Winter Tires
 

With winter weather fast approaching we're trying to decide what to do for tires as we live in a snowy area. The17" Hankook Optimo OEM tires have received rather poor reviews for snow traction on other vehicles. I really don't want to spend the $1000 for dedicated snow tires, wheels, and sensors. Anyone have experience with a good all weather tire in 215/45-17 that they'd be willing to recommend? For others in the snow belt, what are your plans?

I don't know if these come in the exact size you are looking for but I have a set of BFGoodrich Long Trail T/A Tour tires on my wifes Sedona minivan. They are great.

http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/overv...tour/3932.html

Nevermind. They don't come in a 45-series tire.

Consider a set of Kumho ASX. I had them on my Tiburon and they were very good in the snow. I know they come in that size.

If you buy all-season tires for winter driving traction, you're throwing your money away. Winter tires do offer greater grip on ice, in snow and on dry cold pavement. Consider $1000 spent on winter tires, rims and sensors vs. $2000 - $3000 in body shop repairs from a collision due to poor traction in winter driving conditions.

i Agree with fastmover on this one, I just bought 15" rims, and Studded Winter tires from the dealer for under 1000.
mainly to save my 17" from a Canadian winter/Salt.
but safety played a bit of a factor too

While I agree 4 snow tires are the best option, I totally understand the cost issue. Until yesterday, I've never owned a set of winter tires. I have always driven on all-seasons with no problems. Even with the very low Tiburon. If you don't get that much snow in the winter, you will be fine with a highly rated all-season tire. However, if you regularly get snow during the season, dedicated winter tires are a good investment. Not just in safety but like Jay said, in protecting your good wheels and tires from salt.

I replaced the factory 16" wheels and tires on my Tucson with 18" wheels from a Veracruz. The 18" all-season tires were just Ok in the light snow we got last winter. This winter is expected to have much more snow so I purchased a set of 4 Firestone Winterforce tires and mounted them on the original 16" Tucson wheels. I do much more driving in the winter than my wife so her minivan only has the BFGoodrich Long Trail T/A Tour all-season tires. But the tread on them is much more aggressive for the limited winter driving she will do. She'll be fine on them. And if it gets too bad, she won't drive in it anyway.

Are the sensors essential? With my Vibe, I run snow tires on steel wheels with no pressure monitors for the winter. The pressure sensor lights up for the whole winter, but it's better than the alternatives: either the added cost of the sensors or riding on the horrible OEM Goodyears that came with it.

If you forgo the pressure monitoring, your spending maybe $200 more than you would be on new all-seasons, and in the end you're getting longer life out of your summers plus improved safety in the winter.

That said, the Vibe is the first car I've ever bought winters for, so I haven't historically practiced what I'm preaching (and I've considered buying better all-seasons for my wife's touring -- Goodyear Assurance TripleTreds, which don't look like they come in your tire size). Still, I don't know that the value is there in buying new all-seasons. Through Tirerack.com you can get General Altimax Arctics in your size for $111 apiece, and they're really good tires as long as you're not expecting them to be incredibly firm when it's dry outside.

Sensors aren't required. Yes, the TPMS light will be on but buying new sensors won't help anyway. Hyundais can only "remember" 4 sensors at a time anyway so you would have to reprogram the system every time you swap tires. And since the dealer is the only one that can do it (at a cost) it's not worth it. I can live with the light for 2-3 months so I don't have to reprogram the system every time.

General Altimax are good. Also check out Dunlop Grandtrek SJ6 and Pirelli Scorpion Ice and Snow. I went with the Firestone Winterforce because they were not only rated as good but much cheaper than all others.

I went ahead and bought a tire and wheel package. Got to agree with Fastmover on this, tires are much cheaper than body work. I've always used winter tires in my Matrix and have been extremely happy. I went with the 15" Blizzak package from Tirerack as that's what I've used in the past. The Tirerack warehouse is about 10 miles from work and I was able to talk to a couple of the testers who just finished this years ice rink testing. They highly recommend the Blizzaks.

In my case, I don't live in the snow belt but my question is sort of related...would purchasing summer only tires be a bad move for the Bay Area region of California? Also, what kind of wet weather performance can be expected from Summer tires?

Thanks in advance.

Summer tires in your area should be fine. It rains in summer and summer tires are designed to handle dry and wet conditions, but not cold or ice. Check some summer tire ratings on Tirerack to see how they perform in the wet.