[s-cars] Winter Tires??

[Scott Justusson]

 The General silica compound Altimax is a good tire, and though new to the market, has really made a splash in performance and value.  As you noted, the price/value component is closing in on a set of Blizzacks, a recent comparo for a 16in fitment put them at about 100$ differential per set.  And even if you lived 'downstate' that tire would perform well in typical winter conditions.  

 We do see more and more 'scrape to pavement - no treatment' clearing by many States and Municipalities in the snow belt.  They have to, because salt prices have increased 50% in the last 5 years alone to 70$ a ton.  For reference in winter states, the average application is 15 tons of salt per lane mile.  To combat this, the practice of 'pre-wetting' has been adopted by many states.  Warning, "pre-wetting" is the politically manipulated verbiage for Mag Chloride, one of the nastiest corrosive agents on the planet earth.  And it becomes black ice at about 17F. Which any CO resident can tell you, can create an interesting rush hour.

I say there has never been a bigger reason to buy a good winter tire, and more importantly, better driver training.  What we encounter on our winter roads has changed dramatically in the last 10 years alone.  I claim more and more winter states are going to create the rising demand for silica compound winter tires.  I advocate silica compound tires, because for the average driver, they raise the level of safety to a level that's exponentially higher than an all-season tire.  And, until every quattro owner comes out to Steamboat for some good driver skill-set training, it's the best baseline equipment one can buy.  Pick one, the value is not in the price or attempted performance comparo.  It has everything to do with how winter has been redefined in the salt commodity market.

More .02 arbitraged thru salty hedge fund futures

Scott J

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Larry <larrycleung at gmail.com>
To: Scott Justusson <qshipq at aol.com>
Cc: tony.curran <tony.curran at sympatico.ca>; t44tqtro <t44tqtro at gmail.com>; jc <jc at j2c3.com>; s-car-list <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Sent: Wed, Oct 17, 2012 9:03 am
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Winter Tires??


To clarify my response, I live in rural upstate NY, snow is (usually) frequent, 
heavy, wet lake effect squalls. So it can go from clear, dry to 3-4" of muck by 
simply rounding the bend around the hillside. Lots of salt is used, since there 
is no way for the plows to be everywhere, and NY is a "clear to pavement" state. 
Since most travel is at least 40+ miles one way on rural highways, I opt to be 
prepared for the worst over dry performance. Yup, the Generals have squishy 
boring sidewalls but they work, very well for my conditions and they are still 
relatively cheap (but their price seems to have jumped more than other 
comparable tires I priced out over the past 4 years) which makes them awfully 
attractive, again, for my conditions. If I still lived downstate, I would 
probably pick something else.

YMMV

LL-NY