Winter/snow tires

[RKS]

How many shitty weather days would you need in order to buy separate winter tires/wheels?

 

[Cienja]

I've never had snow tires, but have always had front wheel drive cars, so snow tires aren't really needed. Rear wheel drive car - all you need is one shitty snow day to get stuck.

 

[coxmaster]

It depends on what you use for summer tires.

If they are high performance tires, they probably are a lot less effective under a certain temp. Thus requiring some winter tires

 

[RKS]

Our plan is to get a G37 6MT. I would most likely have all-season for spring/summer/fall and consider winter tires/wheels/salt bags for the winter. We probably get between 10-15 snowy days each winter. We do have a 4wd/awd SUV but sometimes we gotta be two places at once especially with kids.

 

[punjabiplaya]

im pretty sure that g37 would come with summer tires

 

[jlee]

Summer tires on snow are pretty worthless. I got stuck in a cleared driveway once...

All seasons would probably be okay, but snows are definitely far superior. They're also made of a softer compound which works better in cold weather.

 

[rh71]

fuck that - I will never live in a place that snows that much... we get a couple blizzards a year in down-state NY and the rest maybe 3"-6" deals... all-seasons are perfectly fine for it as long as you're careful. I will not buy another set of wheels to take up space year-round... and have to get them changed out twice a year... that shit's for the birds. That's why dedicated summer's are no good to me either.

 

[jlee]

fuck that - I will never live in a place that snows that much... we get a couple blizzards a year in down-state NY and the rest maybe 3"-6" deals... all-seasons are perfectly fine for it as long as you're careful. I will not buy another set of wheels to take up space year-round... and have to get them changed out twice a year... that shit's for the birds. That's why dedicated summer's are no good to me either.

Eh I just swap cars. 😛

Problem is now that I have a fun winter car, I want summer tires for it too.. x.x

 

[Zap]

I will not buy another set of wheels to take up space year-round... and have to get them changed out twice a year... that shit's for the birds. That's why dedicated summer's are no good to me either.

LOL, I have dedicated summer, dedicated snow and all season, each on their own set of wheels. :awe:

I'm a big believer of snow tires for those living in places that get decent snow.

 

[guyver01]

I'm a big believer of snow tires for those living in places that get decent snow.

meh...

i live in a place that gets decent snow.... travel occasionally to a place that gets more snow...

and my Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo's work fine. Altho i do have a 4x4 SUV.

 

[Vette73]

Look at the Continental DWS tires. They are a all season with a small patch for snow/mud. I ran them on the rear of my CTS (RWD) and got through the 100 year snow storm last year in North VA / DC
I run them year round

 

[Doggiedog]

I would not drive a G37 with all seasons. I used to have a G35 6MT and bought the highest rated all seasons (some kind of Yokohama Avids) and I could not go up slight inclines and did a 360 in 2" of snow while going about 20MPH. You definitely should have 2 sets of tires, 1 summer and 1 snow. That's the setup I have now. My Dunlop Wintersport 3Ds are amazing. I have a RWD 335i 6MT and am pretty confident driving it in snow even without an LSD.

Edit: And you should get them on their own set of rims. It'll be cheaper in the long run, faster to get installed and save wear and tear on the rim. I bought a a set off of tire rack and a jack and change the tires myself. It takes about 30 mins.

 

[Zap]

i live in a place that gets decent snow.... travel occasionally to a place that gets more snow...

and my Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo's work fine. Altho i do have a 4x4 SUV.

Those are off-road tires, like the snow plow trucks around here use. You can't compare them to normal passenger car all-seasons.

I've driven summer tires in the snow, and will NOT do that again. I've driven all-seasons in the snow and they were fine for the most part. My normal snow tires are Blizzak studless, and while they suck for pavement pounding, they absolutely rock for snow. I can go through foot deep snow, up inclines, avoid other vehicles. They feel surefooted in ways that all-seasons don't.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I live in Iowa and drive a RWD car (Lincoln LS). So Michelin Xi2s for me wrapped around painted wheels - better winter performance (summer = Bridgestone Pole Positions) plus it keeps the road salt from f*cking up the chrome on my summer wheels.

 

[IcePickFreak]

Those are off-road tires, like the snow plow trucks around here use. You can't compare them to normal passenger car all-seasons.

I've driven summer tires in the snow, and will NOT do that again. I've driven all-seasons in the snow and they were fine for the most part. My normal snow tires are Blizzak studless, and while they suck for pavement pounding, they absolutely rock for snow. I can go through foot deep snow, up inclines, avoid other vehicles. They feel surefooted in ways that all-seasons don't.

My experiences were pretty much the same. Summer-only's suck once it hits about 45°F, much less when it snows. All-seasons are what I've always stuck with, and any cars I had that used summer-only were parked. Now that I drive a rwd v8 year round I swap between summer only's and blizzaks on a dedicated set of rims, first time I've actually had snow tires other than some of the old old ones from the 80s. The blizzaks absolutely rock and my rwd v8 barge gets around better than all of the fwd all-season beaters I had in the past.

On a fwd like the G37 it's a close call since they got some power, it's up to you if the car is too much of a handful in the snow that you do get. Personally I hate fwd in the snow when the tires are subpar, the most extreme understeer ever.

 

[coxmaster]

On a fwd like the G37 it's a close call since they got some power, it's up to you if the car is too much of a handful in the snow that you do get. Personally I hate fwd in the snow when the tires are subpar, the most extreme understeer ever.

G37 is RWD/AWD. Definitely not FWD

 

[thedarkwolf]

I have two cars as well and my winter beater has all seasons and does fine but we don't get much snow around here anymore. If we do get a lot I'll just stay home that day. It isn't like I have the keys to the office and have to be at work every day.

 

[BassBomb]

I had too much trouble with my Civic in snowstorms in Canada, so I got Winter tires for my Accord.. albeit some of the problems in the Civic had to do with how light the car is

Funny thing is I bought the winter tires, and then it never really snowed 🙁

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I had too much trouble with my Civic in snowstorms in Funny thing is I bought the winter tires, and then it never really snowed 🙁

Yeah, that's Murphy for ya 😛

 

[Arkaign]

This is just me, but if I had a nice new G37, and it only snowed 2-3 weeks a year, I'd look at picking up a cosmetically beat-up but mechanically decent 80s/90s Cherokee with the 4.0 V6. Wouldn't have to compromise on tires for the G, wouldn't have to put it at risk during the crappy weather, and you'd have a good runabout for whatever you needed, including a lot more cargo space. A lot of states let you get by with almost no insurance costs if it's listed as a recreational vehicle.

A set of wheels/decent tires for the G37 might not be very far away from the cost of an old Cherokee.

EDIT : This assumes you have the space for it 🙂 If you had to pay for extra parking/etc, f that.

 

[zerocool84]

This is just me, but if I had a nice new G37, and it only snowed 2-3 weeks a year, I'd look at picking up a cosmetically beat-up but mechanically decent 80s/90s Cherokee with the 4.0 V6. Wouldn't have to compromise on tires for the G, wouldn't have to put it at risk during the crappy weather, and you'd have a good runabout for whatever you needed, including a lot more cargo space. A lot of states let you get by with almost no insurance costs if it's listed as a recreational vehicle.

A set of wheels/decent tires for the G37 might not be very far away from the cost of an old Cherokee.

EDIT : This assumes you have the space for it 🙂 If you had to pay for extra parking/etc, f that.

Cheap steel wheels shouldn't be that expensive at all. It's winter after all. No reason to spend good money on nice wheels when they are going to get beaten up.

 

[rh71]

My experiences were pretty much the same. Summer-only's suck once it hits about 45°F, much less when it snows. All-seasons are what I've always stuck with, and any cars I had that used summer-only were parked.

Exactly. My former neighbor across the street had an M3 sedan (family guy). Of course they come with summer tires. The entire winter it was parked in the same spot, never moved. After it snowed, it would sit there completely covered, still untouched... he wouldn't even clean that shit off, yet he would wash it religiously in the summer. What fun is it to drive a nice car everyday, then stop for months on end only to switch to his econobox Toyota, and still pay every month on that lease? If I were him I'd throw all-seasons on that thing. Do summer tires even do anything for local roads and highway driving?

 

[Arkaign]

Exactly. My former neighbor across the street had an M3 sedan (family guy). Of course they come with summer tires. The entire winter it was parked in the same spot, never moved. After it snowed, it would sit there completely covered, still untouched... he wouldn't even clean that shit off, yet he would wash it religiously in the summer. What fun is it to drive a nice car everyday, then stop for months on end only to switch to his econobox Toyota, and still pay every month on that lease? If I were him I'd throw all-seasons on that thing. Do summer tires even do anything for local roads and highway driving?

On an M3? Hell yeah 🙂 Don't want to water that bad boy down. Maybe if it was a 328i or something like that. If I had an M3, I'd damn sure not drive it during snow/bad weather, why drive in that crap? Sand, salt, rocks, no thanks. That's why God invented pickups and beaters 😀

 

[mmntech]

I've never had snows on my car. Never needed them. Most FF cars don't in urban/suburban areas.

Sensible winter driving is a much better safety measure than the world's best snows. Heck knows I've driven enough empty cargo vans in the winter without incident. They're FR with absolutely no weight in the rear.

 

[mizzou]

if you live in an area that doesn't plow / salt the roads or if it snows so much that plowing / salting generally is inneffective, winter tires can be a great asset.

My brother has winter tires to use in Wisconsin on his FWD sports car and he says it has worked out great so far.

He went as far to say that his FWD sports car with winter tires was better in the snow then my 2002 silverado w/ Firestone Destination A/T 's (4x4), I begged to differ!! we had a friendly argument and almost a snow race

but FWD can hold their own as it is