tire discussion

[Mark Switek <msswitek@pcpros.net>]

My experience with winter tires comes from living in Wisconsin and taking
numerous trips to the mountains. I presently run two sets of tires on both
cars, my wifes car 98 A4q (Yokahoma snows) and a sport tire for Summer and
mine 88 90 Bridgestone Blizzaks and sport tire for summer. In our climate
the two sets are wa wise choice. I haven't driven the A4 enough to comment
so the statements are based on the blizzaks. Snow handling is great.
Yesterday I came home from work (60 mile trip) with a couple of inches of
wet snow and no  hydroplaning at 65mph. A few times this winter I've seen
cars in the ditch and tested my stopping power by doing progressively
harder stops and didn't see why they were in the ditch. The negative side
of the tire is if you want them to last you need to accelerate slowly on
takeoffs. The other negative is when driving on dry roads they feel like
your driving a buick. The car is a bit squirmy compared to a summer tire.