Originally Posted by Astro14
Originally Posted by D1dad
I've lived on the Ohio michigan border all my life and have never owned a set of snow tires. Maybe I'm missing out, but there was no way my tight wad dad was buying them so you learned to drive. Often times as a broke kid with bald tires and rear wheel drive trucks. I just buy a decent AS tire and call it a day.
You are missing out.
Like a guy that wears sneakers year ‘round and doesn't see why anyone needs boots.
Snow tires can have up to twice the traction of all season tires, dramatically reducing stopping distance, and improving your safety.
It costs money to buy them, sure, but then you're saving wear on your all seasons while the snows are on the car. You're amortizing the wear over eight tires instead of four, and honestly:
The cost increase is modest.
The safety/performance increase is huge.
I used to see crashed SUVs and Subaru's all the time when I lived in Stowe, VT.
All. The. Time.
Saw three wrecked Subaru's on my road* in ONE DAY. Every one of these crashed cars had two things in common: 1. out of state plates. 2. all season tires.
The Vermonters would be driving all kinds of cars, from clapped out, rusty Hondas, to new trucks. Rarely saw a crashed Vermont car. Because nearly every Vermonter had four snow tires on their vehicle, regardless of type, size, or drive system.
I gave a ride up the road to the driver of one of those wrecked Subaru's. As we made our way up the road (that was too much for his Subaru) in my 1985 RWD Volvo wagon, he marveled at how well it climbed the icy hill. "I didn't know these old Volvo's were AWD" he said.
"They're not", I said.
*Birch Hill Road, Stowe, VT. The wrecks were all from cars going down the hill in icy, snowy conditions, and on the S-turn near the bottom they lost control. AWD doesn't help you stop...or turn...
Like I always say, AWD just puts you further into the ditch.