I know asking for tire suggestions can open a can of worms, but here goes. Wife's Forte sedan SX is going to need new tires in the next couple of months. No more Goodyear Eagle LS, last winter they were terrible even in light snow. I am looking for all season with good light snow performance. We live in southern Kansas and most of the time get no more than 3 inches of snow at any given time.
New Tire Suggestion
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He means there is no need for winter tires unless you're driving on deep fresh snow in the artic. In Kansas it's mostly heavy dirty slush or slicked ice. Toyo Proxes are my all-season/winter tire of choice. http://tirefinder.toyotires.com/?vid=30823
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I'm going to disagree with this, and so will a lot of tire experts....but to each their own. There is a need for winter tires when snow hits the ground. The thing is, you probably won't realize you need winter tires until your roof-down in a river. It's law where i live to have winter tires installed and a lot of provinces are implementing this. Sure you may not get a lot of snow in kansas but the facts are the same.....there's still snow/ice on the road and your all-seasons won't grip.
Do you need studs? probably not unless you do a lot of driving and get a lot of snow...but you definitely need winter tires
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I've got 800 miles on these factory tires (Nexen) and would like to dump them...POS's I've been running Yokohama Avids on all my other cars for years. IMHO, they're the best tire on the road...been through about all other brands. I get in access of 60K miles in s&g traffic here in hot ass N. Texas. Snow, we had 13" in DFW last winter (weird)...no problemo...
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I agree with HerAlterEgo. I lived in Chicago for 18years. Noone in my family ever got out of control and wreaked. We would get over 2ft lots of times and allseasons and conservative driving goes a long way. Its definitly not law in Kansas. I'm thinking Kansas would be like Delaware(lived there 5yrs). My seasonal tire did just fine there. Big difference between several inches and 3 any given time.
My Nexen's are some of the worst tires I've ever used, I will definitely replace them as soon as I see low tread!
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^I disagree with this statement.^ I have driven most of my life here in Alberta with our harsh winter's and have never had winter tires on my vehicles. The all season's I had equipped had good tread. I can see that statement working if you are talking about summer tires or worn out all season tires. You can drive with all seasons as long as you have the experience in driving under the winter conditions, if no experience then by all means you should have winter tires. Allowing plenty of stopping room, lower speeds then summer driving and defensive driving are some of the skills required for winter driving. They made it a law in areas that had many people driving like newbies and causing a lot of accidents. I still see many vehicles in accidents with winter tires because they drive like maniacs thinking just because they have winter tires they can drive like it's summer time.
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I must agree with the second half of your post MFury but you cannot argue against the better performance of winter tire over all season one!!! (in winter that is)
I have Yokohama IG20 for winter.
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Maybe it's just that i live in a hilly area but the problem i see is stop-and-go traffic going up and down hills on people that use summers/all-season. When i'm at a stop light and the road continues up hill i always wait until the person in front of me is a good way up before i follow...a few years ago someone was driving in front of my father and they didn't get enough grip with their all-seasons and slip back down...right into his front end.
Anyone that has visited/lives near downtown halifax knows what i'm talking about.
Anyone that has visited/lives near downtown halifax knows what i'm talking about.
I'm sure there's always going to be believers and non-believers of winter tires. I for one, am a firm believer and it's based on my own personal experiences. There were a few occasions where having winter tires saved my ass and I know for certain that if instead I had all-seasons, my ass would have been stuck calling for a tow truck.
One occasion was after work when we just got dumped on by snow. Me, along with a few other co-workers park in the same outdoor parking. Everyone else had all-seasons and could not get out their parking space with a couple of other people pushing their car out. We're talking about rocking the car back and forth in its space. Push from the rear, then the front, rinse and repeat. Each car took at least 10 mins to get out. There were about 4 cars, I was the last one. Everybody was ready to help push my car out but I told to them to stay back a bit. Gave the car some gas and although the winter tires spun a bit, I got my car out on its own. If I had all seasons instead and there was no one around to push me out, I would have had to call a tow. Another time was on a hill. Our area was just hit with some freezing rain. The car in front of me, another guy from work with all seaons, proceeded after the stop light and about a couple metres up, his tires started to spin heavily. The car started to 'snake' and I could slowly see it start to slide back down towards my front end. Luckily, I was able to accelerate and past him and up the hill safely to avoid what would have been a certain collision and major headache. That was the first year I used winter tires and after those experiences I will never go back to using all seasons in the winter.
I'm a very experienced and careful driver and still am even with winter treads. Heck, you can be the best driver in the world but there are times when you will reach the limit of an all season tire in hard winter conditions. Driving carefully and defensively should always be rule of thumb anytime you drive, not just in winter. There are times though when your skills and experience won't matter anymore or won't come into play, like the time people were stuck in the the parking lot. You can try to bend your luck but you won't be able to bend physics. The problem is that even though you may be able to control your own driving, you can't control what goes on around you and there might be a time when an idiot puts you in a critical/emergency situation. I once had to do an emergency stop in the winter on the highway because this lady tried to change lanes too fast in slippery conditions and did a 180 spin in front of me over onto my lane. Slamming on the brakes, I literally stopped within less than a metre of her car. I believe there was no way I would have stopped in time if I didn't have winter tires.
One occasion was after work when we just got dumped on by snow. Me, along with a few other co-workers park in the same outdoor parking. Everyone else had all-seasons and could not get out their parking space with a couple of other people pushing their car out. We're talking about rocking the car back and forth in its space. Push from the rear, then the front, rinse and repeat. Each car took at least 10 mins to get out. There were about 4 cars, I was the last one. Everybody was ready to help push my car out but I told to them to stay back a bit. Gave the car some gas and although the winter tires spun a bit, I got my car out on its own. If I had all seasons instead and there was no one around to push me out, I would have had to call a tow. Another time was on a hill. Our area was just hit with some freezing rain. The car in front of me, another guy from work with all seaons, proceeded after the stop light and about a couple metres up, his tires started to spin heavily. The car started to 'snake' and I could slowly see it start to slide back down towards my front end. Luckily, I was able to accelerate and past him and up the hill safely to avoid what would have been a certain collision and major headache. That was the first year I used winter tires and after those experiences I will never go back to using all seasons in the winter.
I'm a very experienced and careful driver and still am even with winter treads. Heck, you can be the best driver in the world but there are times when you will reach the limit of an all season tire in hard winter conditions. Driving carefully and defensively should always be rule of thumb anytime you drive, not just in winter. There are times though when your skills and experience won't matter anymore or won't come into play, like the time people were stuck in the the parking lot. You can try to bend your luck but you won't be able to bend physics. The problem is that even though you may be able to control your own driving, you can't control what goes on around you and there might be a time when an idiot puts you in a critical/emergency situation. I once had to do an emergency stop in the winter on the highway because this lady tried to change lanes too fast in slippery conditions and did a 180 spin in front of me over onto my lane. Slamming on the brakes, I literally stopped within less than a metre of her car. I believe there was no way I would have stopped in time if I didn't have winter tires.
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Remember, this guy is in Kansas. They get very cold weather but not so much snow. The chances of being stuck in the snow shouldn't happen that often.
And I don't know if you've been to the middle of the US. Kansas and Nebraska are about as flat as it gets.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that yall are wrong. Winter tires are the best in the snow, but if you don't get that much snow. Winter tires will actually be bad for your car. If the roads are semi-cleaned after 3inches of snow, you don't want winter tires. Now, you don't want summer tires but allseason tire will do.
I've also got extensive driving experience and highly recommend you get winter tires for winter. All season tires are sometimes referred to as 'no season' tires because they are not good for winter or summer. You can be the most experienced driver in the world, but that won't do you any good if you need to do an emergency maneuver. The winter tires can definitely save your health and your car. They finally made it a law here in Montreal. But the dumb thing is that they didn't make it a law to remove the winter tires in the spring. So cheapskates are driving around in winter tires in summer just to save a few bucks. They are of course wearing down those winter tires rapidly and they won't be any good the next winter. So be responsible and slap on the right tire for the right season. And maintain them regularly and check the air pressure. Then just don't drive like you can take more risk. Drive as if you didn't have winter tires and that will help you not to lose control out there.
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i dont see a problem with allseason i live in upstate ny lake effect central average 160+ inches 30 plus years no problem
There is no problem provided you never need to do an emergency maneuver. If you do just once in life then the winter tires will have been more than worth it. The big question to me is: WHY NOT get winter tires? It doesn't cost you any more because you're not degrading the other set.
From apa: :"A winter tire offers significant safety advantages over an all-season tire. Braking on ice is better. In comparison tests, the best winter tires stopped between 30 and 60 feet shorter than all-season tires from 50km/h. Performance is enhanced in deep snow and slush. You’re less likely to get stuck in a parking spot or to be unable to start on a steep hill. The advantages become greater as tires wear and the all-season model starts to perform like the proverbial banana peel."
Enough said. But when you drive with them, you really see their benefit.
From apa: :"A winter tire offers significant safety advantages over an all-season tire. Braking on ice is better. In comparison tests, the best winter tires stopped between 30 and 60 feet shorter than all-season tires from 50km/h. Performance is enhanced in deep snow and slush. You’re less likely to get stuck in a parking spot or to be unable to start on a steep hill. The advantages become greater as tires wear and the all-season model starts to perform like the proverbial banana peel."
Enough said. But when you drive with them, you really see their benefit.
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I spent much of my driving life in Alberta, and five years ago I would have agreed with you.
Here in the Yukon, many (if not most) drivers have two wheel/tire sets, one for summer and one for winter. I put winters on my '93 Civic and I couldn't believe the improvement over (good) all-seasons.
It's not really all that expensive, either, when you consider that you'll have two sets of wheels that you'll swap; both will last longer. Mind you, you'll need a place to store the ones you aren't using, but it can't be THAT hard.
I'm just shopping now for a wheel-tire combo for a winter set for my new SX Koup, and I want to get as narrow as I can manage. Any suggestions?
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