Not sure I'm following you. From Car A to Car B I moved up to a better car, my monthly pmts went up $4.34, my insurance went DOWN by $250/yr and I didn't put a penny out of my pocket to do so. Other than not getting full value out of my tires what financial error did I make?
snow tires
- Thread starter ILOVETHIS
- Start date
You have valid points but at some point you have to decide what you wish to pay vs what you get in the way of an increased level of safety. Buying basic winter tires will give increased safety, but buying better quality winter tires will provide even more safety so shouldn't everyone be buying those? And in order to increase our safety in an accident shouldn't we be paying to install 5-point harnesses, wear helmets, HANS devices.......
Now I know it was mentioned that winter accidents dropped 18% after Quebec mandated winter tires, but how much of that was due to the milder winters we've had since then?
Isn't more likely that (as a general comment) people who buy winter tires drive more aggressively because they believe the superiority of the tires will allow them to do so? Kinda like the number of people who think that 4-wheel drive makes them stop quicker?
Sorry I'm rambling a bit... tired and heading to bed. Night all!
LOL!
That was equally shocking for me also....
Been there! Done that!
As stated earlier, for the several years living in the City of Buffalo where we were lucky to see a snowplow plow our street more than a couple times each winter, I used snows! 2 snow tires on the rear because all my vehicles were RWD back then. You needed snow tires for traction to drive through the unplowed snow. Then when moving out of Buffalo back to the burbs, haven't had any need for snows. The burbs know how to keep their roads clear.
Always rotated tires every 5000 miles back then and every 7500 miles now.
those look pretty good. People who don't want to buy snows should get these 4 season tires.
My car came with low-profile 'summer' tires. Can't even call them all-season. It also has ABS, traction control, AWD, and a bunch of other tricks. What's the point of having all that technology if you have no grip on the actual road??
I have a set of winter tires on separate rims. Anyone who thinks they don't need winter tires because 'they're a really good river' or 'they know their car' is fooling themselves. You should be a good driver and know your vehicle's handling characteristics anyway. Winter tires are specialized equipment for specific conditions. In conditions like London or Sarnia is experiencing, proper winter tires will help you a lot more than misplaced bravado about your skills as a driver. If you're not willing to use the proper equipment, then stay the hell away from me. You're the guy I see sliding helplessly into an intersection when you can stop on the frozen slush and ice under your slick and cold-hardened 'all-seasons.'
I have a set of winter tires on separate rims. Anyone who thinks they don't need winter tires because 'they're a really good river' or 'they know their car' is fooling themselves. You should be a good driver and know your vehicle's handling characteristics anyway. Winter tires are specialized equipment for specific conditions. In conditions like London or Sarnia is experiencing, proper winter tires will help you a lot more than misplaced bravado about your skills as a driver. If you're not willing to use the proper equipment, then stay the hell away from me. You're the guy I see sliding helplessly into an intersection when you can stop on the frozen slush and ice under your slick and cold-hardened 'all-seasons.'
From the website "The tyre is the perfect alternative for motorists who want to drive all year round in a moderate climate on one type of tyre."
I don't think Canada qualifies as "moderate", especially to a Dutch company. They don't really have a winter there.
That is your opinion. I used to think that it was all hype, too. But, I noticed on both my vehicles the much better control with winter tires in the cold. All seasons are a compormise with respect to winter driving, and I had among the best 'all seasons' on the market at the time.
You can wear a 5 point harness or helmet if you want and that will probably protect you, but what about the other guy you might hit. If you think the winter was milder last year in Montreal than the year before, you don't have friends, family or business there. The worst condition for driving is when the temperatures straddles 0C like it does a lot in TO. That's when you get ice and slush. When it's really cold, the snow is crisp and dry and there is little black ice and no slush.
What I see in this tire is that you have less tread/tire for each condition so again it's a compromise. Do you think that 3 inches of winter tread does the job of 6 inches of winter tread; no way. When buying winter tires you have to decide if you going to deal with more ice or snow. Some winter tires handle ice better than snow, some do it better the other way around.
No they won't. Tires need to be replaced every five or six years regardless of how few km's may be on them. The rubber will still harden and dry out compromising traction.
Why would the dealer do this if there were not some financial benefit for them? Trust me, they profited in some way, at your expense.
Most car wear out or get traded in in 5 or six years, so no big deal. The idea is to use the tires you have. If they're sitting around for four or five years, what's the use? I've been doing this for over 30 years and the longest I've owned a single car was for 10 years, with 350,000 km, and went through two set of each in that time. I sold the car with the snows and the owner was very happy he didn't have to jump out and buy a set of snows for the first year as they still had good tread and no cracks inside or out. Using Nitrogen to fill the tires also helps extend the life.
Problem with using N2 is if the tire goes low you do not have the ability to use your compressor to fill it. Until you can hit a gas station, anywhere, and fill the tire, it is impractical.
I'm guessing yours are high performance with a tread rating of 160 or less. I'm not sure if snow have such ratings but all season are speed and distant rated.
B
burt-oh-my!
Hey didckwad, my safety comment is completely rational. Safety like anything else has a price, both in terms of dollars and inconvenience. And, being safe is a probabilistic thing: you can take a dangerous action and have nothing happen to you, and you can take very safe actions, and still get hurt. My point is that just because something increases you rsafety, it is NOT obvious that you need to do it. you have to look at the trade-offs. Otherwise, as I said, you could most assuredly save a ton of lives by wearing helmets in cars.
If you want to die by not wearing a helmet in a car, feel free.
Of bloody wel course not everyone does normal tire rotations, idiot. The majority of people DO NOT rotate their tires, so yes, changing tires can increase costs that way. OBVIOUSLY.
They wear out faster, dummy, BECAUSE THEY HAVE A SHORTER RATED LIFE.
YOU obviously didnt read MY post - I have snow tires, so I amOBVIOUSLY not cheap. Please pay at least a little attention. I was saying that I dont get my panties in a knot when someone else makes a decision not to do something that improves their safety.
I've seldom had to top off a N2 tire, maybe once in 3 years. Maybe the tires are topped off by the shop when the tires are changed over. There's no real problems if you 'have' to top off with air. The one time I've had a tire repaired and filled with air, I'll just ask my tire guys to purge and refill with N2. The only time they've ever charged me was the first time, $5.00 per tire, since then nadda. Oddly enough, my car dealer has decided to not get N2 gear in their new place, but I don't go to them for tire care anyway. They did have to replace a damage tire 'free' and because they filled it with air I went to my tire guys for the winter change over and they said they'd replaced it free next season.
Hey NUMBNUTTS!
Your whole first paragraph in your first post is total nonsense. Nuff said on that.
How do you know that most people don't rotate their tires? Do you go around asking everyone? If they don't, they won't get proper life from them and are wasting money; feel free. If they don't, they're idiots.
Tires wear out for all types of other reasons as well, under or over inflation, bad cornering, hard breaking, or jack rabbit starts, regardless of the rating of a tire. I've an amazing number of people driving their betters with snows on all year around; really dumb.
I did read your post and ya, you have snow tires, but you've decided they're not worth it as you whine about the costs in cash and your valuable time of rotating/changing, and buying the specialty tires, because the snows wear faster, certainly not twice as fast in my experience, and the extra wheels(steel wheels). You are counting/pinching pennies. All sort of posts in this thread and previous threads have shown the extra costs aren't that out of line and less than some think, especially when you measure them against the safety factors they give you,
Ok, N2 filled tires don't leak as much through the rubber as O2 filled tires because the N2 molecule is larger. The N2 won't react with the rubber the same way, if at all, as O2 does causing weakness in the rubber on the inside. The cost is $20.00 once in the life of my set of tires which cost an average of $600.00. How many bottle of water do some people buy in 4 years. Don't worry, i don't buy much bottled water at all.
Then for those who don't have air compressors around their house or in the car, the gas stations are charging for top ups now.
Another advantage to N2 is you are not using compressed air. Unless an air dryer is used you add water to the compressed air.
