The importance of good tires

It's just about winter here in Wisconsin and last night I was reminded of an important lesson as the first real snow fall hit us. Good tires on the car!!! I was moving a 2010 Genesis Coupe (2.0T with 6 speed manual and Track package) from one end of the lot to the other. I knew this one would be a challenge to do as the Track package gives it 19 inch summer tires. I got stuck twice in the lot despite traction control and I kind of knew it would happen. It reminded me of a great write up that Edmunds.com did last year when they tested a Honda Civic Si with Summer tires, All season tires and then Winter tires. Story can be found here

The results are pretty staggering if you read them, I was most stunned by the summer tire results for 0-60 in the snow and the 60-0 stopping distances.

When I bought my 2001 Celica GT, the front tires were good but the rear ones were pretty bad. The following day we got some bad snow and as I drove in to work that day, the car spun out once I hit 34mph on the snow covered roads. Yes a Celica is FWD but without any grip on the rear the whole car became unstable.

I even let a set of tires get pretty low one winter on my WRX. Despite the AWD drivetrain on the vehicle, I still had troubles with starting at stoplights in the snow. That also put me at risk for decent stopping ability in an emergency situation. ABS can only do so much for a vehicle where 1.5 tons of mass is in momentum.

So I encourage everyone from a safety standpoint to check the tread on your tires, make sure you don't have summer tires on a car during the white stuff and seriously consider winter tires in the northern climates. It could save your car or your life. Or someone else's life. Think about it from that perspective.