Snow Tires

[Mark Dayan <74472.2145@compuserve.com>]

And the never ending discussion continues......

Here in Denver (CO) we do not have snow on the ground for 100% of the winter.
Not 75%,not 50%, a safe bet would be 5%. It's amazing to look around though and
see the diffferent responses to winter driving. The gamut ranges from bald tires
to all-season M/S to snows only on the front to all four studded snow tires.
People are either extremely uninformed(stupid) or they beleive all the
advertising hype from tire dealers/companies.

We don't have much ice here and in the city you are generally driving on plowed,
packed, or 1-2" snow covered roads. If you have a car with good traction i.e.
Audi or Saab I question the need for dedicated snows. Maybe if I was driving
daily in to the mountains I would consider studded snows. Otherwise I am just
scared to death driving around twisties/mountain roads with soft snows in a
taller and narrower size at 65 degrees, not to mention stopping distances in the
dry that are truly horrible. I agree with Scott - the Blizzak is an amazing
tire, if you live in the frozen Arctic otherwise not much use.

Remember - you always have the option to slow down during really bad conditions(
5% of the time) How are you going to stop your vehicle during the other 95%.

Note: Don't just take this from me, check out the November issue of Automobile
Magazine where the BG Goodrich Touring T/A all-season M/S beat out most of the
tires(except the Blizzak and studded snows) on ice and snow conditions.

Regards

Mark 87 Saab 9000T 
Looking for a quattro