Driving in the snow w/ summer tires?

So I clearly waited too long to order my winter tires. Getting them today and now I have to drive the 15km's to get these suckers installed... this may be a stupid question, but is it safe to drive that distance w/ the summers on? or should i be removing the tires in my garage and get the winters mounted seperately?

Depends on the conditions and the outside tempature. If you drive to the tore shop, how are you going to get the summer tires back home?

Given the dump of snow we just got (I see you live in Markham), I would wait a couple of days until things clear out.

Driving on snow with summer tires is just asking for trouble. Been there, done that.

Good practice in catching a spin, though. Or not.

Don't do it....not in the weather condition we had over the weekend. I couldn't even get mine out of the drive way to have my snow tires put on. I have had them im my garage for 2 weeks now. waiting for the snow and salt to clear out before taking the P car out.

Due winter tires really make that much difference? I only drove in snow once in Denver in the mountains, I felt very planted. It was same to me as driving on wet roads.

If the roads are clear of snow and the temps are anywhere close to 40 degrees I don't think you'll have any issues. I say that because I've driven twice recently with summer tires in Maine and the coldest was 36 degrees and I had no issues and drove 40 plus miles each time.

Winter tires make snow driving fun. Summer tires make snow driving extremely hazardous.

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+1 just make sure teh road is dry and take it easy onm the corners... can u fit 4 tires in your 996?

Three words based on experience: Don't do it. Summer rubber isn't nearly as good when it gets cold, and no comparison if the roads are snow-covered. I've gone off the road twice in an Audi quattro because I thought my summer rubber could do it. Sure, it felt absolutely great until she broke free...just not worth it. How much front suspension damage would you have to pay for if you kissed a curb at 10mph?

He's going 15km. With dry roads and an extra sense of caution he should be fine, especially since he's doing this to install snow tires.(and yes, snows actually make it fun and safer)

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??? I can drive 80 miles an hour in rain with summer tires, if you tried that with an inch of snow with summers, you'd find the gaurd rail with-in a mile. Winter tires make a huge difference. You can't drive anywhere in Minnesota in winter without all-seasons or winters - on any vehicle. A guy in a vette was stuck at the light last week spinning his rears like crazy. Danger to himself and anyone around him. Safety first.

Don't do it if there is any trace or temps are dipping below 40. I did it two weeks ago and ended up having to dump the car into a large pile of leaves on the slope of a small hill to avoid plowing into the UPS man. Without the leaves I would have done a number of my car banging the curbs on the way down. I was shocked (I don't know why I was frankly) by how slippery summer performance tires are in cold weather. It caught me way off guard.

My 996 C4 stays in the garage most of the winter but my '01 AWD RX300 daily driver runs on nice and quite and comfortably riding summer tires, Bridgestone Turanzas, all year around. I keep a set of quick and easy install tire chains on board for times of need. IMMHO winter driving, SAFE driving, is more about the driver that anything else. Heavily siped winter tires offer an advantage ONLY if the surface conditions are "loose" enough for the tread to sink in. Once the snow is packed down or the surface is icy, summer tires, with more contact surface area, will always offer more traction. IMMHO TC, Traction Control (except to provide LSD functionality on RWD vehicles) is only, primarily, for those drivers with no experience or not enough common dense to "feather" the throttle just barely up to the point of loss of traction on the driven wheels. A secondary purpose, granted, is to provide a warning of slippery roadbed conditions that might not otherwsie be obvious to the driver.

Z rated summer tires are not designed to operate in low temperatures. They will just not ever warm up properly. If you are driving on dry roads and don't push the car, you might never have a problem even at low temperatures. But just try to take a corner at speed at below freezing temperatures with summer tires and you might quickly find out why there is a such a thing as a winter tire. There is a reason they call them summer tires.

Thanks for all the responses. Its clear that the majority think its a bad idea to drive on summer tires - I agree. But when the weather calms down and warms up a bit, I don't think 15 minutes on clear roads to the tire changing shop would hurt that much if I take it slow and easy. Thanks again everyone.

I agree.

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You are correct. Tires have no involvement in how your car handles. It is only the experienced drivers that keep cars on the road. All the experienced drivers - Sell your winter tires and just stay with summers. P.M. me with your new blizzaks, I'm offering 10 cents on the dollar for anyone who has 90% thread still left and is going back to summer tires for the winter.

You are correct. Tires have no involvement in how your car handles. It is only the experienced drivers that keep cars on the road." Well put.

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Turanzas are all-season tires, so I'm not surprised you do just fine. I use all-seasons on my FX with no problems. It isn't nearly as easy as saying "Just drive SAFE and you'll be fine." That's absurd. Are you aware of the difference between rubber compounds between summer and winter tires? I'm going to remember this: Summer tires do better on packed snow. Next time I'm driving in snow, that should make for a good chuckle. Sure, and stability control is only for the people that can't figure out how to brake one wheel at a time.

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Dude, if it's dry out, go ahead--you'll be fine as long as you don't treat it like a track day. If there's snow or ice on the ground, don't even bother trying, as it's an exercise in futility. It's amazing how easy it is to get a car stuck in 1-2" of snow if you're using summer tires.

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One of the VP's where I work had a C4. He thought the AWD would be enough to keep him out of trouble in the winter. He had the car at work parked in the lot when the first snow hit. He could barely get the car out of the parking space. There was just enough enough snow down with just enough of an incline to make it really tough. After barely making it home he finally understood what I had been trying to tell him about winter tires. What amazes me is that when he bought the car, his salesman never mentioned the fact that summer tires just don't work in snow despite the fact of having AWD.

I hear the salesman bit all the time. They are so afraid of losing the sale they fail to tell people the performance tires the car was sold with won't work in the winter. Good input by all who know firsthand. Here's another good source of info: http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/...jsp?techid=120

I drove in Michigan a few weeks ago in the snow and I'm telling you that performance-summer tires are absolutely hazardous and I won't do that again. With just the lightest coverage on the ground, I was sliding all over the place and didn't think I was going to make it to the next exit. It was EXTREMELY slippery, like I was on ice. I have lots of experience snow driving from when I was living in Michigan, and I'm telling you don't even try it or you'll end up in a ditch before you know it.

Well you know what they say about all season tires.....they are no season tires...LOL

I also believe that driving in snow and low temperatures can destroy a summer only tire. The rubber will become quite brittle at low temps and can crack. There is also the problem of flatspotting if the car is parked in the cold. They even have special storage directions for summer tires when they are off the car in the garage so they don't get damaged. Look into it.

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You're kidding, right? Otherwise, that's irresponsible advice. Dangerous, even. For one thing, for the last 25 years or so, winter tires have been different not primarily because of the tread but because of the rubber compound. On your "contact patch" comment, I don't even know where to begin... it frightens me that people like you are driving around out there. Sorry, but I'm not just being pissy. That's really how I feel.

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Without traction, four wheels driven is just two more wheels spinning.

I respect the additional traction of all-season tires. But last winter we had a sudden snow storm...highways were a mess. My wife called me to pick her up. Between a 2wd Ranger w/no extra weight in the back & the 996, I chose the 996. Let the traction control & abs help along the way--but it was great....fun, really. Took back roads & side streets when possible to avoid the crowd. Even at traffic lights where spinning tires made sheets of ice, the Michelin Sport Pilots did well. I was a lot more concerned about other cars skidding & sliding into us. (It's odd how snow tends to push people into two groups: those who panic where they creep along fearing the end of the world....or those who try to show they don't need to slow down at all....as they slid off the road or into other cars.) So part of your answer is in how experienced/comfortable you are driving in snow & what kind of hills you have to cross to get there.

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Well, yes, kind of. But experience affects different people different ways. Some people believe that whatever they've got away with for x years is an acceptable policy. Other people's experience teaches them that some risks are worth taking and some are not. If we were talking about pilots instead of drivers, there wouldn't be much debate about who you'd want to fly with. Southern Ontario snowbelt has been my home for 33 years of driving. It's unique for the volume of snow it can sometimes produce, and for the wide variety of temperatures and kinds of precip you can get, even in a matter of days. It gives you a real appreciation of what a well engineered snow tire can do. Here's a pic of standing snow in my driveway at our country place last night. I started brushing it off to be ready in case the plows came, and gave up for obvious reasons. It snowed steadily for another 16 hours after this was taken.

With no snow or wet stuff on the road, of course you can drive to the tire shop! Geez! Everyone is reacting like you said " Can I drive up a snow covered mountain with summer tires?"

Update. So i drove the car to tireshop through sideroads, highway, etc - about 25km all in and I was surprised at how decently the summers performed despite the temps. Having said that I didn't push the car AT ALL and it was a slightly warmer day than we usually get around here at this time. But its NO COMPARISON to what the winters were like. Just awesome. I have no idea why people store their cars in the winter... For those who care, I went w/ Pirelli Wintersport 240's - 235/40/18's in the from and 295/35/18's in the rear.

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Ever been to Winnipeg??? :P I put my car away now because we have pretty nasty road conditions for 4-5 months. And there's a much greater chance of someone else denting my baby. I've got a cheap winter car that's been in two winter accidents in two years (all 100% other driver's fault), and couldn't be happier! A little late, but I'll throw my $.02 in as well. I bought a 350Z on summer tires in March '04 and got caught in a final snowfall for the year. The car had traction control and stability control so I could get going. As the car approached 20km/h it started going sideways, regardless of the stability control and my own imputs. It was a long drive home at 15 km/h. Next year I picked up Blizzak WS-50s and had a blast in the snow.