guy321

When you buy the car, don't you look over all the specs? Do you just walk in and blindly make a +- 30k purchase blindly?

Things like this are why there are directions to use trash bags, and warnings not to leave food in the refrigerator where sperm samples are kept. C'mon people, do your own research, have some common sense. (this is not an attack on the quotee or the thread starter, only using the quote as a spring board to discuss a genral issue.)

jenkins-crew

glad I live in Texas DD:D

Deslock

Summer tires suck in the snow on any car, be it a FWD Saab or RWD Mazda.

The dealer told him the tires were "three season" and he understood that meant not good in Winter.

Snow + RWD + regular tires = no problem.
Snow + RWD + summer tires = problem.

Gambit

Along this path...
From the simpsons last night:

"...Springfield has come down with football fever, and the cure is to take 2 tickets, and go to the game this Sunday! Note: tickets are not meant to be taken internally.

Homer: See, because of me they have a warning now."

guy321

Yeah, just remember.. for every warning you see.. someone somewhere has done it...

khtm

The dealier is an IDIOT. You should go back there and b!tch them out. As far as nobody telling you about the 8 in the snow...what, are people supposed to send you a memo about everything? Try searching.

This has been discussed many, many, many times before.

The 8 is GREAT in the snow with SNOW tires. Any car with summer performance tires is bad in the snow. Try putting your 8's tires on your old Auddi and see what happens.

fredw1

Agree. People need to do the research. There must be hundreds of posts which mention how bad the stock tires are on snow and on wet roads at low temperatures. The fact that "no one" told you how bad it drives in snow is because it doesn't drive bad in snow IF you have the right tires. It's like someone putting track tires on a WRX and then blaming the car for bad driveability in snow.

I hope I don't sound too harsh here, but I hate to see titles on threads like this with a title that blames the car for something that was the result of the tires and insufficient driver education.

DukeGG1

My only complaint about my dealer/sales people was that they didn't emphasize the need for winter tires. If it weren't for this forum, I'd have been in a South Jersey ditch at the first snowfall.
By the way, I think my Pirelli's make my 8 handle better than my wife's Santa Fe. She slid on the local rural road that leads into my street & I turned very nicely into my street at the same time. Of course, I'm a much more careful driver! (Thankfully, she doesn't lurk on this forum to see that.)

beefyjoe

Really, the dealer was a great guy. He sold me the car at the best price & fastest delivery - after I walked away from two other bad deals.

My brother had a 1985 RX7 GSL-SE, Red. fantastic car. He spun out going downhill in a snowstorm in Maryland. Hit a snow drift. It was 15 years ago, he was fine but it was all I thought about yesterday.

Thanks for not beating up on me. I realized that I have never owned "summer " tires, and the experience was a white-knuckle eye opener

Today is different. Lots of clean(er) pavement, and I can fishtail when I WANT to.

MrJynx

yea I had the EXACT same problem last week. Nice day out in the morning, snow startin comming into Toronto around 3pm. Tested out the roads @ 5pm, it was fine. Once i got about 2km from my house everything started to go crazy. very very scary, car going side ways, couldn't downshift, etc, etc.. Check out my post in the canada forum if you want to read more it was "Scariest Drive YET!!!"


MrJynx

czr

iTrader: (3)

Well, I know it's a sports car but I think it's retarded that summer tires are put on cars where there is snow on the ground 3-6 months out of the year. I feel sorry for you guys up there. I can imagine all the uninformed people who weren't told not to drive on those tires in the snow (think ladies especially).

For me, the tires are good except A.They wear easy B.And are a bit noisy. They could have gotten good all-seasons that don't sacrifice handling for the same price. Even here in Florida I'm afraid how the tires will handle in the rainy season. They must have had some great deal with Bridgestone knowing people would be shelling down $200+ per summer tire which dealerships are quick to push.

guy321

How long have you had your car? I've driven through some heavy rain down here and through GA without much incident. These tires aren't dangerous in the rain really. They do handle a little worse in the rain as they get close to the wear bars though.

Yeah, I agree, atleast in northern climates they should offer the sale of winter tires on the car or something. However, we are a free market society.. buyers beware!

I just bought a new set of RE040's for about $185 each.

ExtensiveRX8

I live in Montreal Qc ..

I have Yoko Ice Guards on my 18" stock rims and the car drives Great.. I drive in snow storms / Ice storms / Anything.... I just have to take it slow....


My dealer told me Not to even attempt to drive even a block in the snow with the stock all seasons...

My Is300 was 10 times worse in the snow then the RX8..

Get a set of Ice Guards and your good to go :D

Congrats on the RX8

You are going to Love It!!!!!!!!

beefyjoe

The title got you here. :D I hate starting lonely threads. I'm at the top of the board today. Yeah!

I view winter driving as a form of recreation. I love going out in the snow. And I've been lurking here for a while. I love the car and have no regrets at all, except maybe that there's no factory turbo model yet....("RX8TURBO" is an available plate )

G8rboy

Don't be too glad... you're missing out an a whole lot of fun. RWD snow driving is awesome, and the '8 with snow tires is incredibly balanced and sure-footed. I much rather drive it than my 4x4 SUV with all seasons.

HeelnToe

Agreed. I was concerned about winter driving when I first bought the car... little did I know it'd be downright FUN, lol. I still worry about other drivers, hidden patches of ice, etc., but overall, being able to point the car anywhere you want it makes snow driving rather entertaining.

RotrDoc

This thread is really a re-hash. Numerous previous threads and posts have made it clear that this car does not perform well in the snow with the stock warm-weather performance tire (DUH!!), but is great when shoed properly with snow tires.

"Course, that's not a big concern on the Gulf Coast.

expo1

Hey, how long have you lived in Brooklyn? It can, and has snowed in the Tri-State area up until early April. This can happen again

G8rboy

I call it "all the fun of drifting, without the tire wear"

My favorite place to go is on Lake Geneva, WI in February when they let people drive on the lake... I find a secluded area away from the ice fishermen and set up some cones to practice ice-auto-cross. Good times...

fredw1

And they should tell you to obey the speed limit, use your seatbelts, don't pile seven people in the car, don't drive when drinking, look in your mirrors before changing lanes, allow two car lengths for every ten miles an hour, look before opening your door on busy streets, don't drive though standing water more than 4 inches deep, drive with your lights on at night, and use your wipers when it's raining.

My point is where does dealer responsibility end and owner responsibility begin?

DukeGG1

But the tires in the snow are a major concern & safety issue. MY salesman said to me, "Remember to be careful when it rains or snows, Guy. The 8 tends to slide a little. " He spent more time telling me about the flooding issue than warning me I wouldn't be able to drive the car in the snow.

fredw1

The discussion was probably worth it. Have fun driving that car.

I have found that even all-seasons on the 8 still give me handling in snow that was not as good as all-seasons on an FWD. But in Ciincinnati, we have had only three days this winter for which I would have really needed snow tires, and two of them were not fit for anything but 4WD.

beefyjoe

Since January 1966. I was born in a blizzard.

The latest spring storm I can recall happened on Thursday, August, 7 1983. One day i'll tell you why I can remember that day.

MX6_2_RX8

I’ll jump on the bandwagon here. You can read about it all you want but the fact is that most people read about it and think of their own driving experience with rear wheel drive cars that don’t have dedicated snow tires. They think just what I did, “they don’t go very well, you don’t want to do it but if you take it slow you can make it if the snow isn’t too deep”. Then you drive it and think exactly the thoughts expressed in the opening post.

Anyway, I have been trying to convince Mazda that they should at least have the option available. It seems to me that if you were buying the car as winter was approaching, especially if you special ordered the car, there should be a choice. I would have picked the all-seasons instead of the 3 seasons.

BTW, I was driving from 495 in Mass to Maine in the storm yesterday (in rush hour of course) in a 4WD truck and it still took 5 hours for a normally 2 hour trip. That snow sucked.

No More Oldsmobiles

My dealer did not say one word to me about this. I did my own research and found out about it.

Not everyone who is buying an 8 is coming from a background with performance cars. There are even some idiots who buy this car having driven nothing but FWD Oldsmobiles for the past ten years.
And there are cars in this class that come with all-season tires, stock.
It's easy to look down on those who weren't aware of the problem while thinking about this car. But if we all knew everything there is to know about the 8, there would be no reason for this board.

I think dealers are afraid to tell prospective buyers not to drive it in snow with the stock tires, figuring it might scare off potential buyers. But we all know this car is dangerous on snow in stock tires. It's not enough for the dealer just to say "be careful." That implies you can drive it in the snow exercising proper caution.