truelove

well, i got to drive in the snow on the way to work this morning with my sport tires. not fun, not dangerous, but not fun. i had to drive about 20 to 30 mph (the roads weren't toally covered with snow due to the traffic) the whole way with SUV yahoos speeding by me at 50 mph. the ESP kept me on track no problem but i still not dared speed up. i was mostly worried about other people hitting me since i was actually aware it was slick out due to my horrible snow tires. next year i will definitely get some high perf. all season tires. driving in illinois with the sport tires is very doable, just slow going. once they get the plows out, it will be perfectly fine.

taylor192

You're nuts!

All the time you waited, all the money you spent, all the messages you posted, but you won't spring for some decent winter tires...

... there's at least 2 others like you here in Ottawa, and it still makes me wonder...

MB-BOB

Slow and easy does it... Others will differ, but coming from the same area of the country, I personally couldn't justify snow tires for such occassional use. Better to drive slow and steady and get there safely, while the snow removal crews do their thing within hours. Should be enought for the 2-3 days of snow you get in central Illinois every year.

truelove

you obviously didn't read my post. my main point was..."driving in illinois with the sport tires is very doable, just slow going." if you're not from central illinois or some other extremely flat region in a city, i don't have any reason to listen to your advice. also, you're acting as if i don't know what i'm talking about when a good hour ago, I WAS OUT IN THE WEATHER with the tires and i was fine, no problems. i WOULD be wasting money if i bought snow tires. people around here laugh at you if you waste money on snow tires with our 2-3 (did you read that??, 2-3 snow days) days of snow every year. next year i will get all-season tires since the tread will be dead on my current tires anyway. if you're not going to listen to me and think it through, don't comment.

TimmyC230boy

Truelove: i agree 100%

It is going to snow here tonight and tomorrow. I have 16 kumho's. Not the best snow/sleet tires but doable as long as you are careful and take it easy. If I lived in Canada, or somehwere that recieved lots of snow I would have snow tires. But you say you dont get that much snow, if you only have 3-5 snow days a year whats the point in snow tires?

truelove

exactly!

Illinois + snow tires = waste of money
(unless you're wanting to drive around your 500HP Viper in snow )

tommy

That's an oxymoron. There's no such animal. The compounds that can handle the difference in temp needed for all-season tires by definition are not great for summer-weather performance.

Oh, and you're only guaranteed the ability to do "slow and steady" when you're on the road by yourself. IMHO, it's not worth the risk, especially with stock C7 tires that you have. But since you don't want to hear about this, I won't say anything.

KWiK

If you want a comfortable and quiet tire try the Yokohama AVS DB. I hade these in 17" on my E, and a Co-worker has them on his Audi. These are the quietest tire I have even seen. The handling in also very good for an all season tire.

amdeutsch

Bagwell,

Zimmer26 is correct. I had factory 16" Michelins and replaced them with 17" Conti all seasons. Noise and comfort seem very much on par with the Michelin. The only different I noticed is expansion joints, railroad tracks, etc. That is where I notice lack of comfort and increase in noise. Louder thumps and a slightly better kick in the b***.

truelove

well okay, the sumitomo HTR+ tires are rated by tirerack.com as ultra high performance all-season tires as well as the michelin pilot sport AS (all-season) tires. whatever that means, i don't know, but that's what i will get. they may not be true all-seasons, but you know what i mean.

and i will glady accept advice from anyone who has driven on summer tires in the snow in central illinois or anywhere else flat. but if you're talking about hills and tons of snow a year then that doesn't apply to me.

and there isn't much risk at all involved, just slow steady driving. when it snows all i have to do is get to work (i would never drive on an interstate or in the country on my tires in the snow, duh). which consists of driving on one generally well plowed straight flat street through town. as for other moronic drivers, i don't think snow tires are gonna stop a huge SUV from slamming into the side of me.

did i mention that i just drove it and it was not dangerous at all.

vadim

Yeah, that was my take on the issue.... until 2 weeks ago, when it snowed here in No. VA so I couldn't leave my neighborhood, much to my embarrassment. My neighbor had no problem driving his FWD minivan with all-season tires.

Long story short - had to get a set of snow tires + 16" C Class sedan rims.

tommy

If you want to point out where in your narrative it's not dangerous at all, I'd be much obliged.

As far as your other point, your inability to accelerate, and thus avoiding that speeding suv coming towards you, is pretty dangerous to me.

Not trying to be a wet blanket here, but by your own admission, your tires are putting boundaries on how you can drive, which isn't the best way to drive on roads where you can't control everything. Hey, it's your decision, not mine.

Don't forget that the ratings in Tirerack will be for a "high-performance all-season tire", so for something in that category, it might have a high score, but not in direct comparison to high-performance summer tires. Which is what I would be most concerned about if I were you - as you said, you can kind of get by in the winter by going slowly, but the summer compromise is the one that would be more unhappy about. I'd prefer the limit of how I can drive be my own inabilities, not the lack of grip in my tires.

truelove

i realize that i won't be able to leave if the snow gets really bad, in that case i will hitch a ride with my wife to work. but if the snow is light to medium, i am fine. and next year i will get all-seasons and never have to worry about it again. it doesn't snow hard here very often and when it does, the plows are out in town so it's no big deal. if you own snow tires, you live in a much snowier (is that a word) and hillier (is that a word) place than me otherwise you like wasting money.

i'm not looking to careen through heavy snow or drive off-road or even off of plowed streets here people. i just need to get to work. you act as if i'm driving my summer tires out into the country and driving 70 mph in 6" snow.

yes, i would be able to drive faster with all-season tires and would be able to keep up with the grand-ams and the soccer moms(duh, ) but if i have to drive 10 mph to work 2-3 days out of this year, then so be it.

truelove

you obviously can't picture in your head exactly what my trip to work looks like. and so far there has been boundaries on how i can drive 1 day out of the year, and the boundaries aren't very high. and no, it's not dangerous, and i'm sticking with that point. it's annoying, slow, and boring but not dangerous, not any more dangerous than driving usually is. i am not gonna go buy some winter tires only to never use them (as i'm told will happen to you around here, waste of money).

if you tell people around here that you have summer tires, they jokingly say "guess you won't be driving off road then huh?" not "OH MY GOD, YOU'RE GONNA DIE!!!! GO BUY SOME WINTER TIRES NOW OR YOU'RE GONNA FLIP YOUR CAR!!! GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOUL!!" i'm sure if you rode in the car with me instead of imagining me driving to work on an interstate or along a cliff or something then you would see my point.

and i'm not a performance driver or a race driver (i do like to drive fast every once in a while) so the tires they happen to call high perf. all-seasons will suit me just fine.

but i know how you feel. i can't understand people who settle for second best with audio-video products or their PCs. i need the best when it comes to that no compromises.

bagwell

amdeutsch - you have the Continental ContiTouring Contact CH95 tires ???

VoyagerDude

truelove,

Keep in mind that snow is not the only thing that will kill you on 17" summer tires in the winter!

If you're unlucky and catch a patch of ice even doing 30MPH, spin out a little, you can be dead.

truelove

ummm, as far as i know, all-season and winter tires are no better at handling ice. it's a flat sheet of pure slick, no tires can grip that. ice is another story all together, it's bad news. i hit a patch last year in my cougar with all-seasons and slid into the guardrail causing about $1000 of damage, i wasn't driving excessively fast either. if i want to handle that, i'd have to get a snow mobile or chains. or some iceskates.

but i agree with you 100%, ice is a bad character. not cool at all on any tires.

VoyagerDude

You're right ice patch is a bad news regardless what tires you have....
but I figure soft sticky winter rubber should have better traction on ice than frozen-solid summer rubber.

taylor192

Not worth the risk.... well put, that's what I was trying to sum up... even "slow and steady" on tires that have absolutely no traction in snow is far from smart... actually snow is your friend, its when it melts a bit and becomes ice that even "slow and steady" isn't enough cause the roads will eventually clear up a bit, you'll start going "hard and fast" then hit that small patch of "black ice" left from the snowfall a few days ago...

Truelove, I'd have to disagree with your comments in general... cause I bet that's exactly how the other 2 C230Ks I have seen in Ottawa think... I'll get by with the sport tires by only driving after the lplows have gone out... well here's my experience so far:

I left my C7 rims/tires on as long as I could... one morning I thought all was good until I hit an offroad that was pure ice... I left early from work that day just to go home and put the snow tires on, even though the roads were clear and plowed, and it had only snowed 1 inch, the first day of snow up here.

Although many might not see the point in spending $$$ for a few days of snow... I think otherwise, and after your first accident caused by bad conditions, maybe you will too.

BTW my steel rims and used winter tires cost me $500 CND, or about $300 USD... tell me $300 isn't worth it to protect a $30K investment?

and I'm not looking to start a war... I love my car and I have read Truelove's many posts and know he loves his car too, I'm just looking out for the ones we love :-).

MB-BOB

truelove, don't take all any of the criticism personally. As you point out, those throwing rocks about "needing acceleration to get out of the way" don't understand how wide open and F-L-A-T midstate Illinois is.

That said, I'm not convinced that all-season tires will provide any better performance to justify the cost of labor to swap the tires back and forth, let alone the cost of the tires/wheel themselves.

I grew up in the St.Louis area and spent 2-years near Champaign/Urbana, IL, too. I drove a Ford Econoline panel van to cover traffic accidents for the TV station... come rain/shine/snow/ice. Now that is one tail-happy vehicle on iffy conditions. But never needed any snows. Company never offered me any.

I've personally never owned snow tires in more than 25-years of driving in that part of the country. If I ever move back, I'll continue without snows.

On the days when the snow get too bad, take a vacation day. I'm always carrying over 9-10 days anyway, so burning one to sit at home and drink hot chocolate is a no-brainer to me. Staying OFF the roads is far better than any SUV avoidance maneuver, with or without "proper" tires...

taylor192

1 last comment:

In Ontario I think it is illegal to drive in bad conditions without appropriate tires... I'll try and look this up... but more importantly... if you crash your car in the snow with summer tires... will it be insured?

shtatc

bagwell,

I had the Conti SC's on my car when I first got the AMG wheels. I really liked them. They are not as loud as the Kumho's I have now. I thought they were fine in the wet - during the monsoons here in AZ, they held up fine for me - even with 12000 miles on them. The only down side I think is the tread life. They dont last but about 14000 miles. But I like them, I may consider the Conti SC2's the next time around. But, I might be the only guy who likes Conti's.

MB-BOB

Yep!

x15jq

My rears are 70 perecent gone with 3700 miles. I do accelerate hard and soemtimes peel out lol. I had this one snowstorm where I was stuck, and i had to spin to get free, so that really killed my tires spining them constantly for a minute on snow.

what pressure do youall run

x15jq

In new jersey we had over 7 inches of snow about 2 weeks ago. It was reallly icy. Im runing the contisport contacts and with the esp the handleing is perfect. I was able to go everywhere, but starting off was difficult, it would just spin no matter how i launched it. esp off helps slightly if u dont spin ecessivly.

Anyways, the car handled fine, the turning that is, and I was able to get everywhere except my driveway during the storm. Im not about to go spend 400 on all seasons just so it can take off a little better.

To be honest, I tried on some all season conti toring ch 95 tires that were 17 inch on amg monoblock rims. My car didnt seem to have any better rear traction, its a characteristic of this car that makes it crap to get going in snow. No benz is good in the snow face it.

My clk on the other hand is easier to haul around in with teh all season conti's. It does weigh an additional 300 pounds (cabrio) so maybe thats why its a little better.

Just my opinion