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Winter Tires -- Should I Get Them?

WhipperSnapper

WhipperSnapper

Lifer
I recently moved to a northern state that has a long, often nasty winter (say 6-7 months out of the year) with a lot of snow. I now have 58,000 miles on the original tires that came with my car and it's time for new tires.

Would I be well-served by purchasing winter tires? What happens on dry pavement and in the Summer? Would I just get real shitty gas mileage with them? As a general rule do winter tires do well on wet (not snowy or icy) pavement?

Is there such a thing as an "all season" tire that is actually good for winter driving?

I live in an apartment and I don't have a place to store winter and summer tires so that I can swap them on and off and I don't want to spend that kind of money anyway, so whatever tires I get will be on all year.

Tire size I need is 185-65 15".
 
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Everyone has their own opinion on this one. It's like asking fanboys whether they should get an Xbox or PS3. Needless to say you can't use winter (aka snow) tires in the summer. That's a given. It will kill gas mileage.

Snows provide better traction on snowy roads and in very cold temperatures. They have deeper treads. I'd recommend them on all front-engine, RWD vehicles. Those tend to have light back ends which inherently reduces traction. Snows will help but are not a replacement for sensible winter driving.

You can use all-season in the winter safely, provided they have good tread left on them. FWD and AWD cars also track better on winter roads. If you live in an urban or suburban area where the roads are regularly plowed, all-seasons are fine. Most mechanics I talk to seem to say Michelins are the best tires.
 
Well, while the swapping between snow and summer is obviously the best option, since you said you can't and don't want to do that, I'd suggest you to stick with good all seasons. Not only shitty gas mileage, but also the tire will worn out extremely fast. I even heard the case that new set of winter tires didn't last a year because it was driven year-round. Here's one article regarding this

And yes, there is good all season tires. And even with not-so-good all season, you will be fine as long as you know how to (properly) drive.

I've been driving RWD (06 325i w/ Sports Pkg) and RWD-based AWD (G37x Coupe) past 4 winters, and I've been only using all seasons. I have had no problem so far driving in snowstorm we had in NJ past few weeks.
 
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find a friend with a storage building or some place you can store some tires. I get by with all seasons but bad roads don't last more than a day or two at a time here. If I was going to put up with 6 months of bad roads on and off I'd want snow tires. I don't have those new fangled ABS and traction control things though.
 
Some tire places will store your non-used tires for you. Call around and see if anybody offers that option. If so, then all you have to do is pony up some cash for steel wheels.
 
Where exactly are you? What kind of car do you have? I'm in WI and we get a good amount of snow each year, however the roads are typically in good shape because they plow them pretty quickly. My FWD Grand Am has no problem whatsoever in snow and I use all seasons. Definitely don't need snows for that.
 
If you don;t drive much in the snow or they clean the roads well get a set of Cont DWS tires. They are all season with a hybrid snow tire pattern. I have them on my CTS, BiLs STS, and my SiLs A4. They work great in snow, rain, or dry.
 
I have Bridgestone Blizzaks on my RWD 07 CTS and I have noticed better traction and shorter stopping distance on snowy roads. I will not tell you that you MUST get snow tires, but you can't lose with snow tires. The set of 4 Blizzaks cost me almost $500 from Tirerack.com (such a great place to order from) and installation cost me about $80.

It's not too expensive of an investment, especially that snow tires should last several snowy winters before they have to be replaced.
 
DarkThinker said:
I have Bridgestone Blizzaks on my RWD 07 CTS and I have noticed better traction and shorter stopping distance on snowy roads. I will not tell you that you MUST get snow tires, but you can't lose with snow tires. The set of 4 Blizzaks cost me almost $500 from Tirerack.com (such a great place to order from) and installation cost me about $80.

It's not too expensive of an investment, especially that snow tires should last several snowy winters before they have to be replaced.
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Well, OP says he/she will use it year-round due to the storage space. Are you still going to use snow tires on your CTS all year long if you were in OP's shoes? And moreover, if you do, are you expecting them to last several winters?
 
If your winters are that long and snowy, I'd really recommend finding a place to store a set of tires and swap between snows and either all seasons or summer tires. All seasons will work in winter, but they're highly inferior to snow tires.

My roommate does okay with snows in his Mazda6 (we are in NH and have been hammered with snow the last few weeks) but some days he has to go the long way to get to work to avoid hills and stop signs. With snows (and a Subaru..), I can go anywhere.

It's not like high performance summer tires vs all season tires in the summer, where your average driver won't really notice a difference. You will definitely notice a difference with snow tires on snow, as you are likely regularly reaching the limits of your tires' traction (which does not happen often during normal street driving on dry roads).

Winter tires will wear out very quickly if driven in summer (above 40-50 degree temps, IIRC) and will not handle as well as all-seasons either. That's why you switch between seasons.

You don't walk across deep snow in sneakers and you don't go running in snowshoes, right? 😛
 
WhipperSnapper said:
I recently moved to a northern state that has a long, often nasty winter (say 6-7 months out of the year) with a lot of snow.
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Would that be Alaska? (even the UP of Michigan don't have that much). Anyway, if you have snow for half of the year I think you would be nutts NOT to have snow tires.
 
It really depends on where you live and how much it snows.

I tried going with all-seasons on my G35. I remember having to drive in 4" of snow (divorce court date so I had to go). I was going real slow and in the blink of an eye, I did a 360 without warning. Fortunately, there was no one around me when it happened.

I've been doing a summer/winter tire swap the last few years. I still find snow tires are not perfect but they will get me out of 75% plus of the trouble I find myself in. I'm running 18" Dunlop Wintersport 3Ds on my 335i now.
 
if the soil temperature gets under 7 degrees, you need winter tires.
I absolutely hate those people who think they're better than that and will just crash their car or block the streets the first time it snows.
You should have 2 sets of tires.
No one I know keeps tires in the house, there are places where you can store them and they change your tires. Almost everyone adopts this solution.
 
Murloc said:
if the soil temperature gets under 7 degrees, you need winter tires.
I absolutely hate those people who think they're better than that and will just crash their car or block the streets the first time it snows.
You should have 2 sets of tires.
No one I know keeps tires in the house, there are places where you can store them and they change your tires. Almost everyone adopts this solution.
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I think in your country people think driving is a privilege and not a right like here. They should adopt at least a minimum of courtesy here in the US, let alone driving on snow tires.
 
It all depends on where you live, your car, and how good your area is about getting the roads cleared quickly. That's all I can really say about it since I live in the south and drive on summer tires all the time 😛
 
As someone who has NOT crashed his car into a snow bank this year - yes you should buy winter tires. Always. Every vehicle should have them.

On the way to work today, I saw 2 vehicles that were about 6 feet off the road, so deep in snow that they would need a tow truck to get them out. On the left side was a full size truck. On the right side of the road was a compact car. Yesterday I passed a minivan that was high-centered on a snow bank on the bendy part of a road. I would be shocked if that didn't completely ruin his exhaust system and maybe destroy the front end of the car. To save $800 on snow tires + rims, he winds up paying thousands of dollars in repairs and still has shit traction.
 
Yes you should get winter tires.

FWIW I spent $600 to get a set of lightly used tires, used wheels, spray paint to paint the wheels, TPMS sensors, and getting everything mounted and balanced. I too live in an apartment, my landlord lets me keep extra wheels and tires in the basement.
 
It depends on how heavy your vehicle is. Most cars with a v6 engine or more are heavy enough to get around in the snow with a good set of all season tires. If you're driving a 4 cylinder car, snow tires could help you a lot.

I had all seasons on my 2.0 Jetta, and it took me a good 10 minutes to get out of the small town (600 people) that I live in because of all of the hills... and this is even after they plowed. I put a set of snow tires on the front and I have no trouble getting out of town, even after it's freshly snowed and no plows have been through.

Having snow tires on the front and all seasons on the back hasn't proven difficult for me at all. I pretty much have to intentionally go way to fast around a corner before the back end will slide out.
 
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simonizor said:
Having snow tires on the front and all seasons on the back hasn't proven difficult for me at all. I pretty much have to intentionally go way to fast around a corner before the back end will slide out.
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Weird. Even with winter tires on the back, my Corolla's ass end tends to slide out under heavy turning or braking. If I slam on the brakes, the car immediately starts to rotate. This is actually quite common, and you'll notice that cars in the ditch are often facing the direction they came from (they spun around 180). I put 300 pounds of sand bags in the trunk and now it stays straight. I don't recommend anyone do that, but that's what I did.
 
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