Snow tires worth it?

[wn1998]

I just picked up a new 09 Nissan Versa for the wife. She has been driving our 98 Grand Cherokee 4x4 for the last 3 years. I doubt the versa will be as good as the jeep in the snow and am thinking about snow tires for her.

How much better will the car be with snow tires? How long should I expect a set to last since they have no tread warranty? My wife typically drives 40 miles a day round trip to and from her job.

 

[sp33dy_gr33n]

Snow tires are worth their weight in gold. I put Bridgestone Blizzak WS60's on my '08 Toyota Prius and was truly amazed on how well they worked. They are amazing on ice too.

This is a good video too from Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc2GRL8CQdE

Snow tires are a great idea, and you extend the life of your all-season / summer tires automatically!

------------------------------------
This is solely my personal opinion.

 

[daves87rs]

Is it mostly freeway?

 

[d00df00d]

I love my snows.

In general, they make a bad car manageable, and a manageable car awesome.

 

[wn1998]

Not freeway. It is mostly 40-55 mpg open roads with heavy traffic during rush hours in Northern Illinois. Last year it seemed like we got 2-3 inches of snow every week!

 

[IndigoToy]

Any snow tire will outperform all seasons in ALL winter conditions. Even on dry pavement, all seasons start to loose grip as the rubber compound hardens from the cold. This will increase your stopping distances.

Winter tires (excluding blizzaks) should last 4-5 years. I used to drive on Nokians (Finland), but the dealer switched to a tire that directly competes with them. Gislaved Nord Frost 5 (Sweden). These two companies develop and test tires above the Arctic Circle, so they know a thing or two about good winter tires.

 

[AuthorEditor]

Well, I suppose it depends. I've been driving in the Northeast since the 70s, most of that time without winter tires. Now, I will grant you that the winter tires these days are supposed to be great, but I really have had few problems with all-seasons on a wide variety of vehicles. After all, most of the time, even here in snow country, the roads are clear. And, I've seen a lot of people off the road with winter tires on. The driver is a lot more important than the tires. I wonder if winter tires give some a false sense of security and then they overdo it?

I forgot to add--we always say that the first sign of winter around here is when you start to see the 4-wheel drive vehicles in the ditch by the side of the road. They're usually the first to wipe out.

 

[typ901]

Take it from another Chicago area guy, and spend the cash. Get 4 with wheels and dont look back. It made a RWD BMW (wife's) much better and yes she got trapped in traffic in snow storms and got home and thanked me for investing the cash. New cost from Tire Rack was 1k for tires & wheels. We had them for 5 years, and I sold them for $500 after that, so 500 was my total investment. Cheap insurance.

 

[calvin1]

Originally Posted By: wn1998
Not freeway. It is mostly 40-55 mpg open roads with heavy traffic during rush hours in Northern Illinois. Last year it seemed like we got 2-3 inches of snow every week!


I was very happy with Kumho KR21s on my Taurus during last year's winter. I don't remember the date but it took me 3 hours to cover the ground between the Elgin and O'hare toll booths during one evening rush-hour storm. I was doing a lot better than most of the others I saw. Snows might have been nice but considering the price difference I don't think they would have been worth it for my usage. Unless you expect to travel over under-maintained roads I doubt Northern Illinois really demands snow tires, more like politely suggests.

 

[IndyIan]

My winter tire strategy is to go cheap and narrow, we have goodyears called Nordic's up here. They do the job and we seem to get good wear out of them. 40 miles a day would wear them out in 3-5 years I'm guessing.
If you end up buying rims get the smallest ones that will fit over the brakes and get the narrowest tire size that comes sort of close to the original tire diameter, I find no one even notices the -5% actual speed compared to the speedometer in my Neon.

 

[LS2JSTS]

IMO Winter tires are absolutely worth every penny spent.

The improvement in stopping distance alone is worth it.
My Blizzaks usually last between three and four winters. This year I'm getting a new set of Conti Extreme Winter Contacts.

If you want the longest wearing winter tire, I hear the Michellin X-Ice is great for tread wear.

 

[IndigoToy]

Originally Posted By: AuthorEditor
I really have had few problems with all-seasons on a wide variety of vehicles. After all, most of the time, even here in snow country, the roads are clear. And, I've seen a lot of people off the road with winter tires on. The driver is a lot more important than the tires. I wonder if winter tires give some a false sense of security and then they overdo it?

I forgot to add--we always say that the first sign of winter around here is when you start to see the 4-wheel drive vehicles in the ditch by the side of the road. They're usually the first to wipe out.


Clear road surface or not. A softer more pliable rubber in cold weather will allow a vehicle to stop faster. The false sense of security argument doesn't work in this regard.

With respect to 4wheel drive trucks and SUV's, this is very true. There is a false sense of security brought on by having better accelerating ability thanks to 4 wheels propelling car vs 2.

Here is where the drivers knowldege of the laws of physics come into play. When you need to stop you still have only 4 wheels like any other car on the road and all vehicles require stopping distances that increase proportionate to the speed they are travelling.

In conclusion, a good number (not all) of SUV and truck drivers travel faster then conditions permit, because they think - Hey if I can accelerate better, I can stop better too. WRONG! and when they land in a ditch or worse, some of them just don't understand.

 

[KrisZ]

I agree with all the above, once you experience the difference snow tires make, you won't go back to all seasons for winter driving, definitely worth the money.

Most people saying they don't need winter tires, never drove a car equiped with ones.

 

[SLCraig]

Another winter tire supporter.... Had them for every car I've owned, even my $800 Saturn.

 

[bullwinkle]

My wife's xB won't leave the driveway in snow without them!!

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: SLCraig
Another winter tire supporter....

+1

I currently have all-seasons, so I limit my winter driving to bare minimum because it is just no fun without winter tires.

 

[dhise]

I just bought my first set of snow tires ever today because of you guys! Well, I was thinking about it anyways since I have an extra set of rims for the subaru. Not much choice locally for 13 inch snow tires, but ended up with some firestone winterforces for a very reasonable price. I expect the old 4x4 wagon will not be too challenged by winter storms this year.

 

[fsskier]

My family and myself have gone to the mountains snowskiing every year for the past 30 years... sometimes more than once each year. Iowa can also have long, snowy winters

We have used many brands of "Ice tires" , they seem to all be greatly superior to your summer or all-season tires, when used in the winter.

Are they worth it? YES, consider the following logic:

Our commuter Escort needed the original tires replaced at 48K miles. I bought a set of Michelin X- ones summer tires and a set of Yokohama Guardex winter tires, pretty much at the same time. Now swapping seasonally, the ice tires on for about 2-3 months each year (do not install until snow hits) I did not need new tires until 200K miles.

So, 150 K miles of driving, 2 sets of tires. Some would argue that the ice tires were "free" as we got all the miles out of them.

For us the winter tires are HUGELY worth it!!

 

[y_p_w]

Originally Posted By: fsskier
My family and myself have gone to the mountains snowskiing every year for the past 30 years... sometimes more than once each year. Iowa can also have long, snowy winters

I live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area. Once I looked over at a Subaru Impreza WRX wagon while walking through a parking garage and noticed something different. It was a set of Dunlop Winter M3 3D tires. They have a distinctive look to the sidewall. The car had a ski rack and I supposed the driver was using them to drive to/from Sierra Nevada ski areas. However - those were "performance" winter tires so I suppose they sacrificed a little bit of winter performance in order to be more tolerable in warmer conditions. I'm guessing that they were probably still rather loud.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: y_p_w

I'm guessing that they were probably still rather loud.

Nah. Most of those high performance winter tires (like Dunlop Winter Sport) are no louder than a typical all-season. I had a set of Michelin Pilot Alpin winter tires once. They were very quiet, too, but they were also not that great in the white stuff. Also had Nokian WR on the Jetta - again, very quiet.