And another wonderful time of winter in the city.

Dealing with this...


And this....this guy was actually nice. Other people just put a brick through your window.

 

Got it. Yup, I have plenty of those in my neighborhood. I am glad I have two garages living in NYC.

 

Yes, when I had to park in the streets way back when, someone ***stole*** my spot when I came home at night. I left a similar note and rev my car in the wee hours but no one came out.

DaveB and Wannabe6mt never have to deal with this. They pull into their red carpet driveway and into the temp control garage.

 

Snow tires are great, but come on, STL and KC see MAYBE 5 days a year where significant snow is on the roads. Hell, we got 12" in KC on Tuesday, but by Wednesday all major roads and highways were completely clear by 9am. My street was cleared by 1100am.

For the other 70 to 80 days of winter, you're driving on a cold dry road. Snow tires are made primarily for snow driving. The rubber compound is softer so that it can grab and plant in the snow, but on dry surfaces, the rubber wears quickly. Snow tires also make your car handle like a wet pork chop in temps above 30 and the tires can be a bit noisy. A decent set of narrower all seasons and some AutoSocks in the trunk make a RWD G more than capable in the more typical snows (4" or less). It is so rare that there is 6"+ of snow on any road in the Midwest for more than 10 to 12 hours. IMO, snow tires are overkill for most people in this country.

 

I don't have a garage at school. This is my car at school.

Gets destroyed by cold *** -20 wind every day .
They are just soooo much better though. Especially in Fargo where they suck at snow removal. There is still snow on our roads and its been weeks since it snowed. Even on slightly snowy/compacted snow surfaces, they stop, turn and accelerate far better than all seasons.

If your area, yea, I could probably get by. But up here, no way. I want my snow tires.

Also, as long as the temps are below 40, you don't really have to worry about them wearing down. Mine havn't worn at all and I do 500miles of 80mph freeway driving every time i go home which is ever 3 weeks to a month. They also aren't noisy either. They are so quiet that I can actually hear myself think. *ahem Falken summer tires ahem*

 

^^^^X100 in those conditions, snows will be far superior. That's what it's like around here lately. With the temperature never rising above -5 lately, there is not substitute for dedicated snow tires on a 4 corners, AWD, FWD or RWD. They pay for themselves if they prevent one little fender bender. You simply can't debate the science of the benefits of snow tires. They've done all the tests and proven acceleration, turning and stopping is all enhanced greatly in temps below freezing with snow tires vs. all seasons or obviously summer tires.

 

I'm not debating the science, but for most us, we don't live in areas that require them. A tire choice is all about compromise. You have to set the car up for the conditions it's going to drive in the most. You say snow tires can pay for themselves by avoiding a fender bender in the snow. True, but the flip side is snow tires handle and brake like crap compared to a set of high performance all seasons in the dry. Lots of studies show snow tires reduce handling and braking in the dry by 10% to 20%. That means it could take the car over 30' longer to stop from 60 in the dry. That can mean the difference between avoiding a wreck and killing yourself.

 

Honestly, I havn't even noticed a difference in performance on road or off. I don't drive that aggressively around corners and during average driving, it doesn't really matter.

I'd much rather have better snow performance. All season rubber just gets very hard and doesn't seem to grip the surface as well.

 

I'd like to see those studies Dave....when temps drop below zero, I would suggest braking and handling are enhanced by snow tires. Softer compound tires = higher coefficient of friction on dry, wet or snow covered roads.

 

There's a lot more to stopping than just soft compound tires. This is probably the best comparison test I've read between snow, all season, and summer tires.

http://www.insideline.com/features/t...vs-summer.html

In the test, the snow tires took 24' longer to stop the Civic Si from 60 compared to the all seasons. Against the summer tires, it took 35' longer. In the braking world, that's huge.

 

Actually, whats more impressive is that in the snow testing, the all seasons weren't that far behind the snow tires. Shows that driving in the snow tires is perfectly manageable.

 

Dave, are you reading the same article I am? The test results show and I'll quote...
"Here again the snow tires dominate, stopping from 40 mph in 156 feet, some 28 feet shorter than the all-season tires' 184-foot performance."
and
"Increase the starting speed to 60 mph and these distances more than double. It takes 362 feet for the snow tires to stop and 421 feet for the all-season donuts."

 

Realistically, the second 60mph test is the more likely and 60 ' at 60mph better stopping distance is enough to sell me to always using them (snow tires) in the colder months.

 

I really don't have much of an issue accelerating on my all seasons, and braking isn't really that bad for me either. Where I'm having issues this winter is turning. My car's turn radius has doubled since there's been snow on the ground because my car just can't manage to steer any direction besides straight without pushing the front wheels around.

Then again, my all-seasons are completely crap, and they'll be gone as soon as possible...

 

That's snow performance, which nobody will argue that snow tires aren't the best on snow.

Dave was referring to pure dry performance in which most people do the vast majority of their driving.