subaru, and the Michelins were useless in a drag race on the Mustang, but otherwise they were pretty much perfect..
 
oo i already mentioned it on 1st page ..but will say it again..its a Lexus es300 and the tires are BF Goodrich Winter Slalom KSI..its actually a one winter used tires but had lots of thread renaming ( from thread depth gauge).
i never had winter tires because it was expensive so i was looking for some GOOD used ones and i luckily found one. the ride is soft for sure compare to the all season tires but it has lots of grip and i can turn with no hesitation where with all season it was rough ride and i had to slow down in some corners. has any one of y'all tried those specific winter tires or had tried them before...your views on those???
 
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