Wow, the "summer only" warning about stock tires is for real!

[Clint Beastwood]

It gets down in the 30's and 40's here at night and when the temps go below 45-50 degrees I can definitely notice a reduced amount of traction on my tires. But our days are normally above 50 during the day in the winter. Today its going to be 76.

I wont live somewhere where it snows often unless I got paid an ungodly amount of money to go there. F that.

yeah that combination of low temp tires and your turbo gulping cold dense air makes the summers a little sketchy even without snow

 

[M-Sport fan]

New Mexico recently saw its first snow of the season and I had to make my daily commute (a 60 mile drive to Santa Fe) on the stock wheels. It was sketchy at highway speeds. I didn't think I'd need winter tires yet, but they're going on in the next couple of weeks.

I got a great deal on a set of slightly used Pirelli Carving Edge snow tires mounted on on some 15 inch Sport Edition SE-16 wheels. Hopefully they do the job. We don't get enough snow to warrant a dedicated snow tire, but coming from an WRX on All-Seasons (perfect set up for NM), I wouldn't mind the extra traction.


at 9:00am

at 10:00am

at 12:00pm

Favorite shot of the day

Winter wheels- Paid $300 for the set

Those will get you through anything lower than your car's unibody ride height!

GREAT DEAL!!

 

[M-Sport fan]

Yes sir. The Potenzas did ok. I would get squirrley at highway speeds so I slowed down to 60-65 on the highway and made it to work just fine. In the city, it would spin pretty bad on un-touched snow. I tried staying on the ruts made by other vehicles and that did the trick.
Mornings and evenings get cold here in NM around this time of year. So we see low to mid 30s before the sun comes up and after it goes down. It'll warm up to 50ish now but I can definitely noticed the difference in traction. Tires become hockey pucks.

I've already had the Pilot Sport AS/3s out in deeper stuff than what you faced in those pics, with little to no problems, (except for pure ice patches).

So YES, they are definitely leaps and bounds better than the factory Potenzas in those conditions (WHY I ordered the car that way), but of course, not even HALF of the traction/control of a pure winter setup.

 

[PolloVagabundo]

Our Fiesta only has about 3000 miles with the OEM summer tires. We actually took it up to Michigan this weekend (5hour round trip) with no problems!
but below freezing temperature and snow in the road... Not worth the risk and I definitely will not let her drive it to work.

Steelies + blizzaks ordered yesterday, should be waiting at the house for me to install tonight!

 

[Intuit]

How a Fiesta ST w/ stock Summer tires looks on snow...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/darting-deer-slides-middle-school-51486591

 

[M-Sport fan]

How a Fiesta ST w/ stock Summer tires looks on snow...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/darting-deer-slides-middle-school-51486591

Depending on what type of snow, and if there is ice underneath it, probably not even that much control!

 

[BRGT350]

Always surprised when people are shocked that summer tires don't work well in the winter. Every bit of evidence on the planet indicates that is the case, yet people still think they somehow are exempt from physics. I do understand the surprise for people down south that don't normally get winter, but the Facebook Fiesta ST/Focus ST/Focus RS pages are full of people in the rust belt complaining about their summer tires in the winter. It is really inexcusable for people who know what winter is not to use the proper tire for the conditions. Winter comes every year and every year it sucks and every year summer tires don't work in it. Yet, people still seem shocked by this.

If you don't live in a winter area and winter decides to show up, your best bet is to avoid driving on summer tires. I know that sucks to hear, but I do understand that winter is a very rare event and buying a dedicated winter tire for what may only last a few days is kind of a waste. If you live where winter comes every year, don't be stupid and get winter tires. Where I live along Lake Michigan, we get 100+ inches of snow a year and some days see almost 2 feet of snow fall thanks to lake effect. To attempt summer tires in those conditions is a risk to everyone. With winter tires, the ST is a very capable car. I have been driving with winter tires on my cars for almost 20 years now and I have only had to leave my FWD cars home twice. Both times the snow drifts in the driveway were close to 3 feet deep. Even our winter tire Escape could barely handle those conditions. The last time I was ever stuck in the winter was when I had all season tires on the car while I waited for the winter set to arrive. That was December 2000.

 

[M-Sport fan]

^^^Yes, I suspect that only extreme conditions (snow pack HEIGHT) which would high center this car would prevent it from forward motion in the snow, ON PROPER, FULL WINTER TIRES!

 

[BRGT350]

Yeah, when the snow exceeds the headlights, winter tires aren't going to help! I have had some minor issues getting going when I back out of my driveway and the snow in the road is over a foot deep. The car lifts up and it is hard to get going. It isn't stuck, but takes a little back and forth to get it going. The new plow service I have does a good job of clearing out part of the road in front of my driveway. They also come during the night and before I leave for work. Anytime the snow gets to 3", they are there. I heard them at 3am this morning and again at 6am.

The two times in which the snow was drifted around the 2-3 foot level overnight, most places just closed for the day and people worked from home. I was determined to make it in, so I used our Escape. My wife closed her office and wasn't going anywhere, so the Escape was free.

 

[chicagoslick]

Great stuff in this thread. This is the first time I ever tried to use summer tires in an environment other than dry summer conditions. Probably an accident waiting to happen for anyone really pushing the factory summer tires beyond ~40 degrees... I ended up getting Falken ZIEX tires installed and they are working very well. It is a huge improvement over the Potenza summer only tires that came on the car.

 

[Olephart]

 

[Intuit]

Funny enough, when the temps start to "warm" up, the Summer grips better than the Winters. (they just get too soft)

........... but the Facebook Fiesta ST/Focus ST/Focus RS pages are full of people in the rust belt complaining about their summer tires in the winter....................

...and people wonder why the Russians targeted FB....

I think they're salting our streets with these people in mind. (either that or their other job is work'n at the dealership lol) We got frig'n salt speed bumps... miniature salt piles. I oughta start scrap'n this stuff up and sell'n it back to the city....

 

[M-Sport fan]

I think they're salting our streets with these people in mind. (either that or their other job is work'n at the dealership lol) We got frig'n salt speed bumps... miniature salt piles.

Same here, and we most likely get less snow and ice than you do (NO 'lake effect' here) to ever justify the 'dumping' as most of the time the salt is DEEPER THAN the snow!

I oughta start scrap'n this stuff up and sell'n it back to the city....

^^

 

[BRGT350]

The past few weeks it has been too cold for the salt to work, which has actually been great! Driving on packed snow provides far better traction than slush, plus my car stays cleaner. Yesterday was the first day that it got into the upper teens and the salt started working. My Fiesta is now a mess from the salt spray. December was one of the snowiest on record, losing out to last December by 3". It is also one of the coldest in the last 40 years. So far, the ST is doing great! Our Escape is having some electrical issues in the cold where the BLIS system shuts off, AWD works randomly, and there is always some error message on the dash for a system not working. The simpler ST just keeps working fine without any issues.

With my Generals, they seem to have pretty good warm weather grip until 50'F, then they start to slide. They are also far skinnier than the summer tires, so it is probably a function of tire width, tread design, tread compound, and soft sidewall. I have driven on them in temps above 70'F when we get those random spring days in which it gets crazy hot for a few days and then a snow storm follows. I just keep my cornering speeds down with the winter tires and they do just fine. My sister-in-law drove around for years on General winter tires all year round and they tires looked brand new when she sold the car. I bet she drove for 5 years on them.

 

[XR650R]

My '17 came with Michelins. They're OK in snow, but not great.

 

[BRGT350]

My '17 came with Michelins. They're OK in snow, but not great.

those are all season Michelins, which suck in all seasons.

 

[silverblueBP]

It was -18 yesterday morning and the ST has been parked for at least a week. Cleaned all the snow off, warmed it up and took it out for a test spin on the all season tires. I can say without reservation that the AS tires are almost useless at that temp. The only way to get it moving on the snow packed roads was to start in 2nd and then it was still very slow to go. Same for stopping. It was pretty tough to get it to stop in a relatively short space. Now, it was fun playing around in it, but it definitely needs some dedicated snow tires. If I decide to keep it, I'll get a set for next year.

Normally drive the F250 in the winter. We have dedicated snow tires on the Escape and it goes like snot and stops really fast in any conditions short of solid ice.

 

[apex1]

Interesting read

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=273

 

[Capri to ST]

Are others driving their summer tires (without pushing it too hard) in sub-40 degree weather with no problems?

That is an interesting article. I do think Tire Rack has to be extremely conservative in their advice for liability reasons. We only get a few days of snow here a year, not enough to justify snow tires, so I leave my summer tires on all year round and stay off the road for a few days if it snows. I rarely drive the car when it's under 40 degrees, but every winter there will be a cold snap and I'll drive the car a few times in temps from 30 to 40 degrees. I've been doing that for years with no problems on my cars.

 

[M-Sport fan]

those are all season Michelins, which suck in all seasons.

They are actually not too bad in the cold and DRY, but for the conditions which you face there now, they are downright DEADLY!!