If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

[VwSweetHeart]

Re: If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

Winter tires are great.....however, if you think your invincible because of those winter tires and you continue to drive like a ass or drive like you do on summer roads your an idiot. Winter tires aren't going to stop you on ice. Winter driving does need more patience and caution. If you drive for the weather conditions, all season do the job just as well. Accident are usually caused by people who do not drive for conditions not due to their tires. Alot of people have no common sense when it comes to driving...PERIOD! Snow and ice just make it that much worse. It doesn't take a genius to slow down but I guess if you have no clue how to drive or the rules of the road and you get winter tires, they are just going to think nothing will happen to them.

I always drove with all seasons and never once had any issues. Drove on bald all seasons too and had no issues. I now have winters and its nice, but I still drive for weather conditions and use common sense.

The driving course/school's and the city is the problem.
People not using common sense when drivings is a bigger problem.

[luunta]

Re: If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

i want winter tires for here, and it doesn't snow much at all, but the temp. makes the tires too hard to grip anything. my all seasons are OK at best in the rain now, i can't wait until it gets a bit cooler in Vancouver. The season of bumper cars begins.

[JPO]

Re: If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

Winter tires are great.....however, if you think your invincible because of those winter tires and you continue to drive like a ass or drive like you do on summer roads your an idiot. Winter tires aren't going to stop you on ice. Winter driving does need more patience and caution. If you drive for the weather conditions, all season do the job just as well. Accident are usually caused by people who do not drive for conditions not due to their tires. Alot of people have no common sense when it comes to driving...PERIOD! Snow and ice just make it that much worse. It doesn't take a genius to slow down but I guess if you have no clue how to drive or the rules of the road and you get winter tires, they are just going to think nothing will happen to them.

I always drove with all seasons and never once had any issues. Drove on bald all seasons too and had no issues. I now have winters and its nice, but I still drive for weather conditions and use common sense.

The driving course/school's and the city is the problem.
People not using common sense when drivings is a bigger problem.

Again, driver ability and prudence DO make a huge difference. Idiots doing idiot things are likely the cause of most accidents. But winter tires do make a difference and all-seasons won't do the job as just as well as you say above. All things being equal (i.e. a prudent driver driving prudently), in snow and on ice, even on bare roads in freezing temperatures winter tires will work better. That is just plain physics.

My wife has an all wheel drive 'ute and came with factory installed all seasons. Even driving cautiously it could be dodgy at times in the snow. It now has blizzaks for winter and I can tell you, you must be obscenely imprudent in most winter conditions now to get out of shape.

Quebec recorded an 18% drop in accidents during the first full winter of its mandatory winter tire program. 18% is not a statistical anomaly. All this sanctimonious “ooh, I drive so slow in the winter, I’ll be fine, it's the other bad drivers” stuff is silly. Facts are facts and winter tires will give you a significant leg up in staying out of trouble no matter how granny you drive. Silver bullet and/or a pass to drive like an ass? Nope. But the law of large numbers and randomness will eventually conspire to throw even the most super awesomest cautious drive a curve their “common sense” couldn’t save them from. If you asked me common sense would dictate giving yourself the best chance of staying out of trouble and that is winter tires + driving for the conditions.

PS thank you VwSweetHeart for installing winters and driving caustiously so you will be less likely to smash my car (all other things being equal).

[P Arkus]

Re: If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

Since this will always be a never ending topic, I would just like to state for the record. My car is still on summer tires, it takes me 30 mins to get from corner of the city to downtown for work, and i'm safer than most of you!!! C-TRAIN FTMFW!!!!!!!!! hahahahaha

[niXon]

Re: If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

no offense, but from experience I find people that say this have never had good winter tires on their car so they don't know what to compare with. Plain and simple there is no such thing as an all season tire, we had pirelli 4 season tires on my mom's volvo wagon, went to full blown winters and the difference was night and day.


Not being able to afford winter tires is NOT a legitimate excuse. When you buy a car, you buy in your pay grade so you can afford to maintain it and equip it properly for ALL conditions (not 70%). If you bought a car and can't afford to buy winter tires then there are only two possibilities 1) your financial position has changed or 2) you bought well out of your pay grade and should sell it for a cheaper vehicle ie: a kia or hyundai.

This post is so full of stupid comments, I don't even know where to begin.

[niXon]

Re: If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

i dont get it.
in one breath you say not everyone can afford tires....and in the next you say get used tot he transit system.

THATS THE F@CKING POINT.

if you cant afford to properly equip your vehicle for the conditions we have right now, and see every year, do us ALL a favor and stay home or take the bus. your poor ass sliding backwards down an onramp does none of us any good. And why the hell should i freeze my balls off in the cold pushing peoples cheap asses out, when they show no respect for the rest of us by going out with improper equipment. All people who refuse to take their summer tires off do, is put themselves, and the rest of us in danger by being reckless.

driving is a priviledge. not a right.
if you cant afford the proper stuff, dont drive, and take your advice and take the bus.


if someone was too poor to afford insurance, i'm sure you'd tell them to stay off the road. Why, because its soemthing you need to drive here. Well guess what, where we live, you need proper winter tires too.

Insurance is mandatory, winter tires are not.

[Stonewall]

Re: If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

Insurance is mandatory, winter tires are not.

For now anyways but it is likely coming.

[j_spot]

Re: If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

For now anyways but it is likely coming.

Didn't alberta look at it last year and decide against it?

[GINCH]

Re: If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

Well this thread is starting to irritate me!!! I understand that if you drive cautiously that you might be OK driving in these conditions with all seasons however I can guarantee that if you get stuck having to stop halfway up a decent incline that you probably will not be able to restart and move forward. These are the situations that cause serious slowdowns in traffic in my area of town that has a number of pretty steep inclines. And in my experience its always cars without winters that are stuck in that situation! I personally would hate to be that ******* thats holding everyone else up thats why I have winter tires!!

[R_Ethug]

Re: If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

its true derek.. NW living and SW hillys need decent traction.. as mentioned my baron almost got spinny spinny going up sarcee hill towards country hills blvd on wednedsday which sucked! thank god it caught traction but i know for a fact if i had winters it would have bit down that much better and went

one benefit is that when the weather is bad my wife is scared to drive so we carpool together in the allraod (aka nazi tank lol) no issues with the allroad as it has true winters on it

oh and deerfoot yesterday in the N got plowed down to a sheet of pure ICE.. it was sketchy around country hills to balzac then it finally sorta cleared up but it was basically driving on a skating rink.. even with the quattro i drove only about 70max as all it would take is one idiot to turn/brake wrong and 15 car pile up later :(

[J-hop]

Re: If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

This post is so full of stupid comments, I don't even know where to begin.

please enlighten me on why you think it is riddled with stupid comments maybe you can shed some real intellect on my view.

I can't think of single reason you could claim not being able to afford winter tires as a legitimate excuse. There is transportation for all levels of income, from city bus to bentley they all do the same trick. Pick your method appropriate to how much you make, think about what it is going to cost you per year, think about how much you are going to need for winter tires and other incidentals, everyone knows owning a car isn't cheap especially if you have to pay for someone else to do the work on your car so budget appropriately and don't go out and buy that "cool" car that leaves you just making ends meet (ie: not having $600 left over every few years to buy something as important as winter tires IS just making ends meet)

I ask that you please try to enlighten me as I don't see where you are coming from. My first car was $500, why? because I had no money as a student. I did not buy out of my pay grade, I could afford a set of steelies (off a friend) and good blizzaks winter tires when winter rolled around. My Dad's personal rule is to never spend more then 1/3 your year salary on a car. Which I think is great, as a result ALL our vehicles were shoed in good winters every year, ALL our vehicles were kept in pristine condition ie: my winter ride now which is our old family wagon- 89 volvo (bought new from dealer) now 21 years later with zero rust and 320,000+ kms on it due to its regular maintenance, which could be afforded because my dad didn't say hey lets go out and by a mercedes and stretch his budget at the time.

Insurance is mandatory, winter tires are not.

you've completely missed the point, you wouldn't want someone driving without insurance, because if they hit you and you suffer physical injury then guaranteed they will not even be able to cover a mere fraction of your medical bills (especially if they can't afford insurance in the first place) not just because its illegal not too..... so everyone is better off if that person rides the city limo which has insurance.

Now on that same note you wouldn't want someone driving in the winter on tires meant for -10 and above who can't stop quickly, can't get traction on corners, gets stuck easily going up hill and generally putting you at risk now would you?


I think a lot of you are missing the point here, Rondal is being nice, and assuming you all have common sense and know how to drive reasonably well, and that you aren't the type of person that is going to go out and buy winters and then rip down side streets at 100km/hr because you think you can. No, he is saying (with good reason) that there are too many people out their that although may be half decent drivers are putting everyone else at risk because they think their all seasons cut it at minus 20 on ice.


the fact of the matter is, a good driver with proper winter tires is going to be that much better off in the winter. Sure you can talk worst case scenario of having some guy that thinks he is superman because he has good traction with his snow and ice tires, but I think you are just ignoring the facts and trying to make up excuses.

[RONDAL]

Re: If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

I think a lot of you are missing the point here, Rondal is being nice, and assuming you all have common sense and know how to drive reasonably well, and that you aren't the type of person that is going to go out and buy winters and then rip down side streets at 100km/hr because you think you can. No, he is saying (with good reason) that there are too many people out their that although may be half decent drivers are putting everyone else at risk because they think their all seasons cut it at minus 20 on ice.


.

this is actually almost EXACTLY my point.
i disagree on the common sense part. The fact "Nixon" seems to think we're elitists because we buy the proper equipment for our cars and give **** to those who go out with ill prepared cars and puts us all in danger proves common sense isn't in fact common.

im not going to get into the argument with people about how all seasons are just as good. have you ever met a driver who thinks they are only an "average" driver. every driver thinks they are above average....which sadly isn't the case. I've driven 9" wide super stretched high performance summer tires in 3" of snow before across town. I didn't crash. Does this mean its safe? no. Sure you might be able to get by....but thats not the point of driving.
I dont think there is a SINGLE person here that would argue that if everyone HAD winter tires on, that the roads would be a little safer. For a $600 investment in not only your life and property, but the lives and property of those around you, that lasts for a few years....are snow tires REALLY that big of a hit?
To put that into perspective, that $25/week for 6 months of winter driving. Thats $5 a day...and i bet most spend more than that on coffee.

[longsock]

Re: If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

I agree with Rondal 110%

oh and J-hop.

I just didn't feel like writing all of that, but you guys said it all

[Canadian Turbo]

Re: If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

People also forget that when running snow tires your 'other' tires can last a lot longer and thus the expense of tires is stretched over many years for both sets.

I do see a lot more people running them now then a few years ago so I think people are getting it, at our office 4 of 5 people are running snow tires this year.

[RONDAL]

Re: If you dont have winter tires on your car stay home

People also forget that when running snow tires your 'other' tires can last a lot longer and thus the expense of tires is stretched over many years for both sets.

I do see a lot more people running them now then a few years ago so I think people are getting it, at our office 4 of 5 people are running snow tires this year.

now you're just trying to be logical blair. DAMMIT!