Hey everyone,

I just got my first RX-8. YEAH!! :evil_laug

I live in MN, and I do have a second car I'll likely keep for the winter. However, I WILL be VERY tempted to drive my car in the winter (can you say 5 months of winter?).

I plan to drive the old car on bad days and the 8 on good days only. My question is - should I buy snow tires anyway? Or would that not be a concern if I'm driving when it's cold, but not on ice and snow?

If you are certain that you aren't going to be driving over snow then I wouldn't bother with snow tires. I would however, at least get some all season tires.

Summer tires become very hard during the winter and it is like driving on hockey pucks. All seasons won't have this problem and will still grip below 40 deg F. The all seasons would be good for year round driving as well, so long as you don't need ultimate grip.

I got myn in feb right before a couple of huge blizzards, i got around ok after i got used to it (drive really slow however) i think my car has all seasons not sure really the person before got new tires not me...

Once temp get below 40 your summer tires will get as hard as a rock . You might then get all seasons or put it away during winter like I do . You wont have to worry about some idiot sliding into you . ........

One patch of ice is all it takes.

Can't count the number of posts here about "I was going nice and slow around the bend when suddenly my car jumped sideways into the Armco. Where can I buy front and rear fenders. and two doors?"

Get winter tires and you'll be fine. A patch of ice will kick any vehicle into a slide as it's ice which means, no grip period, 2wd, 4wd or AWD. Just drive with a level head.

I have a set of ASA rims with snow tires with 6000 miles on it, interested :) I will sell it for cheap as I don't plan to drive my car in the winter. I would rather save my garage space for more race tires

Aggressive snow tires in Michigan and absolutely no problems in even heavy snow here...

I concur with snow tires, or at least all seasons. What do you do if you drive to work some fine sunny morning, and a snowstorm rolls in that afternoon?

Ken

get a set of snow tires and you'll be set just swap between snow and summer tires don't worry about all seasons.

Aggressive snow tires in Michigan and absolutely no problems in even heavy snow here...

Same for me.

I used to have an Audi TT with AWD and tried to drive it the first winter with summer performance tires. It was scary as hell. I learned my lesson then about trying to drive on summer tires in the winter.

One patch of ice is all it takes.

Can't count the number of posts here about "I was going nice and slow around the bend when suddenly my car jumped sideways into the Armco. Where can I buy front and rear fenders. and two doors?"

Yep you just can't anticipate when the road surface your about to hit is gleeming with invisible black ice. It sucks. But if you're going to do it, use blizzacks or even better noisy ass studded tires.

I'd drive the beater from first snow to about end of march or beinning of april...IMO

Same for me.

I used to have an Audi TT with AWD and tried to drive it the first winter with summer performance tires. It was scary as hell. I learned my lesson then about trying to drive on summer tires in the winter.

I have Hankook iPike W409s, and they ROCK.

I was never fond of the Icebear Hankooks, because they're not great in the snow, with shallow tread depth.

The iPikes are about as aggressive a snow tire as I've seen, and I learned about them on Subaru Forums, because many of the guys there swear by them, so I rolled the dice and won.

They are an almost exact copy of one of Nokian Hakkapeliitta RSI's, and I can't imagine any snow tire being better for the snow belt area.

One caveat to the OP - ESC and traction control do help a great deal in snow with decent snow tires, especially on ice patches.

I've had no problems with ice patches on bridges and such, because the ESC on the 8 works magically.

I have a set of MSW rims with Bridgestone Blizzak's for sale... :)

http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=179374