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Re: Mazda CX 3: What is the point? Posted by Snowmobile [Email]  (#686)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Snowmobile) on Mon, 28 Mar 2016 14:30:38
In Reply to: Re: Mazda CX 3: What is the point?, cheaptech, Mon, 28 Mar 2016 14:02:45 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Snow tire cost is not really an additional cost other than the cost of storage and swapping (and perhaps a set of rims), as it just means you go through the summer or all season tires at a slower rate. I swap my own wheels (and do my tire rotation at the same time) and buy used alloys (eg $200/set of 4), and store them in my garage, so the cost is really manageable. Obviously for others that may not be the case.
I can see how winter tires are not too popular in climates that don't really have much snow, or have shorter winters, because in many cases the dry road performance from them is lacking (though in those climates that see less snow, there are some more performance oriented snow tires, but then they give up some snow performance also). Around here, the snow gets cleared up fairly quickly on city streets, heaps of salt etc, but the main reason is to deal with driving in ongoing snowstorms, getting out to more remote places (especially ski hills), during snowstorms etc. Winter tire compounds are better at low temps also.
I agree that AWD is great for traction on snow and ice, but only traction to go faster... it doesn't provide any improvement when slowing down... and the ability to go faster means the car may have an increased need to slow down faster as well! It definitely makes sense to run winter tires on AWD vehicles, at least in my climate.
The ground clearance in snow can be an issue with cars here. Sometimes a couple inches of extra clearance is all that is needed to make a difference in heavier (wetter) snow. Light fluffy stuff you can push around, but the heavy stuff you can ride up on, bottom out, and sink. Usually one can back out, but that only gets one out of a sticky spot, not all the way down a road. An extra inch or 2 can be handy! Just increases the % of snowstorms the car can handle.
The mountains can be a bit different again if you get huge dumps of dryer snow. Probably clearance is less a factor in that situation (it's either way too much and the road is closed or it is fine). Here we get a fair number of snowfalls, but rarely over 12" in one go, so most are driveable or almost driveable in most vehicles, and the extra clearance makes the difference on the "almost" days.
, Fri, 1 Apr 2016 07:28:16
, Fri, 1 Apr 2016 11:37:48, Fri, 1 Apr 2016 13:22:47, Fri, 1 Apr 2016 18:08:08, Sat, 2 Apr 2016 10:25:45, Sun, 3 Apr 2016 06:45:19
, Sun, 3 Apr 2016 07:35:12, Mon, 4 Apr 2016 06:38:35, Mon, 4 Apr 2016 06:57:15, Mon, 4 Apr 2016 17:31:01, Thu, 7 Apr 2016 08:47:29, Thu, 7 Apr 2016 11:19:09, Wed, 6 Apr 2016 13:10:22, Sun, 3 Apr 2016 07:45:55, Sun, 3 Apr 2016 09:10:39, Sun, 3 Apr 2016 11:36:26, Sun, 3 Apr 2016 12:13:29, Sun, 3 Apr 2016 09:14:07, Sat, 2 Apr 2016 13:57:53, Sat, 2 Apr 2016 14:56:51, Mon, 28 Mar 2016 10:01:35, Mon, 28 Mar 2016 14:30:38 <-- Viewing This Message, Tue, 29 Mar 2016 07:30:21
, Tue, 29 Mar 2016 19:11:59, Tue, 29 Mar 2016 16:03:59, Wed, 30 Mar 2016 13:00:05, Thu, 31 Mar 2016 05:00:11
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