Winter tires, yay or nay?

I think it all depends on where you live and how much snow you get and how well they keep roads clear. We have three vehicles and all three have dedicated snows on them. There is no comparison between stock or even good all season tires to true snow tires on snow. I can easily out accelerate and brake shorter then a four wheel drive vehicle with all season tires, I do it all the time leaving lights in snow and they just stare at me funny. I have even had people ask me if it was all wheel drive, I just say, nope I just have good snow tires. I honestly can't tell you how many times it has saved us from a fender bender where someone else can't stop and slides through and intersection or just not getting stuck in a foot of new snow in a parking lot. Just yesterday I bet there were at least 10 cars stuck in the lot in Milwaukee and we just drove out, no slipping at all.

NeilBlanchard said:

Another excellent LRR winter tire is the Nokian Hakka R2.

Click to expand...

I'll add a +1 vote for the Hakka R2's. I bought mine at the beginning of the winter and there was negligible difference on range/efficiency between them and the stock tires. I track my energy consumption every day of my commute, so I have a lot of data to back that up. The difference in traction is huge. We have a lot of mixed road conditions in my area of the Kootenays - it can be snowing in the morning then raining on the drive home. I also head from my home up to the ski hill, which is over a 1,000m elevation change. I've only left the Leaf at home once in favour of our AWD Forester with studded Hakka 7's, and that was >30cm of heavy snow.

http://kootenayevfamily.ca/driving-up-to-winter-at-kokanee-glacier-park/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://kootenayevfamily.ca/skiing-and-a-christmas-tree/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We have Bridgestone's Bilzzack's on the Leaf. But we have Hakka's on the van and TDI, much better tires. I got the Blizzack's for 1/2 the price of the Hakka's and the Leaf is on a lease so we cheaped out on the snows for it.

BrockWI said:

We have Bridgestone's Bilzzack's on the Leaf. But we have Hakka's on the van and TDI, much better tires. I got the Blizzack's for 1/2 the price of the Hakka's and the Leaf is on a lease so we cheaped out on the snows for it.

Click to expand...

I bought my winter tires because I bought the Leaf. I would have loved to lease it instead, but in Canada we get such poor lease rates compared to the US. I don't understand why the difference is so high.