Winter Driving

I finally replaced my Integrities yesterday, with Bridgestone Turanza LS-Ts. I feel like an idiot for keeping those awful things on my car for almost four years. As I mentioned on another thread, I went from the stock 185/65/15s to 195/60/15s. Same overall diameter so the speedo's the same, but the wider tire combined with a slightly lower-sitting car has done wonders for both looks and performance. My first thought driving away from the tire shop was "I finally feel safe."

That's how I wanna feel..."safe". But these BF Goodrich Precepts (which are not all season as I was led to believe) which explaisn why they suck in the slightest bit of frost... I've only put 6600 mi on them, I don't know what to do with them...they're fine in little bit of rain, but it's winter so snow is gonna happen. I know I gotta get snow tires... I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and pull out the visa... but then would Discount Tire Co. store my 3 star tires, since I got it from them...(I shouldn't have settled...,but I wanted to get it done w/o having to order tires...)

I had a lot of control problems with my 2003 Corolla CE during the first winter. Accellerating was difficult becuase the wheels would spin, it would often spin out when turning under power, breaking was very difficult.

The stock tires on Corollas are very poor in general but in particular for winter driving. The tred seems to fill with snow and they have little traction.

They are now my summer tires and in the winter I use a set of X-Ice - well witht he money. Much better control, no spinning, less worry about stopping - only drawback is I can no longer doa doughnut in a turn by pulling the e-brake when on ice or packed snow

I'd look into a good set of snow or ice tires.

Someday I may actually drive my car in the snow to see what all the slipping and sliding talk is about. I bought new tires for my car, they are Big O Legacy and they look great. They have plenty of tread and hold the road pretty good (I am not a risky driver). I hope they wear well. The Big O dealer claimed they were the best tires possible and at $100 each they should have some kind of good performance and wear capability. I have no idea how they would handle in snow or ice. They seem to do well in the rain.

My co-worker asked her husband about my tires, and he said I shouldn't need snow tires unless I am in heavily snowing areas and it probably is more of a lack of 4-wheel drive or stability control issue. He doesn't recommend me changing my tires, and getting snow tires...

My dad doesn't want me to get snow tires, (he thinks I am wasting my money)... I don't know what to do here... (it's difficult, because these incidents happen when I am driving alone, and no one seems to believe me

but today the roads were well treated so I was ok, but as a precaution, I pumped my brakes, and took it prettyslow...teed off other drivers w/my slowness, but I don't want to experience what I experienced a month ago...getting snow tires sounds like a good idea, but also reading reviews on epions.com makes me think Discount Tire might not be the best place to get them, but neither is NTB (which used to be Tire Kingdom)...I guess I will pray hard that it doesn't snow the rest of this winter...I am thinking if I do get snow tires, I'd be wanting to get the Michilen X-ice (but, I dunno...those sales mechanics are sneaky ****s...at least around here...) if they don't want to service you (for whatever reason) they'll do what they can to get you out the door...(kind of odd)

My Big O Legacy tires seem pretty good to me, although they have not been driven in the snow.

My co-worker asked her husband about my tires, and he said I shouldn't need snow tires unless I am in heavily snowing areas and it probably is more of a lack of 4-wheel drive or stability control issue. He doesn't recommend me changing my tires, and getting snow tires...

My dad doesn't want me to get snow tires, (he thinks I am wasting my money)... I don't know what to do here... (it's difficult, because these incidents happen when I am driving alone, and no one seems to believe me

but today the roads were well treated so I was ok, but as a precaution, I pumped my brakes, and took it prettyslow...teed off other drivers w/my slowness, but I don't want to experience what I experienced a month ago...getting snow tires sounds like a good idea, but also reading reviews on epions.com makes me think Discount Tire might not be the best place to get them, but neither is NTB (which used to be Tire Kingdom)...I guess I will pray hard that it doesn't snow the rest of this winter...I am thinking if I do get snow tires, I'd be wanting to get the Michilen X-ice (but, I dunno...those sales mechanics are sneaky ****s...at least around here...) if they don't want to service you (for whatever reason) they'll do what they can to get you out the door...(kind of odd)

The best advice I can give you is to take your car out to an ampty parking lot when it snows and do crazy turns, accelerations and other things just to test the limits of your tires and your car, so you would know how to drive in snow. Who knows, this practice could save your life down the road one day. I learned winter driving the hard way when I spinned out of control and had a frontal colision with a bus. I almost killed myself and my passenger. Believe me its not worth it.

Your dad is right, most people in US do without snow tires.

But you should get a decent "M+S" multiseason tires. Do a reading on tirerack.com and educate yourself.

I'm going to be honest with you. Our winter tires only saved our butts onces this year. We did have to travel 3+ hours in a snow storm and we saw LOTS of cars that had slid off the road. My wife and I were driving in different cars, both had winter tires. The only thing that passed us was semi trucks and one really stupid Ford 500 driver that was prolly going about 65MPH. He must have picked out the AWD version and figured his tires were covered with magic dust or something.

I've been in snow with regular tires for most of my life, and it can get pretty slick. It is still slippery with winter tires, but the tred stays very soft in extremely cold weather, the the way the tred is made, it keeps the snow from packing on the tires.

The Corolla is a 1x4 car. Power only goes to one tire, so depending on how much snow you get, it can be the right choice. Everyone has a opinion. Saying that they are a wast is a pretty bad one I think.

I am currently hoping we will continue to get this spring like weather...

in ohio you never know what the weather's gonna be like. It snowed yesterday, today it's 61 out...

Maybe I'll get lucky and it won't be so bad...then I can plan ahead for next winter...

I do know that we still got 3 more months were we could get lots of snow...but I just don't know right now...

1x4 tire?? Wouldn't that affect your steering then??

I've had some plenty of close calls, where I've thought I've been very lucky, but I know that sooner or later, unless I am protected by someone or by the powers that be, I'm gonna get hit like a bug on a windshield and I am afraid that wreck won't be pretty...

Sure, I'm always as cautious as can be in snowy/non-sunny and clear days...,but not everyone is gonna be understanding about you taking a day off b/c of the weather...I will wait and see

When I drove in the bad roads in Massachusetts I would have fun spinning the car around doing circles. I was pretty practiced in snow driving and usually didn't have any problems, although I did put snow tires on the drive axle. The best method for safety is a very cautious style and a good eye out in all directions. Keep extra space between cars and realize you need extra time to stop. Don't make any sudden moves or you could lose traction. Learn how to handle skids and remember that panic causes more accidents than trained driving. I never wrecked a car, although I did bang off the side of a snowbank as I went out into the left side to pass a car. I got around the car but fishtailed into the bank once I got passed. The road looked fine, but it turned out to be black ice that was not easily visible. Close calls may be common, but with good planning and visibility as you can drive, you can avoid a serious accident.