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As we all know, as has been mentioned here ..often... our cars come equipped standard with summer tires.
My Speed6 currently is under a 2 year lease, although I have started considering buying out the lease at lease-end because I enjoy the car so much and even though I drove a 6s for 3 years before this. But my buyout plan is not set in stone because the Speed3 keeps beckoning....
Anyhow, my orginal plan was to purchase some Blizzaks 215/45/18 to put on the OEM wheels for Winter 2006-2007 and Winter 2007-2008. My lease ends March 2008. I figured that by using the Blizzaks in Winter and the Potenzas in Spring/Summer/Fall, I could get away with just having to buy the Blizzaks and return the car with the original Potenzas.
Wrong! at 11,000 miles, the Potenzas don't look well at all. :irate: I don't even peel out , just chirped 'em occasionally because of AWD. They are still within legal tread... but they look they won't get much past another 5,000 or 6,000 miles. Yikes! So if I buy a set of Blizzaks, more than likly I will have to buy another set of All-Seasons tires or Summer tires anyway before the lease ends and I don't buy out. On a side note, these Potenzas are really starting to scare me on cold days. We have alread had a few days/nights in the low 30s and you can clearly feel the squirminess and rigidness of the tires, particularly if they haven't warmed up.
So now I am considering just forgoing the Blizzaks and going with some Ultra High Performance All-Seasons. We are projected to have a mild winter this year and here in Rhode Island although the weather sucks, it usually only snows 4-6 inches at a time and roads are usually cleared reasonably quickly and remain clear with lots of sand patches. We may get 1-2 "major" storms at with 8-12 inches, and I usually stay home and my job doesn't require me to report to work during Blizzard conditions.
Is it reasonable to say that snow tires like Blizzaks are more of a "luxury" for states like those in Southern New England and the lower Northeast, and more of a requirement for Maine/Vermont and other northern or mountaneous states? Does an an Ultra High Performance All Season tire like the Pirelli PZero M&S suffice for good performance snow conditions such as I described above, and will the All-Wheel-Drive perform prevent me from getting stuck with a tire like the Pirelli? Another drawback with Winter tires I've heard is that performance quickly & signficantly degrades to that of an All-Season because tread depth is one of the main advantages that Winter tires have over A/S tires.
The difference in price is significant. A set of 4 Blizzaks shipped to me from Tirerack would be $819.48. Plus I would probably need to buy another set of Summer or All-Seaons after winter to replace the crappy pre-maturely worn Potenzas. A set of 4 Pirelli PZeros shipped to me would be $539.48.
What are your thoughts on the Winter vs All_Season debate and in my situation what would you do when you consider balancing price vs. performance?
My Speed6 currently is under a 2 year lease, although I have started considering buying out the lease at lease-end because I enjoy the car so much and even though I drove a 6s for 3 years before this. But my buyout plan is not set in stone because the Speed3 keeps beckoning....
Anyhow, my orginal plan was to purchase some Blizzaks 215/45/18 to put on the OEM wheels for Winter 2006-2007 and Winter 2007-2008. My lease ends March 2008. I figured that by using the Blizzaks in Winter and the Potenzas in Spring/Summer/Fall, I could get away with just having to buy the Blizzaks and return the car with the original Potenzas.
Wrong! at 11,000 miles, the Potenzas don't look well at all. :irate: I don't even peel out , just chirped 'em occasionally because of AWD. They are still within legal tread... but they look they won't get much past another 5,000 or 6,000 miles. Yikes! So if I buy a set of Blizzaks, more than likly I will have to buy another set of All-Seasons tires or Summer tires anyway before the lease ends and I don't buy out. On a side note, these Potenzas are really starting to scare me on cold days. We have alread had a few days/nights in the low 30s and you can clearly feel the squirminess and rigidness of the tires, particularly if they haven't warmed up.
So now I am considering just forgoing the Blizzaks and going with some Ultra High Performance All-Seasons. We are projected to have a mild winter this year and here in Rhode Island although the weather sucks, it usually only snows 4-6 inches at a time and roads are usually cleared reasonably quickly and remain clear with lots of sand patches. We may get 1-2 "major" storms at with 8-12 inches, and I usually stay home and my job doesn't require me to report to work during Blizzard conditions.
Is it reasonable to say that snow tires like Blizzaks are more of a "luxury" for states like those in Southern New England and the lower Northeast, and more of a requirement for Maine/Vermont and other northern or mountaneous states? Does an an Ultra High Performance All Season tire like the Pirelli PZero M&S suffice for good performance snow conditions such as I described above, and will the All-Wheel-Drive perform prevent me from getting stuck with a tire like the Pirelli? Another drawback with Winter tires I've heard is that performance quickly & signficantly degrades to that of an All-Season because tread depth is one of the main advantages that Winter tires have over A/S tires.
The difference in price is significant. A set of 4 Blizzaks shipped to me from Tirerack would be $819.48. Plus I would probably need to buy another set of Summer or All-Seaons after winter to replace the crappy pre-maturely worn Potenzas. A set of 4 Pirelli PZeros shipped to me would be $539.48.
What are your thoughts on the Winter vs All_Season debate and in my situation what would you do when you consider balancing price vs. performance?