Still pondering if I should get some winter tyres/tires or not. Does anyone have any experience of them and how much of a difference they make. I figure if you drive slowly and carefully you should manage without them?

And anyone else notice how ridiculously bad drivers are in Calgary...and maybe Canada generally. I've travelled a lot and canadians are definitely the worst drivers I've come across in terms of just being plain ignorant. Every morning the news seems to be full of crashes and fatal accidents simply because people drive like complete idiots. It's pretty simple...slow down and stop driving like arseholes and you wont die. Also i'm suddenly realising how friendly drivers were back in Britain.....really!!!. Gone are the days of "after you.." or "thanks". Rant over.

We do fine with all-season radials.

Steady now, Canadians are just as bad as everybody else on the road anywhere, mind you, have you ever been to Italy??

The first fall of snow brings the idiots out who have forgotten how to drive in winter. Winter tires are great but it really depends on your vehicle as to how much difference they make. If you drive a small car, I would say they are mandatory. The larger cars, here I mean full size like the buicks and cady's, are pretty heavy and do not suffer the same problems. Try them out, get separate rims, cheaper in the long run when paying for the change over twice a year. I did not realise the difference they make until I tried them and now would not consider driving all seasons in the winter.

Buy goos ones though and not the CT rubbish.
I have a set of Toyo's that are 4 years old and look and grip like new

I dont know that canadian drivers are any better / worse than anywhere else, but anyway. Winter Tires

If you have the money for them get them. Simple. It will cost anywhere from $500 to $1500 depending what size you need and whether you get rims too. But then how much is your insurance deductable? and how much can you afford the premium to go up if you have a prang...not to mention issues of life and limb?

Until you have tried them and know how much better that are for stopping in the snow / ice / cold, you think all seasons are OK. Once you have tried winter tires you realise you are wrong. The rubber All Seasons are made from goes hard (and far less grippy) below (Im guessing) about -10C

The real advantage of winter tires is not in getting going, its in being able to steer, and more importantly stop far sooner if you have too.

Constant swapping of tires can potentially damage alloy wheels, so I;'d recomend you can get some steel wheels when you get the tires and just swap the whole wheel over. However, if you are on tight budget consider just putting tires on your existing rims and save a few hundred bux till next year and get the rims then.

Winter tires...definitely the way to go if you have the necessary funds.

Ill be putting the snow tires on this weekend as temperatures are dropping and there is snow in next weeks forcast. You dont want to put them on too soon...in warmer temperatures they will wear quite fast..and the taller, softer sidewalls make for a more jellybowl ride when its not really cold.

Ive nothing against the newer canadian tire branded ones, The "Nordics" are made by Goodyear, and cost less than half what a name brand tire would. After shopping around last year I ended up with Goodyear Ultra Grips. If the cost difference between no name and expensive brand name tires is going to put you off buying all together, remember, cheap ones are better than nothing any day of the week!

In the snow, they can't be beat - it's been proven. Winter tires/tyres reduce your stopping distance considerably, and give much better grip. My son had a single vehicle accident last winter in the snow. He put his beloved car in the ditch when he couldn't stop on ice. He had two months of no transport, and an increased insurance premium to boot (hard on a youngster). This year he spent $300 on a set of steel wheels and winter tires which he bought slightly used from a friend. He has since driven up to Edmonton in some pretty bad weather and said he really noticed a difference from the all-season. He's glad he got some - and sorry he didn't buy them in time for last winter!

Edit to add: The only down side with them here that I can see, is that the snow comes and goes throughout the winter and it's unlikely that you'll be driving on snow consistently. This means your winter 'rubber' is prone to wear out faster (unless you want to go to the trouble of switching wheels several times during winter).

Agreed: Of course, the extra cost is only initial, because you're extending the wear of your all seasons whilst they're not in use anyway, and so saving money there, too

I've got a 4wd ford escape with decent size wheels so I'll see how I get on this week as the weather's about to turn nasty, but will definitely consider getting some just to stay safe. Thanks for the advice. I still like canadian tire though! Where else can you buy a life size decoy goose and a toaster.

It's one for a seperate thread I suppose,...but , I still maintain that drivers here (generally and in my experience so far) are terrible. The main probs I've had are: nobody ever lets you in if you need to change lanes anywhere...EVER - that means people are forced to swerve manically across lanes with no warning or indication right into the tiny gaps in front and behind you, causing you to have a small heart attack followed by seething anger. People drive at really crazy speeds in bad conditions all around you. Lots of people don't know how basic stop signs etc work. People will pull into a parking spot you were blatantly waiting for then make no eye contact with you and just blank you as they get out and walk past. And there's no interaction at all in terms of waves or gestures of thanks etc. And there's just a few observations. I'm slowly getting used to it, but it's one of my biggest moans....as you can tell. These sort of things happen to me on a daily basis round Calgary. Grrr. If people physically attacked each other over these things like they do in britain maybe they would think twice about what they're doing!

I agree with everything you said and All Seasons should be called 3 Seasons.

<Shrugs> Must just be a city thing? In small town Ontario we are forever waving each other in / out, the whole "after you" thing is actually quite annoying at times <shrugs> Sadly its slowly changing as more people give up the rat race and move out here from the city

I have just the solution to your problem. Catch the C-Train during rush hour a few times. After that, driving will feel like heaven. If, after a few months, you find yourself muttering about Calgary driving again, catch the C-Train to remind yourself why you drive.

We put Nokian WR all seasons on my wife's Toyota Corolla. At the time they were the only all season radial to get the full winter classification.

So far they have been great.

We have an AWD Chrysler Pacifica and it has all-season tyres. Drove it throught the last month of heavy snowfall and icy/snowy roads and it was ok. Changed over to proper snow tyres last week and the difference is evident with much better handling and quicker stopping. With insurance the price it is it's a no-brainer if you can afford them. What's far worse is being unable to access my old Tiscali e-mail account, that's a disaster

Too true. Having just changed jobs to a company without subsidised parking I thought I'd try the C train for a while to save the cash. This idea lasted less than a week. It's just not fun on a cold day watching 3 trains go past that you just can't get on because they are so packed during rush hour.

What snow I don't see any stinkin' snow.

This is Calgary we don't get snow.

Well maybe a li'l bit but the chinooks melt it all away.

You not answering your PM's now to make me pay for not answering mine.

Its not just the snow I suspect..those nice days in the mid -20s have to have an impact on normal rubbers stickyness too.

I wonder how those Nokians do for tread wear under "normal" conditions..they have to be a bit soft I suspect. Still, if they get more than half normal tread wear it still might be worth a look given the up and down nature of a calgary winter... more convenient than changing wheels anyway, as long as the winter traction is good.

EDIT:
""One of the biggest misconceptions people have is that winter tires are for snow," said James Bliss, pricing and product manager for Edmonton-based Fountain Tire, recently rated the top chain in the country in the J.D. Power and Associates Customer Satisfaction Survey.

"The fact is that once the temperature gets below about 5C, winter tires begin to really outshine all-season tires."
Unlike all-season tires, severe condition winter tires (as identified by the mountain and snowflake symbol) have tread patterns and rubber tailored for colder conditions, he said. That helps them perform better than all-season tires once temperatures plummet, whether or not they have to dig through the white stuff to get you where you're going.

All-season tires can turn into four round black rocks when the cold hits.

Even on dry pavement at 5C, a severe snow-rated tire outperforms an all-season tire. A study conducted by the Quebec Ministry of Transport shows a proper winter tire can improve braking by up to 25 per cent over an all-season radial and can improve collision avoidance by about 38 per cent."

http://autos.canada.com/news/story.h...9-3d2046abd6e9