With black ice all bets are off. Stay home.

 

Absolutely...if I would have known, I have never missed a day of work because of snow since 1973, I didn't know what I was up against at the time.

 

Mistake. No car is any better than its snow tires in winter. And traction control is NOT a device fror assisting traction in snow, only for resisting errant directions.
Check Consumer Reports and tirerack for guides to better snow tires in your budget.

JUST SO HAPPENS THE NOVEMBER ISSUE OF CR HAS A THOROUGH TEST OF ALL SEASON, PERFORMANCE ALL SEASON, and WINTER TIRES AND SHOULD BE REVIEWED TO SEE WHAT TIRES FIT YOUR BUDGET ! YOU CANNOT ASK FOR BETTER EVALUATIONS THAN THAT ARTICLE. COVERS VIRTUALLY EVERY BRAND SOLD IN THE USA.

 

Well if you are ever in Western New York area south of Buffalo during the winter, I suggest you stick to the main, freshly plowed, state highways. And even on the local interstates I see lots of 4x4 or AWD SUVs, along with front wheel drive vehicles sitting in the highway medians. Most of them are running "all season" tires. And our DOT has a "bare lane policy" - lol!!! A bare pavement during the winter months around here is a joke. And the side roads around here are plowed twice a day, in the morning so the school buses can get thru and in the afternoon so the school buses can get thru. Other than those times, your on your own and have to bust through drifts as high as you hood.

 

Here in VT, we don't have a clean roads policy but a safe roads policy. The State has dictated that they will keep the roads plowed enough for travel at safe speeds unless an alert is posted. many of our roads stay covered in winter for months with packed snow. Driving on them is no big deal, especially with snow tires that grip better in the colder temps.

~SB

 

Im running a set of Michelin X-Ice Xi2 tires stepped down to a 175/65r15. This will be my first winter on this setup but I've driven my fit in 3 winters and havent needed any yet. I bought these cause the tires were on sale back in may.

 

I'm currently looking at buying 14" acura integra rims as winter rims for a 2007 fit sport (200$ for all 4). Do you think that rims with spaced out spokes are more prone to letting in snow, dirt and salt and thus causing excessive wear on the break callipers and rotors?

Here's the thread in shoes section: https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...ml#post1142396

 

I just ordered a set of Nitto SN2's for my wifes CRV from Tire Buyer. Got them shipped for free and they arrived in 24 hours! They have a warehouse in Ohio I was impressed. Not the top rated or most popular winter tire but good reviews. They look nice and have a lot of sipes.

 

I would recommend the Nokian based on my own experience. Mine are studded, which gives me a bit of an advantage over the average winter tires. We don't plow the roads all that well here meaning that the appearance of asphalt in the winter means it hasn't snowed in a long time and all the traffic has chewed the ice off the road.

With the Nokians I can easily start, stop and turn better than many of the McSUV's and trucks. Makes you feel good to leave them behind at a green light. I certainly feel safer with them.

Something some of you may not be aware of is that the Fit Sport does support second gear start. Just put the gear selector in Sport mode and, while stopped, use the paddle to shift to 2nd gear. This will prevent you from losing grip so easily when starting off from a dead stop.

 

i run the best studless on my 09 GE. Bridgestone WS60's. i put them on again today in prep for winter.

 

Already?! Up here in Montreal, I'm still waiting for the hardware store (Canadian Tire) to have a sale on Torque Wrenches so I can buy one to change my tires. Should do it around the first of december.

How do you like the Blizzaks? I heard the tread wears rapidly but they are very well regarded.

 

Agreed. Just mounted my set yesterday. They are on an extra set of Sport rims, (without TPMS), so I expect the warning dash light should be lighting up soon.

 

Torque wrenches are on sale now at Canadian tire. Don't know if it's a Canada wide sale but the 1/2" 20 to 250 foot/lbs wrench is 50$ instead of 100$ so get 'em while you can!

Quebec law requires my winters be on before december 15 but I'm gonna wait 'till the last minute (before there is snow or before the aforementioned date) because I'm installing studded tires and I don't think they are so good on bare asphalt.

 

Ok; I hear everybody, but I have taken a different solution. Since there is a mention of 15" tires I will assume this is a standard Fit. I just replaced the factory Dunlop tires on my Fit base with Goodyear Triple Tread Assurants in size 195/60R15. Goodyear says this size does not fit the 2012 Fit but.. Goodyear's tire specs say the will mount on a 5.5-7" 15" rim (2012 Fit base is 5.5"X15") and they look perfect size-wise on the car. They are only .2" larger in diameter. I checked my speedometer with my GPS and it was still dead on. The main reason I went with these as they are the best all-season tire I have ever found. I got 90,000 miles out of my last set on my 1996 Ford Taurus. If you go to these, be sure to rotate them every 10,000 miles to prevent un-even wear. These will "sing" a bit on grooved pavements but in the Water, Snow, and Ice traction is unreal!

 

I put Sam's Club studded tires on last year after my original winter tires had a blow out and I needed to replace them in a hurry. So far we like the Sam's Club tires. We drive on snow and ice 7-8 months out of the year here so we need safe winter tires. They seem to be as good or a little better than the studless blizzaks that we have on a couple of other little cars.

 

Which studs are you using?

 

They come pre-studded, at least here they do, so whatever they came with, that's what I'm using. One of my concerns was the durability of the studs. They're too new to say at this point.

 

Altough It is possible to add studs after the fact, I've heard bad things about adding studs. You should be looking at factory studded tires like the previous poster. I have factory studded champiro tires and still, I lost some studs

 

I just purchased a set of Nokian Hakka R, 175/65/r15 mounted on steelies.
I'm ready to tackle the winter challenges this year.

 

Interesting reading so far. I especially find it amusing that some folks are so confident in their driving ability that they don't see the need for winter tires. If you are already a good driver you will be even better with better tires.

The fact is that winter/snow tires work substantially better in snowy conditions than all season tires. They provide you with an extra margin of safety that can be the difference between avoiding an accident or being in one. There are plenty of idiots out there on the road and having the right tires for the job helps me get the heck out of their way.

There is a big difference in all tires and I will always run good stuff. On two vehicles that I have bought new I have changed out the new tires due to stock tires being crap and downright dangerous. Some all season tires are not even adequate in snow. Take a look at the survey of the Bridgestone EL42's that came standard on those cars. A lot of people assume that most new tires are pretty much the same. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Bridgestone*Turanza EL42 Click on the survey tab to see how they compare!