Those who drive in snow - do you use winters?

G

GT2QQ0

Member
Location
Markham, Ontario
Those who live in areas where there is snow in the winter time, are you OK with your all seasons for definetely need snow tires with your AWD?

I live in Toronto, Ontario so the winters can get pretty crazy up here. My person rule of thumb is that I always use winter tires no matter if its RWD, AWD of FWD. But my friends who drive AWD SUVs all say they are perfectly fine with all seasons in the winter here.

But this is my first time in an AWD car, coming from a G37S coupe, which is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE in the winter time, even with winters.

Any input on how well all-seasons handle in the winter?
 
I live in Boston MA and I drive with all season tires and have no problems with them. It drives great whether it's light snow or heavy snow. Plus I have all season tires bc in the northeast the weather is unpredictable and you never know what your going to get sometimes
 
How long do you plan on keeping your car? If it's 2+ years, get snows. Less wear on your summer tires and probably 2x better traction.
 
I live in Kincardine Ontario and I always run winter tires during the winter. They give you much better control and most importantly excellent braking in slippery conditions.
I recommend them, however if you are just driving the local streets in Toronto and not travelling outside the city, you should be fine since Toronto does not get too much (except when the Mayor has to call in the Army to dig Toronto out :laugh:)
 
GEE35FX said:
I live in Kincardine Ontario and I always run winter tires during the winter. They give you much better control and most importantly excellent braking in slippery conditions.
I recommend them, however if you are just driving the local streets in Toronto and not travelling outside the city, you should be fine since Toronto does not get too much (except when the Mayor has to call in the Army to dig Toronto out :laugh:)
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I'm a little north of the city in Markham. They always take forever to plow our streets up here north of the big city.

I plan to keep the car for at least another 5 years. I just picked it up used as it just came off a 3 year lease. I guess I'll need to measure how much tread I got left on them to decide. Either way, I'm going to get a set of rims for summer. So its whether or not I get winters this year or use these all-seasons tires that came with the car.
 
GT2QQ0 said:
I'm a little north of the city in Markham. They always take forever to plow our streets up here north of the big city.

I plan to keep the car for at least another 5 years. I just picked it up used as it just came off a 3 year lease. I guess I'll need to measure how much tread I got left on them to decide. Either way, I'm going to get a set of rims for summer. So its whether or not I get winters this year or use these all-seasons tires that came with the car.
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First , welcome to :iS: , next congrats on your purchase.
I installed Blizzaks on my OEM 18's(my OEM AS tires only have 135kms on them) and run 20" Enkeis for summer. Whenever I sell the FX I'll put the OEM original AS tires back on the OEM 18 rims. That's what I have done to my last couple of Infinitis.
 
I live IN Toronto and have an 06' AWD. I have always used All season without fail. That being said, Toronto doesn't get snow like other cities on the snow belt (Barrie, London etc) or atleast we haven't in the last few years. We definatly have the potential for huge storms, we just get frigid temps and light dustings.

Really its personal preference. being that you don't live IN the city, you may want to get the snows for personal comfort. Otherwise like myself, I am perfectly fine with ALL seasons so long as they have good tread.

It's all preference really.


GT2QQ0 said:
I'm a little north of the city in Markham. They always take forever to plow our streets up here north of the big city.

I plan to keep the car for at least another 5 years. I just picked it up used as it just came off a 3 year lease. I guess I'll need to measure how much tread I got left on them to decide. Either way, I'm going to get a set of rims for summer. So its whether or not I get winters this year or use these all-seasons tires that came with the car.
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MTN FX said:
All seasons work fine but dedicated winter tires work even better!
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+1. I've plowed through well over a foot of snow with my Yoko Paradas and had a fairly high level of confidence, but I'm sure winter tires are much better. Though all-seasons do the job, sliding around in the snow with them is verrrrry easy. In your place I'd definitely try it with all season tires before spending the money on a dedicated winter setup.
 
I live in NYC and got stuck in the 20" snow with my 08 AWD all season tires this past winter. took me 2 hours to dig it out @ 1am. pretty sure this won't happen if i had the winter tires, b/c my subaru runs like snow plow with Blizzak snow tires. a good investment if you get lots of snow and long winter. :wink (2):
 
I live in Toronto and run winter tires in the winter. The all-season tires on an awd vehicle would give you false confidence when accelerating, as you would have less trouble from stop compared to fwd or rwd.

But when it comes to stopping on all-seasons, it doesn't matter if you're awd or not, that is where winter tires make the difference.

If money wasn't an issue, I'm sure most people would get winter tires. It will cost you some, but will last you quite a few years. I think its worth getting.

I run Continental 4X4 Wintercontacts by the way.
 
^^^^^^I aqree with the above two posters.

I'm surprised at some of the guys here saying all seasons are good, they are okay and should be called 3 season tires. If safety is your main concern, then winter tires are a must especially if other family members are driving your FX.

Previously, I would drive my FX with Blizzaks before my fullsize 4x4 GMC Crew Cab with aggressive all seasons because it would perform better in ice, slippery roads and snow than my 4x4. My wife had to drive a 60 miles a day in bad winter conditions to work and she would take the FX with winters instead of the 4x4 because it had much more traction.

Since that, I also purchased a set of winter tires and rims for my 4x4 truck and it is now unbelievable in the snow.
 
If money is not much of an issue, a winter setup of tires and wheels is the way to go. Safety first and your nice summer wheels and tires will last much longer too.
 
Personally I have a set of winter on my wife's 45 and for me it makes a difference it feels like the 45 has more a grip and control on the snow and sludge and in my opinion I would recommend them.
 
Having another set of winter tires extend the life of your all seaons. The real cost is the cost of changing tires, and another set of rims. I think it's worth it for safty. I am in Vancouver and it doesn't snow nearly as much as Toronto.

My other car is A6. I also have two sets of tires. I find both with winter tires, A6 perform better, prob because of the lower center of gravity.
 
winter tires are a night and day difference when it comes to stopping, not actual grip. I live in NY and go to school in PA, I started using dedicated winter tires for a good reason...if you plan on actually driving through snow, and there's a lot of it, and ice, get winter tires (I like bridgestone blizzaks)

The real difference is in the stopping. The grip may be similar, but try stopping on summer tires.........on snow/ice.

if you are planning on dealing with snow/ice and a lot of it, get the winter tires.

For dry driving, winter tires really shouldn't be mounted for weather above 70 degrees, because the softer rubber will start to get ruined, but they drive OK
 
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