When to Change to Winter Tires

[outahere]

This is what bothers me about CR's published test results. The little black and red circles per category of performance or safety are only vaguely quantifiable, since there is no hard data associated with them. The above example perfectly supports my uneasiness. When two tires have the same kind of little circle, what really does it mean? But I have to assume that the composite overall score is based on the composite raw data for all the categories combined, and that numeric score is more meaningful. So when the CR rating for the Xi2 is 7.7% higher than the Generals and the Nokian, 10.5% higher than the PA3, and 13.5% higher than the EWCs that is something--especially when combined with the NAF testing that gave the Xi2 the #1 spot by a 'surprising margin' (or however they said it).

 

There was some very credible criticism on the CR tire forum about this very issue, about revealing the numerical data behind the circles. The response from CR was "Sorry, but we will not be listing data behind the published ratings".

 

http://forums.consumerreports.org/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=cr-tiretalk&tid=3100

 

And from another thread at the CR forums:

 

".......In the bigger picture we are not just talking about tires and tire data. CR tests a wide variety of products and services. The testing methods, the data obtained, and the weighting formulas are proprietary (we do face competition). In most situations company policy prohibits release of data behind the ratings without a signed confidentiality contract."

 

http://forums.consumerreports.org/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=cr-tiretalk&tid=3127

[mad99]

Just took off the RE050's and put on the Blizzak LM-25's today. Just as I finished, I saw the first snow flakes of the season. Temperatures have been and will be in the 30 - 50 F range, and I doubt there will be any snow on the pavement for a while.

 

But, it is very clear that even at 40 F on dry roads, high performance summer tires become less grippy. By that I mean slipperier than at higher temperatures. But it certainly feels to me like winter tires slide less easily at 40 F than the summer tires.

 

So, I'm all for objective test data and magazine comparison tests, but what about your personal experience? We've all changed back and forth between summer and winter tires, and probably driven both the same day or back to back days. What is your impression?

[TSiWRX]

^ That's a very good question - and one which I've honestly debated, myself.

 

I think that without knowledge of hard data, it's easy for us to come under the influence of the "I always hit this damned red light" effect: we've been told over the last decade or so that 45-deg. F. is the temperature at which we either switch or die , and I truly think that we may start being hypersensitive, based on what we've been drilled to believe.

[outahere]

IMO, if you have "max performance" summers like the RE050 or "extreme performance" summers like the RE11, then you need to closely heed the marketing & safety mantra about switching to winters at 45F. As you move down the performance hierarchy of summer tires, towards "touring summers" like the Turanza ER30, they will be more tolerant of lower temperatures, and can conceivably outbrake winter tires at below freezing temps (as seen in the Russian test)

 

If you live in a cold climate with temps in the 20s-40s, but rarely see snow or ice, and you run all-seasons, you can IMO safely ignore the marketing mantra about switching to winters at 45F.

[outahere]

Discount Tire is running TV ads here urging people to change from all-seasons to winter tires as soon as the temp hits 45F. This strikes me more as marketing, than safety. If your all-seasons can't deal with 45F, they might as well be called summer tires. I can see the value of dumping the all seasons before ice arrives, and even just before the first snow, but an all season on dry or wet pavement at 45F will be perfectly fine. But at 0F, it could be a whole different story.

[TSiWRX]

^ That's the way I see it, too - especially the bit about that magic temperature being a marketing soundbite as well as carrying definitive flavors of "vested interest."

 

I think that this is an area that's worth further exploring so that us end-consumers can benefit from knowing just what the limitations of each type of tires happens to be: exactly where (and how much) we should expect compromises. In this manner, we should then be able to make better choices about the tires we really need.