All Season tires or Winter setup

I'm relocating to the North after a long stint in the land of summer tires all year round...I understand that all season tires do not perform as well as summer tires in the summer or as well as winter tires in the winter. That said, I'm moving to a 1 bedroom apartment and don't have room to store seperate wheel/tire combo's (other than at my mother in laws 6 hours away). So my options are: 1. Get a winter tire/wheel combo and drive 6 hours each season to make the switch. 2. Ditch my summer tires and buy all season performance tires. I'm in a 2001 C4. With only 300 hp and all wheel drive I've never broken traction on the street with my summer tires so I'm wondering whether I wouldn't be fine with all season tires and save myself some money/driving. Thoughts? Shawn

Option #3 Sponge some garage space off a friend and store the tires there. Seriously, get the winter tires. All season tires are a lousy compromise. Why would you want to give up that much extra available traction in either the summer or the winter?

i wouldnt drive it without snows

Definitely get the winter setup. All season tires in the sizes you need work only reasonably well once they get cold and hard. They'll get you home, but with white nuckles. Snow tires get you home relaxed with a smile! Call me if I can help or if you would like to discuss.

OK Damon where are the Dunlop M3's at?!?

Shawn Where in the North? I would get the winter set up. Best way to go and if you don't have space, do what i do. Find a spot in a corner of a room, off to the side, and use a nice cover up. Make it look like a small table.

Boston from SC from Atlanta from FL....slowly migrating north...

Your gonna need some winter tires for a daily driver in Beantown, IMHO.

You could try looking for a local tire shop who will store your off season set if you buy from them. Another option is public storage. If you go with all seasons I think you're more limited in sizes for the rears e.g. I don't think you can get 285/30R18.

I tried driving my C4 last year in the winter - once! It was a beautiful snowy morning -10 C, and I figured that since I had a C4, the car could handle 1 inch of snow no problem. I was wrong! I was sliding like crazy within the first 10 feet of my driveway, and it took me about 2 minutes to turn around and get back in the garage! I've never seen anything so crazy in my life. Now I finally have some new rims with Pirellli Snow Sports. Once the snow flies I'll see the difference. From what I hear I'll be fine - fingers crossed. When I look at the wide winter tires I just bought, I am thinking that they are still way too wide for winter driving. We shall see. If these don't cut it, I'll be looking at getting studs or something. Get the winter tires for sure - no choice really if you are going to be in a real winter.

So I was checking out Tire Rack for tire options and I came across this test: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...ay.jsp?ttid=80 Obviously summer tires suck in the winter and snow tires are preferred, but there's not a lot of difference between the all season performance tire and the winter performance tire....

You asked the question and people are just sharing their experiences. From my experience there is a Grand Canyon sized gap between a summer and winter tire in the snow and cold. An all season tire splits that gap somewhat but with compromises and is still nowhere near the ultimate performance of a summer tire on a dry warm day or a winter tire on a winter day. Additionally, I would guess that the Tire rack test was conducted with brand new tires. I'm guessing that this factor will tighten the results somewhat. (In fact the testers did make the following statement about the all season tire. "When relatively new, these tires are a good choice for drivers who only encounter occasional light snow.") From my experience on my old Audi A4 there was a large winter performance difference between "all seasons" and "snows". There is no way I'm going to conduct an "all season" experiment on my 911 in the winter. Plus, it's great fun seeing the look of shock when I out-accelerate an SUV (probably on all seasons) from a stoplight in heavy snow. Good luck with whatever you decide.

I live in downtown Boston - I never drive my c2 in the snow, but have all seasons on my BMW 3 wagon. If you get the right all season tire, you can get around in the snow, but you will give up a little in the summer (tire rack has user rankings for every tire - so you can look up what tire does best in what condition). One word of caution, I am from Erie PA originally, so driving in the snow is no big deal for me, but if you are not used to driving in harsh weather, get snow tires.

I am with you 100%. After driving on allseason (the worst of both worlds) for a long time. I switched to running a summer only and winter setup on my A4. I'll never go back to an all season tire again.

A good all-season will have similar performance to winter tires for the first 1-2 seasons....after that you'll notice the big difference. It also depends on where you live...I live in NJ now which hardly has snow compared to Montreal (where I grew up). However, on another note...the forum and dealers are adamant about snow tires...so do you really want to take a chance getting a fender bender on your P-car? PS: I went out and got snows. thanks, Amir

I tried this this all season experiment and it nearly cost me dearly! I was driving home in the rain and from one moment to the next (literally in a span of less than a mile) the rain turned to snow and my rear wheel driver was useless. I have never been in such a dangerous situation. I dupmped the car at the first exit in the first available parking space. I waited another hour before a taxi cab passed by to drive me to the home of my nearest friend, I was nowhere near home. A nightmare to get back to the car, dig it out and get home that could have been avoided had I mounted the Pirelli Snowsports now on the car. Its a weekend driver for me that gets 10K miles a year. I'll run Snow tires from October to March and Summer tires the rest of the year.

There's a place in Natick (about 15 miles west of Boston) called Wheel Dynamix [phone removed]. They're a nice outfit accustomed to working on high-end cars. I know that they'll store your off-season tires and re-mount them each season. I suspect they'd also store wheel/tire sets as well. A friend has used them for his P-car for several years. I just bought my friend's slightly used Pilot Sport tires (that won't fit his new 997) and had them mounted on my own rims at Wheel Dynamix. Mount, computer balance and disposal of 4 old tires for only $88. Not a scratch on 'em. Spoke with my friend. Both his summer and winter tires are already mounted on wheels. They charge him $150 a year. This includes cost of changeover each season, cleaning the wheels, storing the off-season wheels. Speak with Jeff Orlinsky (owner); they are on Route 135 near intersection of Speen Street (but tucked behind the Dunkin' Donuts)

I appreciate all the opinions and insight, folks. Thanks. C4s Jim, I'll definitely check out the place you mentioned. I'm working in Natick so it will be quite convenient. I'll ask them about storage. S.

He has a C4. thanks, Amir

Keep in mind, AWD will help with traction when accelerating, but it don't do squat for braking or lateral grip, in fact it's probably worse in braking distance vs. C2 because of the added weight.

+1! Count me as one who says go winter / summer an avoid the "all season'' tires. You bought a "no compromise" car, don't buy a compromise tire. Surely you can find 24" x 24" x 37 1/2"H worth of space somewhere to put your winter wheels and tires? (I just measured mine, FYI)

Shawn, you have a PM.

I live in the Boston area. I drive my Carrera year round. You need snow tires. Summer high performance tires may be safe on black pavement at 155, but if the pavement is a little white they are not safe at 15 MPH. Ask my wife who managed to drive my car off the road in snow at about 10 MPH. I've gone both ways. 1. Had one set of rims and swapped summer and winter tires. 2. Had seperate rims and tires for summer and winter use. If you go with option 1 your rims will eventually get chewed up form the tire guys swappping tires on and off them. Option 2, just costs more initially although now I do my own season change and save the $80 the tire shop charged me to mount and change the winter and summer tire. I'd recommend buying winter tires and rims. I use Bridgestone Blizzak LM-22's on Boxster 17" rims that I bought on eBay on my 2001 Carrera and have never had problems in a Boston winter.

I vote for the snows on their own wheels. I drive my C4 all over New England in the winter and its No Problem even in the storms. As far as the storage you have to visit your mother in law once in a while. Plan it for Spring and Fall. If you never have to visit her, I want to know how you pull that one off?