Do you use all weather or seasonal tires?

I live in the (very crappy weather) North East and I have all-weather tires on an AWD vehicle. Mostly they are fine, but I have to keep a close eye on the tread. The minute it goes down just a bit too far I lose traction. It’s been a very icy and slick winter for us so far, and except for the worst days I’ve been pretty functional on these tires.

OK you live in a much snowier part of the country than I do. I am guessing all-weather would be fine.

I live in the middle of the Midwest, US, and I’ve never owned a set of snow tires. To my knowledge, never known anyone who owned a set.

But, face it, I’m so hard on tires that I nearly always have 2 new on the car. On my list of things to do today? Order a new pair of tires for the car. Saturday I drove one block, the low tire came on, I aired it up immediately and it was dead by the time I got to the tire place. Turns out I didn’t have a bad bearing in the car…that tire has just been bad for months. lol

I live in NY where the winters are horrid (my shower was just frozen for the first time in over 13 years living here, and I just got that moving with the hair dryer and boiling water on the handles, now the washing machine is frozen. A friend is coming to help). I use all weather tires. One of my friends uses snow tires. I think she’s the only person I know that does.

The thing I hate about snow tires is that iffy season where we could still have some foul weather, but snow tires are too much for days. (Think March) Growing up, my parents were constantly (it felt to my young self) having their tires changed out, it was a pain.

It’s actually illegal in my province (Quebec) to drive without winter tires between mid-December and mid-March.

I live in the northern tundra of Minnesota. My husband is a car enthusiast (massive understatement there) and knows and researches tires for fun.

For one of my vehicles, which he thought needed them, we bought very good winter tires. You keep them on entirely separate (in our case steel) rims and swap them out for your regular tires at the start of winter. (We have plenty of extra storage space in our garages, so we just stacked the extra 4 tires until Spring ..and vice versa.)

I definitely felt much more traction with the winter tires. I also prefer to have a manual transmission – because the ability to downshift slowly (without braking) AND having good gripping winter tires was best for me.

HOWEVER, no matter how good YOUR tires are, you have to remember that there will always be some butt head driving around with totally bald crappy tires spinning in the snow and unable to stop when s/he needs to at a light. So, again, good tires only save you from yourself—not other idiots.

You have to take off the winter tires before the pavement starts warming up. They wear too fast..so that’s the gotcha. Also, it’s expensive to have two sets of tires that you need to swap out (and technically you should pay for an alignment when you do this, too.)

My current vehicle has the best rated “all year” tires we could find. It still grips nice in snow, and I love them in rain, too. I am a super cautious driver (slow down well ahead of a stop, leave lots of distance between cars when it’s really bad road conditions) ..and so far, knock on wood, I’ve had no trouble.

These all-weather tires will still only last a couple of years, though.

@dappled_leaves – my friend in Quebec told me the same thing. She says the mechanics / garages where they swap out the tires store the tires for them (because people don’t have space usually to keep their other set of tires).

@geeky_mama Yup, people start making those appointments early – there’s always a backlog.

I’ve always had all-weather tires while living in Michigan and Chicago. Though this is in suburban & urban areas,. The roads are plowed, there’s no real need for snow tires.

I too live in an area with serious snow and ice and road issues. My Subaru Forester AWD with all-weather tires works fine except on ice. I spend the money on sanding rather than snow tires. Once I am off my driveway and the secondary dirt road, there is never any issue.

Most of the town real estate taxes go for road maintenance and plowing, and equipment for the highway department.

Friends about four miles from me are waiting for a bull dozer to liberate them from their drifts. At the moment they can’t get out of their house.

All weather. That is all we need most of the time down here.

I live in AK. The winters are dry, cold and a good amount of snow. A cold spell just left that was -40s to -50s. To be blunt the roads are shitty all winter just about. I can’t compare to other states since I only really lived in FL before this.

AWD certainly helps, but if you drive like a fool expect that it will still slip and slide. I have FWD and Blizzaks on my vehicle, and some things I notice at the moment I am losing tread (3rd use now), roads are just that much worse and I didn’t pay attention to it, I should slow down, and generally be more cautious.

People get to over confident (I am somewhat guilty of this) longer they’ve been here. Sure they know to drive in the winter or should, but reality is it’s unpredictable. For example I always make a left turn to go into a road that leads home. 2 days ago though I started sliding right into curb about 90 degrees. Least with FWD its fairly easy to oversteer or corrective steering I think it is called and was able to quickly save my save from sliding off.

Corners, lights, and stop signs or generally places where people idle their cars are the worst. The vehicles typically sit there long enough to warm up the bit of snow and ice under them leaving a nice slippery layer.

I’ve heard arguments many ways which is best in my town and I guess it depends on what you can spend. Personally I always had a separate set of winter tires to switch for the winter. This what most people in my town do.

@geeky_mama Is on point.

I just have tires. Kansas.

@dappled_leaves Yeah, I’m in Quebec too. It’s the law here to have them in Winter. I thought it was the same everywhere there’s snow, but I guess not…

North Carolina with one car that can be use in Virginia that has Ice and Snow (nonmetallic studs) the other has a highly rated all season tires. Both vehicles are all wheel drive and we are about have a half inch of freezing rain and sleet.

I use all-seasons, but ones geared towards wet weather; a “rain tire”, if you will. Snow tires are generally softer rubber and thus wear faster, and they also have smaller contact patches, so using them in non-snowy conditions eats them up. Regular all-season tires have too little ability to shed water, mud, or snow, so are little different from bald tires on anything other than dry pavement. But something geared for wet asphalt has enough ground contact to get good grip on dry pavement, hard enough rubber to do so without excessive wear, and yet has a tread pattern just open enough to get rid of the snow in the winter and mud in the spring that it allows more traction than regular “all-season” tires.

That said, money sometimes dictates tire choice, even when that means having four bald all-seasons and driving around in the aftermath of an ice storm. My last night in NH involved me driving a FWD car with four bald tires on ice at 2–3AM in a whiteout with visibility under 50 feet after three days of no sleep. On the highway, I took it slow (40–45 MPH), and the last 3 miles were twisty back roads through the woods.

Personally, I’ve never had much trouble in the snow. Some cars are more of a handful in the winter regardless of tire. My experience is that the extra weight of 4WD/AWD causes more issues than sending power to four wheels instead of two solves; they launch easier, but are harder to stop, more likely to lock up all four even if you don’t touch the brakes, and the extra mass tends to lead to skids and understeer situations that a lighter 2WD car wouldn’t get into.

I currently live in Seattle, but spent about 30 years living in New England, 9 of those years on a rural dirt road. I managed to get that aforementioned bald-tired FWD car up a driveway that a National Guard HMMWV could not get up.

HAH, all seasons. Pfft.

Guess they are ok if you live somewhere that gets an inch or to of snow all winter, but in Canada you need something a little more beefy. Studs if you can lol (new car came with studded rears and it is definitely noticeable)

@XOIIO Only if you have so little driving skill that you shouldn’t be behind the wheel in the first place. I grew up where, if you couldn’t do a Scandinavian Flick, you’re going to be walking before Thanksgiving as your car rusts away in the wrecking yard after being fished out of a ditch.

I’ve also run studded snows before, and not only do they not help much in the snow compared to what I generally ride on, but the studs disappeared pretty quickly after hitting a spot of bare pavement when I reached civilization. Studs are handy on ice, but unless your driving is strictly on frozen lakes, they’re more hassle than they’re worth. In fact, except on ice, studded tires actually perform worse than all-season tires. Yes, studs have been proven worse on the snow than all-seasons!

Not to mention studs are illegal in many places and of limited legality in many others. My old home state is one of the few that allows steel studs; many states allow plastic studs only, and many states (and a few countries) don’t allow studs at all.

The fact that studs and chains are 12-month-legal where I used to live should tell you something. Winter may be November to March in some areas, it’s more like September to May in others, and I used to have snowbanks in my yard until June.

Oh of course, studs are useless in deep/fresh snow but the roads get icy enough here that I can notice a difference, and if they are on tires with good treads like mine the 6 inches of snow we got was nothing, and when it gets packed down and it warms and cools a few times it turns to pretty slippery conditions that I wouldn’t trust an “all season” on.

If the weather didn’t fluctuate so much during winter here (getting up to 15 above during the day sometimes and turning everything to ice at night) all seasons could be fine, unfortunately that isn’t the case.

@XOIIO Whether on hardpack, fresh powder or anything in between, I’ve had few issues even when I had to bull my way out. Ever use an ‘87 Corolla as a snow plow? My rule of thumb is that if I could open my doors without shoveling, I could drive out. So anything less than about 8 inches couldn’t stop my Corolla, Golf, Honda, or whatever FWD car I had despite running all-seasons most of the time. Maybe I’m just so used to driving in low-traction conditions that I barely notice any more.
Then again, most of my cars have been pretty light; about 400–900 pounds lighter than most current cars. The larger, heavier cars I’ve borrowed were prone to slipping, sliding, and wallowing even on dry pavement and thus nearly undrivable in the winter regardless of tire.

Yeah I speak from experience with my truck and my current car which is just shy of 2 tons (3,849 lbs), need sandbags in both, and while the winter tires on the truck weren’t quite as good they weren’t terrible. Nice thing is once you get momentum with a heavy vehicle you keep going through deep snow lol.

Starting out at low speed though like a couple days ago with 6 inches of snow in the back alley my rear end was going to the side a bit, I just managed to get out without hitting the truck parked in back, it was a bit of a close call lol (or sure as hell felt like it, maybe a foot away). Still not sure why it swung that way, but aside from that I had no other issues.

@XOIIO A 2200 pound Corolla and 2100 pound Golf handle a bit differently than vehicles that weigh as much as both of those cars put together. And that momentum really works against you when you do anything involving the steering wheel or brake pedal. Starting out is a little harder in my rigs, but I would rather start hard and have total control once I’m in motion than start easy and have little control after that. Especially on twisty roads with steep drops and no guardrails.

When I lived in Michigan I used winter tires all year. They were still on my car when I moved to Florida.

In Tennessee and North Carolina I had all weather. I don’t know what I have now, I assume all weather? I live in Florida again.

We have a truck, I wonder what tires those are? They have a thick tread.

If I lived very north again I would have at least one of our cars have winter tires if we didn’t have the truck. Actually, if those aren’t winter tires on the truck I would probably buy winter tires for my Honda rather than my truck.

Ah, the arrogance confidence of Youth. Congratulations, @XOIIO, for thinking you have mastered your snow conditions. Good for you.
After over 40 years of driving in many different regions, many different snow types, and many different climate areas, I have learned what tires work best for me and whatever vehicle type I may have. In so many areas now, with the improvement in design and materials of tires, all weathers are appropriate, if the driver is competent. I am guessing that from what @keobooks has said that they will work well for her.

Europe. :D
And yes, I do seasonal tires because of the weather conditions. It’d be VERY difficult to successfully transport during winters without good winter tires.

I don’t see how choosing to use tires with more grip for better handling in snow is being arrogant or confident. If I was being arrogant or overly confident I’d go “pfft all seasons are fine” or “pfft summer tires are fine I’m good enough at driving to not need extra grip”

Your entire first post was arrogant and scoffing, @XOIIO

I’d guess if it is that big a problem for you, maybe you should switch your tires, rather be safe than sorry…

I was in Costco recently, buying (or planning to buy) new tires. There was a man in front of me who was purchasing two new tires (all weathers). The tire salesman told him they’d be putting the two new tires on the back. The customer said he wanted them in the front, as it was front wheel drive. The salesman insisted that they’d be installed on the back, and he said Michelin actually requires that. The customer said he would take his business elsewhere. When I left, I picked up the Michelin brochure, which had a statement about them recommending that two new tires be put on in the back, but it was not a requirement and I didn’t understand why the Costco salesman was insisting on it, as I would think it should be the customer’s choice (with the understanding that it might not be best, not the most efficient, etc.). I was actually going to post a q on here at the time, about it, but I didn’t. I was wondering if the Costco salesman just misunderstood the difference between “requirement” and “suggestion” or if he was just busting chops.

My first post was meant in a humorous sense because most people here find all seasons laughable.

@jca because braking is important and the better tires in the rear, as long as the front aren’t bald, will keep the back end from “swapping ends”. I have AWD/Four wheel drive cars, so tires I put on have to match on all four corners.

@Tropical_Willie: My question was more whether it’s a “requirement” or a suggestion” and also whether the customer has the right to choose where the tires go (which plays into the “requirement” vs. “suggestion” aspect).

The tire shop at Costco may have a corporate requirement wink wink.
Helps sell two more tires.

I live in the rainy Pacific Northwest, at the bottom of a long hill. My husband, who grew up in horrible Buffalo, would just throw some chains on the back tires if it snowed hard (unusual here). But he’s gone now, so I cautiously bought studded snow tires from my trusty Toyota dealer. The Toyota dealer charges me a bit more than $100 to change from snow tires to normal tires, $200/year. I now park the car up at the top of the long steep driveway when it’s going to snow hard, and walk up (and down) (with a flashlight and a ski pole). The snow tires sit in my woodshed and take up space. Pfft.

@susanc Get a set of used rims from a junk yard to mount and leave the the snows with studs on them. Rims cost less than $200 where I live.

@jca I’ve run into that at a different tire dealer, only they claimed it was federal law and promoted understeer in slippery conditions, which for some bullshit reason is considered safer, at least for incompetent drivers who can’t drift.

@susanc Do you live in someplace like Stephens Pass? We get so little snow in Seattle that I think you’re losing money to paranoia unless you are way up in the mountains.

@XOIIO If they actually did give more control or better grip, maybe. But tire technology has advanced to where “all season” tires are more capable than you give them credit for. Whether plowing snow in a Corolla or mud bogging in a Civic, they get acceptable grip under any remotely reasonable condition, and even some unreasonable ones. Few things are funnier than seeing a 4WD truck with chains stuck trying to follow a tiny FWD car up a snowy hill.

I get all-seasons, because in NJ we get a lot of rain and puddles in the warm months, as well as ice, slush and snow in the winter. Like @jerv, I put in a lot of time driving manual transmission VW Golfs, and they handled beautifully in the snow. My Jetta Diesel automatic has also done nicely this winter. I research the tires every time I make a new purchase; and now that I can afford it, I replace all 4 at the same time since they’re rotated at every oil change.