Folks in the SF Bay Area, do you run all season or summer tires

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Feb 4, 2020
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Schaumburg, IL
Part of my family have moved to the SF Bay Area. The area seems to be rather moderate weather. I notice that you can't even buy windshield wiper fluid with alcohol in it.

Do you folks just run summer tires all the time? The temperature seems to rarely dip below 40 F.

Paul
 
Generally all season. Except the GS350 F Sport. It has those Michelin Sport whatever tires. Some owners just run All Season to get more life outta them.
 
Lucky family, I lived their for several years and COL was to much !! You have to be making AT LEAST $5000+ a month to survive out there and that's single person income NO kids


Weather in SF bay area is a DREAM !!! Never to cold, never to hot !! VERY comfortable


Being in the auto business myself. Most People ran all season tires. Some folks in hot climate area like silicone valley, Sacramento and parts of northern alameda county ran summer tires


Dated a girl who live in Vallejo and she ran summer tires on her SS Camaro

Dave
 
You can find summer tires in Europe that are not meant for performance drivers. If you bought a new Buick in the 60's, it didn't have all-season tires on it.
 
Originally Posted by Paul_Siu
Part of my family have moved to the SF Bay Area. The area seems to be rather moderate weather. I notice that you can't even buy windshield wiper fluid with alcohol in it.

Do you folks just run summer tires all the time? The temperature seems to rarely dip below 40 F.

Paul


You can special order winter blend washer fluid, for hitting the mountains in the winter.

I had to special order -25F Washer fluid for winter when I hit the slopes
 
I lived in the Bay Area 48 years. I left in 2000 because it became sooooo crowded and the tech people ruined the greatness of what it was. The bay area until the late 1980s was the best place on Earth to live. It freezes or snows every 30ish years and melts right away ,freezes once in a rare while and all season or M/S rated tires are fine.
 
Depends on you, your car.
SF Bay area has some amazing roads and depending on how you like to drive and what you're driving, you may want a summer tire.
When I lived there I had all season for the rainy season, and summer for the not rainy season.
 
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Originally Posted by 555
Depends on you, your car.
SF Bay area has some amazing roads and depending on how you like to drive and what you're driving, you may want a summer tire.
When I lived there I had all season for the rainy season, and summer for the not rainy season.



I visited once during January when it rains all the time. I borrowed my mom's now defunct 90's Corolla to drive. Let's just say that the roads were really twisty where she lives and it was not a fun drive with worn tires on a car with not so great handling to begin with on the highway. I made sure she had updated tires before I left.

Paul
 
I used to run ultra high performance summer only tires before I grew to hate them. I now run grand touring type tires. They do virtually everything very well, which can't be said for summer only tires. Too many compromises going SOT, way too many. Never again will I ever install them on a non-competition car.
 
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What cannot be said for summer only tires?

The best of them do beat best all seasons in dry and wet. Their only weak spot is treadwear and need to avoid low temperatures (as name implies).

Krzys
 
Summer tires in the US isn't available for all cars, trucks, SUV's, etc.

So, sometimes, you don't have a choice, but all-seasons.
 
After reviewing this video, I think summer tires would not be a good idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKtnczk8Mxk

According to the video, summer tires wet braking performance is horrible until you hit around 60F. In the SF area, the weather is typically dry until winter months where it rains constantly. At that point the temperature may ranges around 40-50's. This is probably where a summer tire would be worse than the all season in the (not so) cold winter and wet winter months.

Paul
 
Originally Posted by Paul_Siu
After reviewing this video, I think summer tires would not be a good idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKtnczk8Mxk

According to the video, summer tires wet braking performance is horrible until you hit around 60F. In the SF area, the weather is typically dry until winter months where it rains constantly. At that point the temperature may ranges around 40-50's. This is probably where a summer tire would be worse than the all season in the (not so) cold winter and wet winter months.

Paul

All season tires would be best bet as year around tire in Bay area.
As performance compromise probably Michelin Pilot AS+ or Continental Extreme Contact DWS would be good choice.
Personally, if not venturing to Ski resorts, I would run summer tire, not HP, but something like Michelin Primacy.
 
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