Snow tires? or high performance all-seasons?

JohnnyEBGood

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Reading the owner reviews on Tire Rack, it sounds like the possible drawback is tread life. But we drive so little anyway (even without covid) that we'd still get several years out of them, at least.
I get about 5 years out of Blizzaks.. I put them on at the end of November and take them off at the end of March.
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Old guy

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I also have the Vredestein Quatrac 5. I love em!!! Bought them last fall and they are amazing in the rain. Make less noise then the OEM all seasons on the highway and same MPG. In the snow I love them. Here in Iowa we are on track for our snowest winter ever. They have not spun once when pulling away from a stop. Have not slid once when stopping. After 47 years of driving these are the best tires I have ever had for a all season.

Only bad thing, with all the grip these have in the snow, I get a huge amount of slush and snow in the wheel wells. Have to clean them out after every drive. Small price to pay for traction.
 

James3spearchucker

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Thanks for the replies so far! I think I might do the conti DWs. While it's probably safer to have fully dedicated winter tires I'm only in snow a couple times a year and being in NYC there is no space to store extra tires.

Other dumb questions here from a new car owner. What do you do with your old tires? If you go to a shop do they just hang on to them?
Hi, I think you got a ton of answers and some esoteric ones. I live in an apartment as well. If I was you I would use the Firestone tires or at least try them. No good tire manufacturer is selling tires that are not complex compounds capable of wide temperatures. But I don't know what you have. Your Honda does not have LSD nor does mine but I have been pleased with its balance and traction off-road dirt, rain and snow. Only problem I have had is hydro-planing at highway speed. I drove in snow just fine in Falken FK510 but I drove for many years in Colorado and know snow.

If the Firestones are crappy in the snow then I guess you can recoup some money selling on Craigs or something like that. If you decide to store them ask your apartment manager to park them somewhere or a friend with space.

Continentals do well in all conditions but for me they were fairly noisy but I had ContiProContact on my car since new. You might look at PureContact tires. And there are many all-season tires that if you look at them you can see how well the snow sipes are on the outer tread blocks (or all of them) and if the blocks look like they will evacuate water well too. You need both for both snow and water. I have owned IceBears and used winter tires but plenty of tires will do fine even some summer tires if you know how to drive and as long as there is chunky treads on there and they are not bald. Cheers
 

billyalice

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Hi everyone! Couple of questions about tires! Quick background, I'm going to be taking some trips for skiing in the Northern US over the next few weeks. I've got a 2016 EX-T CVT tuned with hondata +3 right now.

Do I need to switch out the stock all-seasons on my 2016 ex-t to snow/winter tires for long road trips in the winter? Going skiing so will deff be in mountains and areas with more snow.

Would a higher performance all season be a good option? I don't really want to switch back and forth in the winter/summer between tires. I'm living in an apartment and dont have a place to store an extra set of tires/wheels.

Does anyone have recommendations for tires?

Thanks everyone!
 

billyalice

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I see you live in Astoria, Queens. I am in Brooklyn.
Unless you need to drive everyday or up hills, I would keep all season tires on the car.

I recently bought all season replacements for my 2018 Civic Sport 6 spd MT. They are plenty good in the snow (https://www.civicx.com/forum/threads/how-old-are-you.56361/post-953754). As we had 2 big snows this month (No snow last year).

Save your money. Drive safely keep your foot on eggs when you drive in the snow for now. Plenty of time to check out your tune when the weather gets nicer.
 


BarracksSi

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"The Fast Lane Car" compared the acceleration and braking performance in snow of all season vs all weather vs snow tires. As expected, the dedicated winter tire performed best in the snow, the all weather performed 2nd best and the all season tire performed worst. The differences were significant.

All-Season Vs. All-Weather Vs. Snow Tire:
The "All-Weather" category seems new to me. Looks like it would be good enough for my local weather.

As hard as these guys worked to make this video, I also want to see one filmed in a facility that can set up scenarios like 90-degree corners, sweeping suburban curves, highway ramps, and stuff like that. "Can this tire handle a snowy freeway ramp marked for 45 mph?" "Can this tire make a turn onto a cross street without sliding into oncoming traffic?" "Can this tire climb up this driveway and stop going back down?" I've watched cars slide out of control in front of me on highway curves, and it would be helpful to show that better tires help maintain control at seemingly reasonable speeds.

It kinda bothers me that naysayers will shrug off a video like this. "You shouldn't floor the gas in the snow anyway" "Keep a longer stopping distance and all-seasons are good enough" blah blah blah... It's the situations that catch you off-guard even if you're driving carefully that require the extra grip of good winter tires.
 

Ocelot

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The "All-Weather" category seems new to me. Looks like it would be good enough for my local weather.

As hard as these guys worked to make this video, I also want to see one filmed in a facility that can set up scenarios like 90-degree corners, sweeping suburban curves, highway ramps, and stuff like that. "Can this tire handle a snowy freeway ramp marked for 45 mph?" "Can this tire make a turn onto a cross street without sliding into oncoming traffic?" "Can this tire climb up this driveway and stop going back down?" I've watched cars slide out of control in front of me on highway curves, and it would be helpful to show that better tires help maintain control at seemingly reasonable speeds.

It kinda bothers me that naysayers will shrug off a video like this. "You shouldn't floor the gas in the snow anyway" "Keep a longer stopping distance and all-seasons are good enough" blah blah blah... It's the situations that catch you off-guard even if you're driving carefully that require the extra grip of good winter tires.
I've used A/W tires on our light service vehicles - they are a compromise. they are a bit stickier in the winter, and wear slightly faster in the summer. I'll maintain that straight winter rubber is "essentially" free since you aren't wearing your summer rubber out in winter and vice-versa.
 

BarracksSi

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I've used A/W tires on our light service vehicles - they are a compromise. they are a bit stickier in the winter, and wear slightly faster in the summer. I'll maintain that straight winter rubber is "essentially" free since you aren't wearing your summer rubber out in winter and vice-versa.
Until I convince my wife to let me buy a second set of wheels for her CR-V, I'd be willing to get an A/W tire like those.

We still have the choice to drive my Civic with snow tires, but it's not AWD. (but we haven't been forced to drive in conditions that would require AWD, either)
 

James3spearchucker

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The "All-Weather" category seems new to me. Looks like it would be good enough for my local weather.

As hard as these guys worked to make this video, I also want to see one filmed in a facility that can set up scenarios like 90-degree corners, sweeping suburban curves, highway ramps, and stuff like that. "Can this tire handle a snowy freeway ramp marked for 45 mph?" "Can this tire make a turn onto a cross street without sliding into oncoming traffic?" "Can this tire climb up this driveway and stop going back down?" I've watched cars slide out of control in front of me on highway curves, and it would be helpful to show that better tires help maintain control at seemingly reasonable speeds.

It kinda bothers me that naysayers will shrug off a video like this. "You shouldn't floor the gas in the snow anyway" "Keep a longer stopping distance and all-seasons are good enough" blah blah blah... It's the situations that catch you off-guard even if you're driving carefully that require the extra grip of good winter tires.
Alls I can say is there are two sides to every coin. You have a point. There are many situations that make traction difficult especially on slopes. Certain compounds and the design of the sipes and slits make a big impact. Not to mention the challenge that ice causes. But on the other side is the pilot and this is more important than anything else probably by a wide margin because that's what you need to do when driving: create safe margins.
 

Benster

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Until I convince my wife to let me buy a second set of wheels for her CR-V, I'd be willing to get an A/W tire like those.

We still have the choice to drive my Civic with snow tires, but it's not AWD. (but we haven't been forced to drive in conditions that would require AWD, either)
Buy winters and wheels and get her to try both one after the other, even if it'll suck to swap tires in the cold, she'll change her mind really quick. Did it to a buddy once, we both had the same car and he had all seasons, I had winters and I let him try my car. He went and bought winters the next day... In the OP's case, I can understand why he is hesitant to buy winters but as one person said, get a set of tire cables, not chains, for when you go in the mountains. There are a lot of newer and better ways to do this than the old chains that can damage your wheel wells and a decent set of tire cables will do just as well as chains on the road and not break the bank or your storage space.
 

BarracksSi

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Buy winters and wheels and get her to try both one after the other, even if it'll suck to swap tires in the cold, she'll change her mind really quick. Did it to a buddy once, we both had the same car and he had all seasons, I had winters and I let him try my car. He went and bought winters the next day... In the OP's case, I can understand why he is hesitant to buy winters but as one person said, get a set of tire cables, not chains, for when you go in the mountains. There are a lot of newer and better ways to do this than the old chains that can damage your wheel wells and a decent set of tire cables will do just as well as chains on the road and not break the bank or your storage space.
We've got winter wheels for my car, and she already prefers to have me drive my car if the weather's really bad. The wheels paid for themselves when we drove at the leading edge of a winter storm all the way form Wisconsin to Maryland.
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