Winter vs Summer tyres on X-drive

[andrewwynn]

My description of barely better than summer tires is based on fact based observations including:

Sliding around on 2" of fresh snow as if I was in a 2wd car though I was in an X5.

Spinning the tires on wife's X5 at every gear change at full throttle if the road even has a slight mist on it.

Watching FWD car with "all season" tires polishing snow into ice.

(Where I could drive no problems at all barely spun the tires on the polished ice part of the road)

Total loss of traction when there are leaves on the ground.

I don't drive enough miles to worry about the faster wear in summer. The far far better grip on oily Chicago streets far outweighs any benefit of using "3 season" tires.

I do get that you can "get away with" using tires claiming to be useful all year, but with actual "studdless" winter tires, I have double the traction in many cases year 'round. Especially important: light bit of oil on fresh rain after a while of draught.

I wish they did that example video with "all season" vs. summer but I've lived it before. I was mind blown when I swapped wife's all season for well worn snow tires and had formidable traction on snow in spite of the tires being almost end of life.

(Hand me down from my car when I got a new set)