Yes, I have used Blizzaks, a full snow tire, on another AWD car as well as A/S and really did not see that big of a difference. On ice, only a studded tire will actually provide traction. Bottom Line: A/S and full snows will provide straightline traction in the snow from the lateral tread blocks and large sipes; these tires have minimal to no traction on ice.

Later, Ken

 

i was going faster than i would have in any other car like 10-20mph. it plows pretty significantly the whole time but once you throttle it a little the inside front wheel and rear outside wheel are being braked by sawc while the inner wheel pushes the rear around and the outter front pulls you through the turn. pretty cool. i had asc on too but didn't seem to kill the revs at all like when slipping in the rain...it just seemed to focus on keeping the car moving through the turn.

 

I just got snow tires, haven't put them on yet, today is the day for that, but so far i've driven like 3 times in the snow with the stock tires, it sucks big time, but go slow, and go really slow around corners, and avoid hills.

 

my advice would be to take it out and practice somewhere safe late night with no traffic so you can get a feel for how the car works in the snow. you should be fine.

 

Look, snow tires are not magical. Just because you have wheel spin when accelerating or plow through turns when turning doesn't mean your tires suck. Thats just the result of driving on snow! lol...

Anyway. Don't go practice on non crowded roads late at night. Unless of course you enjoy sliding on black ice and crashing. late at night the temperature drops and with little traffic the roads will get covered in ice. Which is the last place you want to drive on the stock tires.

Anyway, I think this thread has got to be dead by this point. It's a few days after it started, so either the OP already drove over and got snow tires, or the roads are clear at this point and he can drive over and get them now.

 

He didn't say non-crowded roads, he said "take it out somewhere with no traffic" IE Church/school/work parking lots. That is a great piece of advice, and people would benefit greatly from practicing handling their car in the snow and ice in a safe empty parking lot. Plus, it's a whole lotta fun.

Black ice is really scary though, we get blackandwhite ice here usually. The snow goes harder and harder over a layer of already hard black ice... The result is... a really long drive home at 2 am. Thank God for tons and tons of salt in an already salty environment though, most of the snow/ice doesn't stay on the major roads for long, even at night with temperatures sub 10*F.

 

And winter tires are for winter but you still see them on cars during summer.
I didn't slide into any curbs, I didn't crash into anyone, I didn't get stuck. Did they suck when compared to an all season tire or winter tire? YES, but they did the job.

 

Tape on a couple rolls of Bounty quicker picker upper on the front and rear bumpers and go for it

 

dude if you're referring to my post saying the tires i have suck well that's because their all season. reading that part would have cleared up the first part of your post. i anticipated a little more grip from them in 1 inch of snow.

i know where/how/when/why i need to go and practice. i am quite a bit older than 25 and my brain is capable of preceiving the potential consequences of my actions. thanks for the advice though.

 

I know you do, I have the same tires and thought they actually gripped quite well. I guess it's just what our expectations were.

And that wasn't directed just at you, seems like people in here feel that snow tires will magically make a car handle the same in snow as it does with stock tires on tarmac.

And as far as where to practice, that was definetly not reffering to anything you said. And as was pointed out by UT_Evo I think it's a great idea to practice in an empty parking lot. If that is what newevil meant by "someplace safe" then fine. I just assumed from his post because he said "late at night" that he was refering to there being less traffic late at night and therefore he was talking about on roads. You can find plenty of empty parking lots that are safe during the day also.

 

now that this thread has been totally highjacked.

you think the s4's were good in the snow. i got a small dusting and wasn't going all that fast and was slipping and sliding very badly. i will have to wait for more snow and a wider place to really put them to the test but just around the neighborhood i was a little disappointed. makes me wish i had blizzaks even though i don't really need them here in pa.

 

well that could be why. sometimes those really light snows are actually the worst for traction with any tire. The blizzaks wouldn't have made much difference either considering that the advantage of dedicated snow tires doesn't come into effect untill your driving through deep snow. But yeah, wait for some more bad weather. I had about 5 hours of driving time in the first major snowstorm here in the chicago area and was thoroughly pleased with grip. It's not like I could stop on a dime, but i was able to stop significantly faster then any other car i've driven. I've had lots of experience driving a camry and a land cruiser and a e430 all with Nokian's and thought the S4's were at least as good. Maybe the evo helped some though (lol).