Are snow tyres really worth it ?

Yeah, the other day I was driving my Cougar on the Dunlop Star Specs and even though the roads were dry, it was about 20?F (-6?C), they had very little traction.

On my DDs, I have gotten by on all seasons as I only rarely have seen enough snow to justify winter tires.
 
Lot of mis-information in here, winter tires are best, all seasons may be perfectly acceptable depending on the climate, I wouldn't risk other peoples lives using summers in the cold and especially not on snow and ice.

Snow

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGfvyPtYR0Y[/YOUTUBE]

Ice

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlYEMH10Z4s&NR=1[/YOUTUBE]
 
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As someone who drives a RWD car in the winter, I have found snow tires to be the best investment I've done to winter prep my car. Not once have I gotten stuck or had major loss of traction. In contrast to my company where many cars do not have winter tires and only have all-seasons...not all of the all-season tires are made equal. That said not a single one of the all-seasons I've tried on any of these cars impressed me, all were eventually lacking in traction at some point even the heavy AWD SUVs.

I actually think all-seasons are a waste of money. Primarily they don't excel at anything they're worse than performance tires in the summer and worse than winter tires dealing with winter traction. My current Pirelli Winter Carving tires are at least 3 years old and they still work very well.
 
ok BerserkerCatSplat first video, shed some light, the problem why i think snow tyres aren't that good, is because i have some bridgestones blizzaks wich are m+s wich from what i can understand are all-season.
 
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emil_t said:
i have some bridgestones blizzaks wich are m+s wich from what i can understand are all-season.
Click to expand...

According to Bridgestone that's a winter tyre.


M&S means mud and snow, which (over here) is synonymous with winter tyre. There also is the logo with a mountain and a snowflake, I believe that's from some US organization, which should mean (almost?) the same thing as M&S, maybe with a slightly stronger focus on snow.
 
^Up here, M+S are not considered winter-tires..

edit. According to the EU, M+S must be considered winter-tires here too (although not all of them), although they are outright dangerous in these conditions..
 
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After some more googling I'd say M+S is a slightly weaker term because it only requires deep and wide grooves. The mountain with a snowflake is stronger because it requires a certain level of traction on snow. All tyres with the snowflake should also have the M+S, but not all M+S tyres should have the flake... I guess ;) The Blizzaks mentioned earlier have both.
 
Why again are winter tires more expensive than all seasons? I hate those arguments.

You drive 20.000km a year

a) you drive allseasons. 20.000km a year. You need new ones every ~3 years max.
b) you drive summer tires, 10.000km and winter tires 10.000km. You need a new set of each every 6 years.

As well, my winter tires (award-winners from the ADAC) cost me 170?. That's 170? I am very happily paying every ~5 years for my safety. Read tests, buy winner, profit.

My vote: Everyone on summer tires in the winter needs to be slapped until his face peels off. People on all seasons should at least stop driving when there is a lot of snow.
 
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Well, three bits make having two sets more expensive.


You need to change them twice a year and store the other set, either you do it yourself or pay someone.

You need two sets of wheels (not the rubber bits). If you get new rubber every time your all-season tyres are worn down you could re-use the wheels.

If you drive less then your winter/summer tyres will age more than wear, so you would have to replace two sets after X years, while all-season would mean one set every X years.




...as soon as your winter tyres have prevented one fender bender ($11000, right Nissan?) they will have paid off though :)
 
The difference between a proper summer tire and a proper winter tire is enormous on a decent car.
It may be less noticeable on an econo-box since they have narrower tires.

When I first got my car, the order on my winter wheels was delayed, so I had to drive a bit on the stock tires (Bridgestone RE070).
That was the equivalent of having the reaper in the passenger seat.
Trying to stop would take about as much time as it takes for an aircraft carrier to turn around.

When I got my winter tires (Nokian WR), it was the difference between night and day. (Yes they're full blown winter tires, despite the "all weather" talk.)
I could brake properly without sliding for an eternity, I could chuck it sideways and not have it spin out, etc...

I now have Yokohama AD07 summer tires, and I stop driving those when the temperature drops below 45f (7c).
That is what the recommendation is, besides they start to feel all brick like when it gets cold.


In an ideal situation (if you have to deal with a reasonable amount of winter weather), I would recommend having two sets of rims.
One wider set with proper summer tires on them, and one narrower set with narrow winter tires on them.
Unfortunately, I can't get narrow tires because of the with of my brake calipers, so my winter tires are much wider than I prefer.

Short of that you probably could go with all season tires year round, provided they are narrow enough, but in my opinion all season tires don't do anything quite good enough.
I wouldn't dream of putting all seasons on my car, that would just be a soulless existence.

However, driving with summer tires in the winter, even if they're narrow is just silly.
Possible yes, but it's just asking for trouble.
 
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Not all of us can afford to have an extra set of tires for our vehicles. And my all season tires are winter rated. If I had a car that was worthy of a high performance tire it would have them. I guess I will live with my soulless existence.
 
Karoug said:
^Up here, M+S are not considered winter-tires..

edit. According to the EU, M+S must be considered winter-tires here too (although not all of them), although they are outright dangerous in these conditions..
Click to expand...
While you may drive on M+S tires here (provided they are on the list of approved M+S-tires) they will cost you dearly if you crash. The man from the insurance company will point at your crap tires and say "shit tires" and your payout will be considerably reduced. If your tires are not on the list you will not get a payout at all, you'll get a fine instead (1200 SEK/?115).

The difference between summer tires and winter tires is so immense it's really no comparing the two other than that they are both round and mostly black.
 
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Bridgestone Blizzaks, Michelin Alpins, Nokian (something Finnish I can't spell correctly)...most major tire brands have a line of winter tires. Over here, Blizzaks and Nokians tend to be the best-known. I have Dunlop Winter Sport M3s, which are about the only ones (apart from the somewhat expensive Michelins) available in my wheel size.
 
Like everyone else has said; comparing winter tires to summer tires in the snow/ice is like comparing night and day. A friend of mine crashed a very nice little Mazda RX8 last winter because he was driving on summer performance tires in 30F weather and it started raining/sleeting. He literally flew off a highway off-ramp. He's got a 350Z now and won't even pull it out of the garage if the temperature is lower than 40F.

Another guy I know has a late last-gen Mustang and it used to be that he couldn't even drive it in the snow. He couldn't even get out of his parking lot. Last winter he bought full out snow tires (Michelins, I think) and it's now his favorite winter car. Traction when he needs it, huge powerslides when he wants to. :D
 
Good God man, I've had mine on since the beginning of November. Maybe a month too early, considering the few times the temperature went above 50 since then, but still.
 
Yeah, I waited a bit too long, but when I actually got them it would have been too early. Haven't driven in any sort of wet though, as I have access to a couple of other vehicles if necessary.
 
I've never driven a car with "summer tires". Most cars you get around here and every car I've ever driven has had all-seasons. My experience is these will be able to get you through most situations you'd encounter in an urban environment.
 
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