Originally Posted by geeman789
I recently had a conversation with a co-worker about winter tires. Who drives an AWD SUV . Who DOES NOT need winter tires, well, because his SUV is all wheel drive. And, he was kind enough to point out that the " S " in the M+S designation on all season tires ACTUALLY stands for SNOW.
I pointed out to him that awd DOES get you moving quite well, but does NOTHING when you try and stop or turn ... only the tires stop or turn. And that the M+S designation means only that the tires have a tread pattern that meets a broad specification regarding tread to void ratio. NOT that the tires are actually GOOD in snow. His eyes glazed over ...
He said I'm not wasting my $ on tires I don't need. That's why I bought an SUV ...
This individual is well educated, well compensated and generally a pretty smart guy. But, like so many other drivers, he will not be bothered to learn anything about tires.
I drive a manual transmission Subaru with 50/50 split all wheel drive, and use premium winter tires. The car is a TANK in snow, fantastic traction, beautifully balanced handling ... you can steer with the steering wheel OR the gas pedal. VERY FUN to drive in the winter !
Yes, edyvw, just a typical SUBARU driver here ... ! Or, maybe, NOT.
Which is great ... but more and more I worry about THE OTHER GUY, that guy like my co-worker, who just doesn't get it, and probably never will, but THINKS he is invincible because he drives an AWD something.
No you are not typical Subaru driver. I have a lot of friends that ski with me that have Subaru's with snow tires. But amount of people who get Subaru just bcs. it has AWD and that will solve their issue in winter far exceeds drivers like you.
Not only that, Subaru for example targets precisely those kind of people in their commercials here in CO.
Case in point: We had unusual snow storm two weeks ago where temperatures dropped below -15c. There is one road here that has 14% grade, and it was absolute mess. So local TV crew interviews people who had issue stopping, and one older lady says: I was not ready for this. I think next year I might get myself AWD vehicle.
So her solution for problem on slick roads going downhill is AWD.