hey i posted a thread not to long ago about needing some information about the ralliart before i bought it. so i had a couple more questions to ask... has anyone had snow problems due to the limited space between the tires and the body? or been stuck due to how low the body is? Also has scraping the bottom been much problem in normal driving? is fixing the mivec engine an expensive thing? ok those were a couple of new questions that my wife had after test driving the car. the other feedback yunz provided was very good. she loved the inside, thinking there was plenty of room for the kid and trunk space. so thank you for all the help from last time. also thanks for whoever put up the crash pictures and reported on their accident. ok hope to hear back some more. thanks
-bryan

 

you have to get snow tires if you are driving in the snow its that simple. This is something that should go for all cars in the winter. My buddy ModernRacer has driven with all seasons only last winter and he made it through and we get alot of snow. The car is not that low by the way and there are no worries about bottoming out or scraping at sharp angles and such. Why are you going to be fixing the engine? these engines are great and last....no one on here has had to fix the motor.

thanks

eric

 

I wouldn't be concerned about fixing the engine. I'd me more concerned about the job they did in fixing the salvaged car. I'm no expert in that department, but I would consider test-driving a non-salvaged Ralliart of similar age to see if there are any noticeable differences in the way it drives/sounds/feels. What kind of damage repair are we talking about here? Do you have the insurance report from the totaled vehicle?

 

As for the limited space between the tires and body...mine got good and rammed with snow and ice last winter so no lie there. It rubbed on turns and stuff but I just put it in a garage every once in a while and melted it all out and let it build up again. No biggie.

 

But this isn't any worse or better than any other compact front wheel drive car right?

 

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In fact, the problem is not worst than on my previous cars (Prelude anb Integra)... just kick on the build up from time (I recommend checking fot it each time you exit the vehicule).

BTW, I drove in at least 10" of snow with the RA last winter and never got stuck. It's way better than the Integra was in that department. But I also installed good winter tires, of course. If you plan on going through the winter with only the crappy all-seaon tires, I think you just deserve to get stuck a lot for your arrogance... not to mention that all-season rubber is of no use whatsoever when driving on ice.

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... but of course, winter doesn't mean the same thing for everyone. We get the real thing out here... some of you guys don't even get a full autumn's worth of snow.

-

 

True. It only snows majorly a hand full of times around here and its cleaned up in a maximum of 2days(2ft+). I remember one time last year driving when conditions were extremely bad and my neighbor had to clear a path with his mountaineer, the snow was up to my hood. Tires dont matter in those situations.

 

Now my family has run all-season tires on their cars (not the jeep of course) and we've never had a problem with all-season tires in Buffalo, NY. Of course these were of better quality than the goodyears that come stock. So I was thinking of getting a more durable, better treaded all-season and just running that through the next 2 years. plus i'm strapped for cash and the extra money for steelies is too much for me right now with snow on the brink.

 

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Are you driving on asphalt more than 90% of the time? If so, then you don't really get winter down there... and you should choose a good quality all-season tire for your half-winter months. The wear will be way less than full-out winter tires, which would wear out pretty fast on asphalt, especially when temperatures are over the freezing point most of the time.

But then, you should also be very careful during the handful of occasions when you do get snow on the road... all-seasons get stuffed with snow easily (so no traction on snow), the compound gets rock hard (so no traction on ice)... a pretty bad deal overall.

I know you're kinda broke, but if things get better next spring, you should really get some good quality summer tires though... because all-season tires will wear faster and/or won't give you anything near the acceptable level of grip you're entitled to, especially on hot asphalt (30°C+, 85°F+) where the compound essentially gets soft and the grip just isn't there. Also consider the fact that most all-wheather tires have really weak sidewalls (the biggest problem on the stock RS-As)... so in tight corners, the tire just suddenly gives in... it kinda rolls over and the result is no grip.

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We get a great deal of snow 93.5 inches per year on average. Sherbrooke gets about 101 inches per year. so we are about in the same boat. Again from personal experience, Buffalo gets the roads cleaned off fairly quick, not as quick as say Syracuse, but pretty darn quick. and i live in the city where roads are routinely salted every few hours. Snowfall comes in bursts since it is mostly lake effect off of Lake Erie, so we get those times when we're driving in 4 inches of snow on the road, bu still all-weathers (not the crappy goodyears we have stock) of other brands have held up nicely in Buffalo winter weather. Plus I have a gouge in my front right tires sidewall so I'm not too overall happy about these goodyears right now.

 

To address the engine thing, it's no more expensive to fix than any other modern engine. It's just a normal engine, the MIVEC portion of things is just a few extra part in the head, and some programming in the ECU.

 

Ralliart is great in the snow. Get winter tires if you are driving in snow for 4-5 months, you'll be happy you did, and if you figure the repair costs by sliding into somthing, 500-600bucks isn't all that bad of an investment. Shop around though, most will sell you a performance snow tire, which case you will pay aboout 150-200 bucks more for the set.
I only got stuck once in two winters, and that was due to a huge dumping we got and my car was acting like a plough on my street until there was so much build up the car rose slightly off the ground and stopped. Even my dads ford exploder was having difficulty in 4wheel drive that day as there was just so much snow. Gee, all this talk, just can't wait til I have to get up 10 minutes earlier to scrape and dig the car out.

 

I actually found a decent set of snows i'm puting on now. then in the spring maybe looking for some new rims and rubber