At the risk of sounding totally clueless...I've been driving for 35 years, everything from a Corolla to a few pickup trucks, and I have never put snow tires on any car.
Is there something different about the Fit that makes it require snow tires? I pretty much thought that when they came out with all-season tires back in the 70s (?) people pretty much stopped using snow tires.
Just wondering if there is something I don't know!
Even when I lived in snow-belt Cleveland and Boston I never used snow tires...

 

I first started driving in Chicago in a Police spec 80's Ford LTD (5.7L or something like that lol) with skinny all-seasons and I never used snow tires, but I think it was more ignorance than anything. My dad and grandfather never did either so I guess I just followed suit. If I had to do it now I think i'd spring for a set. I don't get much snow here though lol

At least I learned how to countersteer early

 

Eh, I think "new" tires is the key. Low tread on any tire, even ones made for snow specifically, are going to suck in the snow. Mine are new, so not going to spend any money on winter rubber this year at least.

 

you guys are cracking me up with your talk of "snow" tires. Tires for winter driving are called "winter" tires because they are required to perform on pavement, snow and perhaps marginally better on ice although the best tire for ice is a studded tire. They are still not called "ice" tires! Simply studded winter tires.

Here in Quebec (a province/state of Canada right above Vermont), we get a considerable snow from mid november to mid march the next year (give or take a few weeks) thus, if you own a car, you will be driving over packed snow and ice to and from work for a good 3-4 months of the year. Granted, snow plows are employed to clear the streets but in the wake of a snow storm, it is impossible for them to clear the whole city in an instant so drivers will have to do the best they can driving on snowy, uncleared roads.

All season tires are a compromise between getting good grip on asphalt and getting SOME grip on snow. However, all season tires perform so poorly on snow, that the Quebec government has passed a law a few years ago making winter tires MANDATORY from the 15th of december to the 15th of march.

Look it this scenario: if you have all season tires on and there is an important snowfall, you might not even be able to get up a hill let alone get out of your driveway to go to work so you are left with two options: stay at home and miss work, or try and drive your car through the snow like it was skidoo while you slip slide dangerously all over the place. In eastern Canada, you might get important snow fall or blizzards 2 or 3 times in a single week so unless your boss is okay with you taking leave for weeks at a time, all season tires are just not an option and it is even illegal to drive in Quebec in the winter months with them.

Lastly, studless winter tires aren't going to make your car cling to snow and ice to the point that you can expect to drive around like Michael Schumacher and not lose control. They will however make your car drivable in a snow blizzard or snow storm. If you have never felt the need for winter tires then I guess you just haven't experienced enough snow to worry about it. You can probably afford to stay at home or take an alternate means of transportation if it actually does snow more than your all season tires can handle.

The hidden advantage of winter tires is that since you must own two sets of tires - winter and all season is most common but you could chose winter and summer/performance tires - not only do you benefit from having optimal traction in each season but your tires last twice as long, since they are in use for only about a half a year at a time. Winter tires can also help if ever you hit a patch of black ice - ice that is invisible on asphalt but is extremely slippery and dangerous because it is near impossible to recognize visually when driving.

I believe that driving a car on snow or ice, even at moderate speeds, is potentially the most dangerous and challenging form of driving one could do. In that situation, I would err on the side of safety and employ the best tire possible (winter tires) or refrain from driving altogether.

 

Well, nobody I know of put snow or winter or whatever tires on their cars in the 70's and 80's when I was growing up. Dad always had some heavy american iron with 200 lbs of sand in the back. So did all the other people in our neighborhood. Nobody I knew could afford any kind of snow tire anyways. People just knew how to drive and had no other choice. And the world still turned. The 90's come along and all of a sudden good winter tires come on to the market. I bought them and got spoiled. But the thousands of other drivers in my area still seem to get around. However, I'm the guy out there in a bad snow storm NOT driving a 4x4. Maybe it is becoming a generational thing, I don't know. Tires have definently gotten wider and better handling too. When I first started on Toyota in 1991, I could drive a 1991 Toyota Corolla all over in the snow with its tiny tires and low horsepower engine. You very well could, with your experience, drive the Fit in the snow and wonder what all the fuss was about. We might just all be spoiled. My mother learned to drive in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan in the 60's in big american rear wheel drive beasts, with no snow tires. She didn't need no stinkin snow tires. She could out drive me in the snow until the day she died.

 

Winter tires vs Snow tires? In all my 54 years of driving here in Ontario have I ever referred to them as winter. They are snow tires. You put them on just before you expect the snow season to begin. Usually late November.

Snow tires -

 

Nothing special about the fit. if you've never used snow tires, you really don't know what you are missing. I've had decent all seasons which were adequate for snow travel the first winter of their life. The Primary word here is Adequate. With Snow tires, the fit goes most anywhere. The thing about All-Seasons is that they are adequate at everything and good at nothing. They lean one way or another as far as performance/handling vs snow traction. 3/4 of the population here in VT have Snow tires and it makes sense with the type of driving that occurs here in many winters.

I run my all-season tires for one winter before moving to Dedicated Snows. like I said above, they are adequate.

Agreed. If we never saw snow, but just low temperatures, I'd run all-seasons year round (or I'd run all-seasons as my "Winter" tires). Hence the reason I (and everyone else I know) have always referred to them as snow tires. I think many snow tires even have M+S written on the side of them for Mud & Snow. Mine go on in late December if I have all seasons on the FIT (Like I have Now) or Late November if I am running Summer Tires (Like on the GS-R). We usually don't get a decent snow here that covers the roads until January so there's no reason to put the snows on until then.

~SB

 

Here in the USA we call them snow tires. We even mold a little symbol in the tire of a snow flake lol. Your post has some good information, but man, you didn't stumble upon a thread in which everyone is clueless. Just a wee bit condescending.

 

Ya you are right!!

 

Tires Product Listings - Canadian Tire

Snow Tires - Find the best Winter / Snow Tires at Tire Rack

Costco.com - Shop for Tires

Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1 Tire P235/75R16XL 109R BW: Tires Result Shelf : Walmart.com

Hi guys. Ok so I looked up tire sites american and canadian and only tire rack mentions winter/snow tires; all the rest only mention winter but I'll stand corrected, since a poster is from Ontario and they call them snow tires. You say tom-eh-to, I say tom-ah-to, right

Winter/snow tires now do have a mountain and snowflake symbol on them. I believe you that people in the USA might get by driving without winters but I just don't see it happening with consistent 2 foot snow falls we get in canada. Even with winter/snow tires, drivers do get stuck or struggle getting up hills.

A previous poster mentioned that he only had front winter tires on and he was sliding all over the place like an amusement park ride and said "lucky no one was around me". In the city, people are everywhere, that's why winter/snow tires are mandatory by law here.

If you feel like driving your car with all seasons on over snow and ice then more power to ya, just be careful. By the way, didn't mean to be condescending, I was just amused at the thought of someone trying to drive with all seasons in a canadian blizzard

 

We get a lot of lake effect snow here in the Cleveland area, and I have never used snow tires, nor do I know anyone that does.

If anything, we have winter rims here.

 

"I have never used snow tires, nor do I know anyone that does"

In Canada, where winter tires are an absolute necessity if not a requirement by law, many consumers buy steel rims and mount their winter tires on these rims permanently, thus making it easier to change the tires for winter. One only has to undo the lugs and change the wheel and voilà!

However, when I used to change my tires (putting winter tires on my existing rims), my mechanic always insisted on doing an alignment. Is this really necessary? What about if I had a set of winter tires mounted on steel rims? Would a wheel realignment be necessary when switching tires+wheels for winter or is this just overkill?

 

But I am a Habs fan here in this damn Leaf zone.

THe Fit has Snows because I plan on being out of town every Friday otherwise would not have put them on. Our city has streets plowed in a few hours so I just wait.

Oh I think you mechanic meant balancing which would be required not an alignment unless there was signs of uneven wear on the tires you are taking off.

 

wrong... we're talking about ice tires. look at the title.

 

I know this isn't any help, I kept my AWD CR-V so I don't have to drive my Fit in the snow & ice, my Fit just chills when it snows.

 

No cover? Should cover it if not driven.

 

It's covered with snow..what more do I need?

EDIT: Snow events at the altitude I am at don't last longer than a week tops, the Fit doesn't sit for long.

 

Ahh. Good deal.

 

How come you are a Habs fan? Sucks so bad for the lockout...

If you happen to come by my neck of the woods in Montreal, you'd think you were in a third world country. In the winter they don't clear snow enough and in the summer if the pot holes were any deeper, petrol would probably start gushing out of them! It's bad to the point that the city has passed a law stating that they can not be held liable for damage to wheels or suspension because of potholes. Bastards!

What's the difference between balancing and aligning wheels and do wheels need to be balanced when changing them (changing rims and tires).

BTW, I would almost think that the snow and ice would create a barrier of protection for your car! It's not like it'll let in any humidity, it'll probably create an impenetrable seal. People's lawns get covered all winter and with a little love and watering, it all comes back to life the next season

 

You definently do not do an alignment that often IMO. However, you can't always "eyeball" your tires and determine if you need an alignment or rely on the car pulling one way or the other to tell either. Aligning the vehicle is referring to the vehicles suspension being in alignment which is most often involving the toe being set to within factory specs. Camber and caster do not normally need adjusted on our cars. Balancing is only referring to the tires and and rims. It is of course always required when exchanging tires from the rims, but not really if switching tires AND rims together. If the steering wheel or vehicle shakes at various speeds, normally freeway speeds, then it is usually a balance issue.