Finally upgraded to winter tires

I have to admit, I've never been a huge proponent of snow tires. I'm Canadian, I'm from northern Ontario, and I've almost always driven on all-season tires. Granted, I make sure to purchase quality tires, not the cheapest ones I can find, but replacing the tires twice a year to match the season just seemed like too much effort for the advertised benefit.

Well, after having my car written off because of poor weather conditions, I decided I'd invest in snow tires once I got the car replaced. Its not that driving 90% of the time isn't fine without them, its that I wanted to feel more confident in that other 10% of the season where conditions are less than ideal, the ploughs haven't gone by yet and there's substantial traction issues to deal with.

I spent a long time researching my previous set of all-season tires on Tirerack's website and since their prices were very good and their site excellent for matching rims and tires to my car, I figured I'd go there again. Not only do they have a policy of making sure tires and wheels you select will actually fit and work with your vehicle, but they have a cute 'wizard' interface where you can describe your driving style and expectations and they recommend tires on that basis.

In the end I went with a slightly non-standard set of 18" Pirelli Sottozero 240 winter tires on new black painted aluminum rims which look beautiful on my car (pictures soon, I promise!).

I have to say, I'm not just impressed, I'm floored by the performance of these tires. Wouldn't you know it, but we got half a foot of loose snow that fell the day after they arrived and I had them installed just in time. Not only did we get half a foot of snow, but my street didn't get ploughed. In fact, its been several days and it still hasn't been -- evidently the local union is in a strike position on Saturday so driving through heavy semi-packed dirty snow may be the norm for the near future.

Pulling out of my driveway, the snow is so deep on the street that it rubs against the bottom of my car but acceleration is smooth and controlled, there's no sliding, and stopping is excellent. Amazingly, I rarely even have the ETS (traction control) on the car kick in despite the conditions. Black ice under snow causes some more obvious loss of traction, but no wheel-spinning 'going nowhere' experiences at all. I'm very happy and feel much better about my winter driving (which I was already very confident with).