Tire dilemma

LeVeL

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Jun 16, 2007
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The lady friend's tires need to be replaced, preferably next month, and definitely before any snowfall. Currently she has Goodyear Fortera HL on her Grand Cherokee and seems to like them overall but the ratings on Tire Rack are pretty poor.

Anyways, I'd like her to have two sets, including dedicated snow tires. Her commute is only two miles but there are two big hills and she will be coming home late at night whenever she works a late shift at the hospital, possibly before they've had a chance to plow and salt the roads.

Problem is, it's not really in the budget at the moment to get new summer/all-season tires now and then snow tires in two months. Nor is it really in the budget to stretch her Goodyears to December, buy snows, and then a summer/all-season set in March.

Choices are as follows, as I see it:
1. Buy mid-grade all-seasons now that will become three-season tires in one year when we get snow tires. These might not be good in the snow this season though and that's important.
2. Buy the expensive all-seasons that are top rated for snow and snows next fall. This seems a bit wasteful - spending a lot on snow performance that we'll only use for one season before the set is retired to three-season duty.
3. Buy the expensive all-seasons that are top rated for snow and leave that as the only set. We can see how they perform this year and if they do well enough, we might not need snow tires next year.

Option #3 seems to make the most sense but a) I'm a huge proponent of having proper tires, and b) obviously the lady's safety is paramount. I need to see if the budget can be stretched...

Thoughts/ideas/suggestions?
 
Do they make performance snow tires in the JGC's size that aren't insanely expensive? The line between those and "all-season with good snow performance" is kinda blurry, so I wonder if that's an acceptable compromise.
 
I ran a set of true all season tires (4 season) on the Roadmaster that were better than traditional all season tires. The tread is a bit different on the newer version of that tire, but it might fit your needs for a year or two.

The model I used was called Goodyear Assurance Triple Tread. There seem to be two models with the same name, so make sure you get the one that is truly winter rated.
 
I've witnessed good all season performance with both the General Grabber HTS and Grabber ATS. The ATS' will be a noisier of course but, snow traction is great. The option of having multiple sets for each season really only make sense if you're willing to change the sets yourself rather than going to a tire shop between seasons.
 
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