Tip of the Week: Choosing the Right Tires for Winter

Many safety experts recommend fitting your vehicle with winter tires if you live in an area that frequently experiences snowy, slippery driving conditions during the winter season. Winter tires are awesome, and I strongly recommend having a set. Having said that, there are many reasons why you may not want to have a set of winter tires. Perhaps you cannot afford them (like me). Maybe you live in an area that doesn’t get a low of snow. Maybe you have no space in your garage to keep a spare set of tires. Let me start off by saying that NOTHING is a perfect substitute for a winter tire in the ice and snow. However, if you decide that winter tires still aren’t for you, there are still a couple of options for you.

Winter Tires

There’s a reason they’re called winter tires. Nothing beats them in the winter. Nothing can replace the grip that you get on ice, snow and slush. In general, winter tires fall into one or two categories: studded, and non-studded. The difference between the two is simple: studded tires are fitted with little metal studs, and non-studded tires are not. Studded tires generally perform better on icy surfaces, while non-studded tires perform better in snowy conditions. In either case, winter tires are made with a compound of rubber that is designed to stay soft in cold conditions, and generally perform best in temperatures under 7 degrees centigrade (45 degrees Fahrenheit). In Canada, winter tires will have the Mountain Snowflake symbol (see below) on the sidewall, which means that the tire meets the severe snow performance requirements defined by the Rubber Association of Canada.

All-Season Tires

The name seems quite attractive. Tires that work just as well in the summer as they do in the winter? Sounds like a great idea, right? Well, no. It’s not that simple. In order to be considered an all-season tire, the tire must be able to stay soft in temperatures above 7 degrees centigrade. Where I live, winters are generally much, much colder than that. On solid ice, it can take a car fitted with all-season tires 9 times the stopping distance that it would take on dry pavement. Therefore, all-season tires are not Mountain Snowflake certified. Having said all of this, I use all-season tires on my car, and I am still alive. But they certainly not as nice. However, the advantage is, obviously, that you can use them in the summer as well. They also tend to have higher mileage ratings. If you’re seriously considering them still, make sure to look for ones with the letters M+S (mud and snow rated) on the sidewall.

All-Weather Tires

If you’re in the market for all-season tires, but don’t mind spending some extra money, then you should consider putting all-weather tires on your car. It’s important to notice the difference between all-weather and all-season tires: unlike all-seasons, all-weather tires are Mountain Snowflake certified, which means they are certified for use in colder temperatures. While they are still not as grippy as winter tires, all-weather tires offer much better winter performance than their all-season counterparts. They are made of rubber compounds that are firm enough to hold up to summer temperatures, but remain soft enough for cold-weather grip. The main downside, aside from the higher price, is that all-weather tires generally have lower mileage ratings than all-season tires. However, they are the best balance between winter tire grip and all-season convenience that you can buy.

So What Should I Buy?

The answer to this question depends on a number of variables: your budget, the winter road conditions that you deal with, your winter driving confidence, and the value that you put on safety. It’s not necessarily unsafe to go through winter with M+S all-season tires, but that difference in grip might just be the difference between coming to a stop and sliding into a busy intersection or a light pole. That being said, I’ve gotten by on all-seasons this year due to a combination of careful driving and a mild winter. The one thing I can say for sure is that I miss my old winter tires.

Special shout out to my friends and new CTzens, Nokian Tyres. Go check them out!