I feel this is applicable.
AWD with Summers vs FWD with winters
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Originally Posted by Treadstone
Years ago, after we moved out to WA, my mother insisted that my dad get her studded snows for her 82 VW Rabbit for winter because they lived up on a hill. Well, after two winters of no snow, he had to have tubes put in the tires because they would no longer hold air - the lack of snow and constant driving on the bare pavement had driven the studs thru the carcass.
Studded tires is yet another animal, illegal in many states.
Years ago, after we moved out to WA, my mother insisted that my dad get her studded snows for her 82 VW Rabbit for winter because they lived up on a hill. Well, after two winters of no snow, he had to have tubes put in the tires because they would no longer hold air - the lack of snow and constant driving on the bare pavement had driven the studs thru the carcass.
Studded tires is yet another animal, illegal in many states.
Originally Posted by Treadstone
Depends on where you live.....
Originally Posted by Wolf359
I guess it all depends on where you live.
That's what I've been trying to say all along.
Winter tires definitely have their place. Everyone has to determine if it's THEIR place.
Depends on where you live.....
Originally Posted by Wolf359
I guess it all depends on where you live.
That's what I've been trying to say all along.
Originally Posted by JTK
Having been down this exact road with new later model Subarus with horrible factory tires, these tires totally negated the benefits of AWD for these vehicles in my winter conditions. It was almost as if the AWD wasn't there. Any drive configuration is better in the winter with snow tires today.
I think we got by decades ago with big RWD cars and the early FWD ones because tires were narrow, softer with lots of sidewall. That's not the case today.
We have two Subarus right now and both of them came with horrible OEM tires!
I bought my FXT in the spring and there was some late snow up where I ski...I was coming back from making some runs and there was maybe 2" of snow in town. I almost slid completely off the road on a modest curve near our condo I had driven in bad weather dozens of times before with no issues. I was so shocked that I walked over to the spot later and it wasn't icy, just a mix of moderately packed snow and fluff. I was able to live with those as "summer" tires but they came off before there was any chance of snow and went back on pretty late in spring, it was still nice to get rid of them when they wore out with less than 20kmiles because they were hardly inspiring in dry and wet conditions.
We bought our daughter an Impreza after that and I found lots of very negative reviews of the tires it came with, mostly focusing on terrifying winter experiences. I told my wife that car was getting better tires and that was that, it got RT43s less than a week after we bought it.
I would guess these tires are optimized for low manufacturing cost and good gas mileage to the detriment of everything else...seems so stupid to push AWD in Subaru vehicles and then put tires with terrible winter traction on them.
Having been down this exact road with new later model Subarus with horrible factory tires, these tires totally negated the benefits of AWD for these vehicles in my winter conditions. It was almost as if the AWD wasn't there. Any drive configuration is better in the winter with snow tires today.
I think we got by decades ago with big RWD cars and the early FWD ones because tires were narrow, softer with lots of sidewall. That's not the case today.
We have two Subarus right now and both of them came with horrible OEM tires!
I bought my FXT in the spring and there was some late snow up where I ski...I was coming back from making some runs and there was maybe 2" of snow in town. I almost slid completely off the road on a modest curve near our condo I had driven in bad weather dozens of times before with no issues. I was so shocked that I walked over to the spot later and it wasn't icy, just a mix of moderately packed snow and fluff. I was able to live with those as "summer" tires but they came off before there was any chance of snow and went back on pretty late in spring, it was still nice to get rid of them when they wore out with less than 20kmiles because they were hardly inspiring in dry and wet conditions.
We bought our daughter an Impreza after that and I found lots of very negative reviews of the tires it came with, mostly focusing on terrifying winter experiences. I told my wife that car was getting better tires and that was that, it got RT43s less than a week after we bought it.
I would guess these tires are optimized for low manufacturing cost and good gas mileage to the detriment of everything else...seems so stupid to push AWD in Subaru vehicles and then put tires with terrible winter traction on them.
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by Treadstone
Originally Posted by UG_Passat
That's what all-weather tires are for.
Exactly what I have been saying.
FYI, all-weather is a separate category from all-season. Not sure if that's where UG_Passat was going with this.
All weather tires are all season tires with the 3PMS symbol. I have them on my son's Escape - GY WeatherReady, and I had them on my Colorado - GY DuraTrac. The Continentals on my SantaFe and my wife's Mazda3 do not have the 3PMS symbol, but they do excellent in the messy stuff anyway.
Originally Posted by Treadstone
Originally Posted by UG_Passat
That's what all-weather tires are for.
Exactly what I have been saying.
FYI, all-weather is a separate category from all-season. Not sure if that's where UG_Passat was going with this.
All weather tires are all season tires with the 3PMS symbol. I have them on my son's Escape - GY WeatherReady, and I had them on my Colorado - GY DuraTrac. The Continentals on my SantaFe and my wife's Mazda3 do not have the 3PMS symbol, but they do excellent in the messy stuff anyway.
Originally Posted by Virtus_Probi
Originally Posted by JTK
Having been down this exact road with new later model Subarus with horrible factory tires, these tires totally negated the benefits of AWD for these vehicles in my winter conditions. It was almost as if the AWD wasn't there. Any drive configuration is better in the winter with snow tires today.
I think we got by decades ago with big RWD cars and the early FWD ones because tires were narrow, softer with lots of sidewall. That's not the case today.
We have two Subarus right now and both of them came with horrible OEM tires!
Subaru floors me in the garbage tires they install on new cars in terms of winter traction. My 2004 WRX with Bridgestone maligned RE92's and my wife's 2005 Legacy GT wagon with RE92a's just scary in winter.
Our replacement 2018 VW Tiguan rocked this winter with Continental Pro Contact TX. I was floored how well the AWD did albeit a bit jerky occaisonally with OEM tires. Never felt skethy and I am a ski mainly powder day driver who does not care how bad a storm is raging person. Honestly less cars on road at height of storm once you pass the line of cars behind the dude doing 20MPH.
Originally Posted by JTK
Having been down this exact road with new later model Subarus with horrible factory tires, these tires totally negated the benefits of AWD for these vehicles in my winter conditions. It was almost as if the AWD wasn't there. Any drive configuration is better in the winter with snow tires today.
I think we got by decades ago with big RWD cars and the early FWD ones because tires were narrow, softer with lots of sidewall. That's not the case today.
We have two Subarus right now and both of them came with horrible OEM tires!
Subaru floors me in the garbage tires they install on new cars in terms of winter traction. My 2004 WRX with Bridgestone maligned RE92's and my wife's 2005 Legacy GT wagon with RE92a's just scary in winter.
Our replacement 2018 VW Tiguan rocked this winter with Continental Pro Contact TX. I was floored how well the AWD did albeit a bit jerky occaisonally with OEM tires. Never felt skethy and I am a ski mainly powder day driver who does not care how bad a storm is raging person. Honestly less cars on road at height of storm once you pass the line of cars behind the dude doing 20MPH.
Originally Posted by madRiver
Originally Posted by Virtus_Probi
Originally Posted by JTK
Having been down this exact road with new later model Subarus with horrible factory tires, these tires totally negated the benefits of AWD for these vehicles in my winter conditions. It was almost as if the AWD wasn't there. Any drive configuration is better in the winter with snow tires today.
I think we got by decades ago with big RWD cars and the early FWD ones because tires were narrow, softer with lots of sidewall. That's not the case today.
We have two Subarus right now and both of them came with horrible OEM tires!
Subaru floors me in the garbage tires they install on new cars in terms of winter traction. My 2004 WRX with Bridgestone maligned RE92's and my wife's 2005 Legacy GT wagon with RE92a's just scary in winter.
Our replacement 2018 VW Tiguan rocked this winter with Continental Pro Contact TX. I was floored how well the AWD did albeit a bit jerky occaisonally with OEM tires. Never felt skethy and I am a ski mainly powder day driver who does not care how bad a storm is raging person. Honestly less cars on road at height of storm once you pass the line of cars behind the dude doing 20MPH.
The garbage tires combined with "Subaru AWD is amazing" mindset makes for a lot of stuck/skidding Subarus in the snow here. A co-worker bought a new WRX and the first snow storm she went out in she bounced off a guard rail. Installed winter tires a few weeks after and the car was a tank in the snow, but the tires that were on it were useless and she probably was overconfident with the AWD.
Originally Posted by Virtus_Probi
Originally Posted by JTK
Having been down this exact road with new later model Subarus with horrible factory tires, these tires totally negated the benefits of AWD for these vehicles in my winter conditions. It was almost as if the AWD wasn't there. Any drive configuration is better in the winter with snow tires today.
I think we got by decades ago with big RWD cars and the early FWD ones because tires were narrow, softer with lots of sidewall. That's not the case today.
We have two Subarus right now and both of them came with horrible OEM tires!
Subaru floors me in the garbage tires they install on new cars in terms of winter traction. My 2004 WRX with Bridgestone maligned RE92's and my wife's 2005 Legacy GT wagon with RE92a's just scary in winter.
Our replacement 2018 VW Tiguan rocked this winter with Continental Pro Contact TX. I was floored how well the AWD did albeit a bit jerky occaisonally with OEM tires. Never felt skethy and I am a ski mainly powder day driver who does not care how bad a storm is raging person. Honestly less cars on road at height of storm once you pass the line of cars behind the dude doing 20MPH.
The garbage tires combined with "Subaru AWD is amazing" mindset makes for a lot of stuck/skidding Subarus in the snow here. A co-worker bought a new WRX and the first snow storm she went out in she bounced off a guard rail. Installed winter tires a few weeks after and the car was a tank in the snow, but the tires that were on it were useless and she probably was overconfident with the AWD.
Originally Posted by madRiver
Originally Posted by Virtus_Probi
Originally Posted by JTK
Having been down this exact road with new later model Subarus with horrible factory tires, these tires totally negated the benefits of AWD for these vehicles in my winter conditions. It was almost as if the AWD wasn't there. Any drive configuration is better in the winter with snow tires today.
I think we got by decades ago with big RWD cars and the early FWD ones because tires were narrow, softer with lots of sidewall. That's not the case today.
We have two Subarus right now and both of them came with horrible OEM tires!
Subaru floors me in the garbage tires they install on new cars in terms of winter traction. My 2004 WRX with Bridgestone maligned RE92's and my wife's 2005 Legacy GT wagon with RE92a's just scary in winter.
Our replacement 2018 VW Tiguan rocked this winter with Continental Pro Contact TX. I was floored how well the AWD did albeit a bit jerky occaisonally with OEM tires. Never felt skethy and I am a ski mainly powder day driver who does not care how bad a storm is raging person. Honestly less cars on road at height of storm once you pass the line of cars behind the dude doing 20MPH.
VW's were always good in snow, FWD or AWD.
My Tiguan with snow tires is like freaking goat on the back roads.
However, we have 10" of snow this morning out and I took off winter tires from both cars. Since I have brand new Bridgestone Driveguards on Sienna, will take that one out. Let's see how they do, but considering that Bridgestone+all season+snow do not go together in same sentence, it will be interesting.
Originally Posted by Virtus_Probi
Originally Posted by JTK
Having been down this exact road with new later model Subarus with horrible factory tires, these tires totally negated the benefits of AWD for these vehicles in my winter conditions. It was almost as if the AWD wasn't there. Any drive configuration is better in the winter with snow tires today.
I think we got by decades ago with big RWD cars and the early FWD ones because tires were narrow, softer with lots of sidewall. That's not the case today.
We have two Subarus right now and both of them came with horrible OEM tires!
Subaru floors me in the garbage tires they install on new cars in terms of winter traction. My 2004 WRX with Bridgestone maligned RE92's and my wife's 2005 Legacy GT wagon with RE92a's just scary in winter.
Our replacement 2018 VW Tiguan rocked this winter with Continental Pro Contact TX. I was floored how well the AWD did albeit a bit jerky occaisonally with OEM tires. Never felt skethy and I am a ski mainly powder day driver who does not care how bad a storm is raging person. Honestly less cars on road at height of storm once you pass the line of cars behind the dude doing 20MPH.
VW's were always good in snow, FWD or AWD.
My Tiguan with snow tires is like freaking goat on the back roads.
However, we have 10" of snow this morning out and I took off winter tires from both cars. Since I have brand new Bridgestone Driveguards on Sienna, will take that one out. Let's see how they do, but considering that Bridgestone+all season+snow do not go together in same sentence, it will be interesting.
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