Man we had it bad yesterday morning here in GTA - frozen rain. It was my first time drive the G in weather like this, the experience was horrifying. I was going home from work at 630 am in the morning, the road was covered with ICE! Anyone who drove that morning before the snowplow came out know what i am talking about. I have Pirelli snowsport tires on all 4 corners. They are 17 in, 225 on the front and 235 on the rear. For the most part I was going under 40km/h on the DVP in 3 or 4th gear and kept it under 2000rpm. I felt if i went any faster, the car would fishtail. I noticed other FWD/4WD cars were going faster than me. I have read that other people are pretty satified with their G couple with winter tires in the winter. That makes me wonder if it was my snow tires. Do any of you have the same setup as I do? What is your experience. Or was it just he frozen rain? Another thing i noticed was the car always wants to fishtail to the right. I wonder if that has some to do with my tire patterns. BC when i was putting on the winter tires ealier this winter, the mechanic said that my tire patterns are wrong on one side of the car, ie i got the exact same tires for both left and right. He said the tread patterns on the outside of the tires should be pointing down(or was it up? cant remember). So now, since i have the exact same tires on both sides, oneside is pointing up and the other is point down. But i check the pirelli site and the lables in the sidewall of the tire, it doesnt say that they are directional..so i wonder if that matters. The car pulls a little to the left with the snowtires on. If that doesnt matter, then the car may be out of alignment. But the wired thing is, when i had my stock summer tires on, the car goes straight. Can any one shed some light? Thanks!

 

It does not matter what kind of tires you have if you are driving on ice. Your car will spin out of control even with winter tires. Winter Tires are good for cold weather and in a few inches of snow. Obviously you are much better off than keeping the stock tires in winter time.

 

Most new style winter tires perform much better than all seasons or other types of tires on ice and snow. They are built using a softer stickier compounds for colder conditions. They also have sipes cut into them that help grip on ice. The only problem with winter tires is they will wear quickly when temps are above 50 F or 10 C, so once the winter season is over change them out. Definitely a good choice to run winter tires.
Those other dudes that were driving faster than you are usually the ones you see further down the road in the ditch.

 

+1. No sense in wrecking your car just because others are driving faster than they should.