My decision to not shell out $900 on Tirerack to buy winter tires/rims bit me in the ass last Fri... figured I could be a wise guy & wing it through the slop and buy the wheel/tire combo in the offseason when the price is lower (bad decision #1)

in my hurry to get home on a snowy Upstate NY evening last week... I vetoed a stop sign in the deserted office-park I work in (bad decision #2), carried too much speed through a lefthander (bad decision#3)... FR wheel absorbed the impact with the granite curbing (well... kinda passed some of the energy on to the bearing... the knuckle, and a lower arm....) .

Was able to nurse her home in 2nd gear - handled like a shopping cart w/a bad caster

back to normal - minus the cosmetic ugliness on my allow... 4days and $1200 later w/my 15,000mi service at the Stealer...

owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Drive carefully!

 

ouch that sucks...

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'll remember that. That's a lot of money, isn't it.

Spring is coming.

Cheers

 

Ouch!

...and that is why my speed limit is 25 mph in the snow this year.

 

I try not to hit curbs with any cars ;p

I doubt winter tires would have made that much of a difference with all those bad decisions you made! But the important thing is that you're okay

 

Driven enough vehicles with snows/steelies to know that these shoes would have made all of the difference... a $1,200 difference... was surprised by how loud the impact was - sent my GPS , Sirius, and F-bombs flying....

The Fit is simply awful in the snow, now I'm talking Rochester NY/Lake Ontario stuff that novices would shudder at... though the manual helps somewhat on the interstates but snow/ice tires are mandatory IMHO....

Wife continues to mock me .... after all I bought the GE8 Fit in Sept after I had been "Buicked" while minding my own business in my now-lamented Protege5

 

Harsh man . Someone else on here had actually rolled their Fit in the snow a while back.

 

that sucks hard core

 

Do you have the VSA or no?

 

yeah slidy stinks.

 

Hi
I live in NJ and have driven my Fit in snow and on ice,With stock tires I found the Fit to one of the best winter handling cars Iv'e ever owned.I am 61 yrs.old and have owned a lot on cars and 1 truck.That 97 ford ranger, rear wheel drive almost got me killed the winter of 2000. I spun across 6 lanes of traffic on the gsp.To sum up just slow down on bad roads
Jimrb66

 

sad day.... i scratched my lips the other day, its not too bad though

 

That's too bad about your car.

I've been trying to suggest that people driving in winter conditions get winter tires here in these forums. It's a worthy investment. One small slip and impact costs a lot and they could even save your life.

Living in Canada, I can tell you that the Fit handles way better on snow and ice with my Blizzaks than with the stock tires. It's like night and day.

 

No VSA... would not spring for any factory nav....

yeah... I know that winter steelies and snows will transform my Fit Sport into a real banshee... jimrb66 may have owned a lot of cars and trucks, but he's koo koo if he thinks the Fit is snow-capable with the OEM tires... Jersey snow ain't the 150"+ seasons we see here along Lake Ontario... I've done the AWD thing and switched out to a Protege5 a couple years ago with Dunlop Graspic DS2 on the corners... to my pleasant surprise - even with 50-series - the car was unstoppable... until a Buick jetted across my path in August

 

yea, after driving countless times in the snow, and having somewhat lost control, i definatly snow/ice tires are mandatory. and no, i wasnt going higher than 20 mph

like i said, once you've had an accident or close-call, you'll want snow tires, despite its a FWD. and i use the paddles too, for a smart reason, to reduce the spinning of the tires. see, at lot of people dont realise that AT mode thinks the road condition is dry or "wet", now slipery or snowy, so there fore the car woudn't reconize if the tires were spinning or putting too much acceleration into the wheels. i shift to the highest gear that it will let me and slowly step on the gas, i've kept my car going 35 mph in 5th gear :P but MT would be even better b\c you can move your car from 4th or 5th gear from 0 pmh, instead of 2nd. [not sure if its ok to move from 4/5th gear ]

owwie man >.< if only you werent in such a hurry =\

snow on road = more cautious and to not let the car "do all the work"

 

Unstoppable? Isn't the point of having good adhesion to help you stop? Jk lol.

It's often a misconception about safety and 4WD or AWD. The truth is they can accelerate faster and do give a better sense of confidence. That's a bad combination on slick surfaces. It's the stopping ability that's most important for safety. The 4WD or AWD cars dont stop any better. In fact the added weight extends stopping distances.

 

HA! Ironically "unstoppable" was not the best choice of words...

 

yep, which is why its better to drive high gears in snow, less acceleration what would be nice though, is all wheel disk brakes with of course ABS on them too hehe

 

Maybe the lesson is DRIVE SAFELY.

 

I agree. This is one of the best cars I too have driven in the snow. Just gotta take it slow and steady.