Do you buy Winter Tires?
 

Hi everyone,

A colleague at work just got into an accident where she lost traction on a bend and "crashed" onto a sidewalk into some light bushes. She was close to work so she still came in, but our manager told her to take the day off.

I took a look at her car and i'm pretty sure she bent something as her tire seems like it's offset, but I looked at her tires and she is driving a Nissan Altima with all seasons and her tires look worn, maybe 20% of tread left...

Anyway, that got me thinking about buying new tires for the winter season.

Right now, I drive a AWD SUV and I have All season tires with M+S rating. I just did some light research and it seems M+S aren't as good as I thought they are, so i'm thinking of getting actual winter tires with the snowflake rating.

What are your thoughts on this, is getting stand alone winter tires always the safer option? The fact that I have AWD and M+S tires, is that good enough for our relatively mild winter.

When it comes to safety, my dad always says be safe, so cost isn't going to be an issue, I would rather be safer then not.

And is costco the best place to buy tires?

Your thoughts are appreciated!

Theres a whole thread called Winter Tires for Grown Ups. Maybe you should check in there.

Berz out.

I had a top rated all seasons on my cars (General Altimax RT43, Michelin LTX M/S) that were basically new.

I decided a couple winters ago that I'd give a cheap set of winter tires a try. Ended up with a set of used Chinese Federal Himalaya WS2s on my FWD Accord.

Even though these were cheap, used, and a couple years old, the ability to actually stop and turn in snow, slush, and cold weather without wondering/worrying made me feel incredibly safe to the point that I took the Accord w/ cheapo winters over the AWD SUV on basically the best M+S tire available every day.

so tl;dr YES.

For those who don't want to run a dedicated set of winters, the all-weather (winter tires meant to be run all year round) market has exploded.

Top picks are Michelin CrossClimate+ (sold in Europe for many years, Costco has started carrying these in some locations) and Nokian WRG4.

Budget picks are Nordman WR, Toyo Celsius.

A milder option for SUVs is the BFGoodrich Advantage TA Sport LT.

Don't recommend Goodyear WeatherReady since they're not that great in the wet or snow.

1. Can’t remember what store said this, but all season tires should be called “three season” tires and that couldn’t be more true. You can’t really explain to someone just how much better winter tires are in the winter, they just have to try it and see. I bought my dad his first set of winter tires last winter for his Altima (40 years of driving, never used them before) and he felt like an idiot for never had doing it before.

2. Simply put, no. The price at Costco may be comparable or less, but tire brands limited to the big 3 (plus subsidiaries) so not much selection, long wait times, busy as hell. Install might be cheaper than the average place but what’s your time worth. Also most other big places have comparable warranties now. I mean, If it wasn’t good then it wouldn’t be as busy as it is. But it depends what you want and when you want it.

Kat tire will price match costco.

The tires on my Ridgeline where toast so I bought a set of all weather BFGoodrich Advantage TA Sport LT. Costco had a week wait and I was going to Seattle in a 4 days. Kal tire price matched Costco and had them installed in 3 days.

mfw I took my slk up to SFU during the snow a few years back

winters ftw

best $2k you can spend on your car

This is a common misconception. Having AWD and M+S means that you can start. It doesn't mean that you can stop. Stopping is much more important than starting.



I think Kal-Tire said this. I was looking on their site before, and it stated 3-season isn't all season.

yep don't think i'll go Costco for tires any more
the cost savings aren't worth it for the zoo
6am line-ups doesn't work for me as is waiting over a week

I got my new snow tires at Canadian Tire. Michelin X-Ice iX2. 24 month no interest payments. Plus, 30X CT money. For people who don't have the money for snow tires, it's a good deal. I had them installed at Costco. I don't trust having work done at Canadian Tire. Bunch of crooks. I made the mistake of having the brake fluid on my son's car replaced. They couldn't put the hood back on properly, didn't put the bleeder covers back on (just left them dangling), and they told me the pads and rotors needed replacing. Yeah, right. I had like 60 - 70 % left. While I waited for the service to be done, I heard some of the dumbest things they said to their customers. Taking advantage of women and seniors...........

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

I was wondering for the non-snowy days that are under 7 degrees, can you guys feel much of a difference?

I purchased new snows for the EV. Couldn't find any snow tires in the right size north of the border, so I purchased them from Tire Rack. Two day delivery. Anyway, I put them on and it was a rainy day. Holy fuck, I was slipping and sliding all over the place. Stopping was worse. I thought to myself, I just wasted my freakin' money. After a day or two, the tires started to grip. Break-in, I guess. In lower temperatures like we had in the last couple of days, the tires performed admirably.


EDIT: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiret...e.jsp?techid=5

I knew about tire break-in, but this article says it in a nutshell.

its not end of the world if temps go above 7c, just more wear on tires.

just ordered a set from quattrotires. Cheapest I found online.

Tires are the one thing that keeps your car safely on the road. Anyone that drives in winter conditions on anything less than winters is taking a risk. It absolutely blows my mind when I see 50k+ cars on the road slipping and sliding everywhere cause they don't have proper tires.

winter tires make a difference. Tires are a good investment because of safety. The bad part is buying separate rims for winter use are expensive and ugly.

damn, 500 miles (800km)? thats quite the break-in period for new tires if you buy new just at the start of the winter season

My tires started to behave themselves after a day or two. The 500 miles is to reach optimal characteristics. It's been about a week and a half now and they are much better.

I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but I like the look of black steelies. Steelies on my son's car gives it a real mean look.

Meh. $250-$350 for a set of steelies. Most cars look like shit during winter anyways.

I did on my MR2T and Sonata Turbo. Didn't bother with my Genesis... AWD and 5000 pound curb weight, I had no problems in the dump of 2016 with a set of DWS06. My thinking was I'll go through one winter to see how it'll do and if they weren't going to cut it then I'll get winters the following year. I had no issues going up and down the hills of New West with 6" of snow fresh snow. Stopping wasn't an issue but I don't drive faster than 30kph in the snow anyways. The tires don't last more than 2 years on the car so at most, I'll do 2 winters on them and if we get a worse winter than 2016 then I'm just going to work from home.

If you do a bit of research and understand bolt patterns, offsets, center bore size, etc
You can try to find rims for cheap on craigslist, and they'll look way better than steelies.

I did this for both of my cars and all I did was look for oem wheels from a previous gen of the model of my car. There's a good chance they will fit (although not always the case). But I paid about $120 for the set.

Have these Nordman WR on the accord right now as they came with the car and gf complained that they slipped twice already this week, once at night in the rain and once in the morning in the rain.
Although i'm not sure if it slipped due to the tires or her speed, she claimed she was going slow and driving extra cautious since its raining- but if it's a driver error then i dont know if winter's would provide better rain traction.

Thoughts?

how about only Winter tires at the front for FWD cars? or only at the rear for RWD

Absolutely not

Not only do you put yourself in danger, you're putting others at risk. There are some things in life you don't cheap out on.

It's the ability to stop, not start.

You end up killing or injuring others, you will pay for the rest of your life (and we're not talking just money)............not worth it.

/sermon.

Maybe they’re worn out / low tread.