Another car question: Snow tires or 4 wheel drive more important?

interesteddad
Thu, 31 May 2007 12:51:39 +0000

Seriously, the key to winter driving is to just wait until the snowstorm ends plus a few hours for them to clear the roads. At that point, front-wheel drive, all-season tires, and ABS braking is quite adequate.

I guarantee you that your son will never bother to swap the summer and winter tires twice a year. I went that route – it’s expensive because it requires buying a second set of wheels in addition to two sets of tires. Complete hassle. You end up driving on snow with the all season tires and dry summer pavement with snow tires.

The snow tires are great, but the fact of the matter is that driving while the snowstorm is still in progress is still dangerous as heck (it’s not like the snow tires make all the other idiots on the road magically disappear) and should generally be avoided. Once it stops and the road crews can catch up, driving is not bad.

It’s probably self-limiting anyway. During the middle of a snowstorm, they probably won’t have plowed the college parking lots, so you son couldn’t get the car out even if he wanted to.