Are any of you North Texas RX8 owners putting winter tires or all-season tires on your cars? If so, what type are you planning on using and where will you get them?

 

not me - if it snows I will stay home or take the bus - not worth it to buy 4 snow tires when it only snows ever other year & only for 2 days - now there will some long extended blizzerd now that I said that.

 

I am not going to bother...it seams with teh ices storms we have around here you should be out on the roads at all! That being siad I was out in my Audi S4 last year when the ice storm was just starting...even with Quattro AWD it was a little hairy.

 

Snow tires??? Not a chance....I think everyone is finding theres at Tirerack.

 

There are two things that people just don't realize about all-wheel drive cars:

1) Tires make much more of a difference in traction.

2) All-wheel drive is ONLY and advantage in starting traction. It does not assist in handling or braking. In fact, all-wheel drive adds significant weight to a car, making handling or braking worse in the same car.

It's stability control (or whatever a car manufacturer calls it) that will help in all three aspects. Even then, tires will be a better improvement (assuming a capable driver, that is).

That being said, the only way that snow tires, or even four-season tires, will be effective in North Texas is if you can swap them on when it snows, and swap them off when it's over. Like someone already pointed out, you're only looking at a few ice/snow events a year. That means most of the weather is warmer, and includes rain instead. There have been tests that show that summer performance tires handle rain better than snow or four-season tires do. So, keep the tires that are effective 95% of the time, and take it easy when it does snow or ice.

Besides, in the DFW metroplex, during an ice event, traffic is such that you aren't going to go anywhere fast anyway, you have to take it easy. Even if you are able to get to work, alot of people aren't, or don't make the effort (at least not on time). So for most office folk, it's not worth making the effort (and taking the risk of driving amongst all of the idiots in SUVs who do think that 4-wheel drive and ABS works like magic). So alot of people aren't on the road too much anyway. Of course, that depends on your particular situation.

---jps