Do you have a set of winter tires?

You will find the Soob handles much better on snow and ice with winter tires than not. The difference is night and day, just like with the G5. Not only that, but by switching in an extra set of tires for the winter, the summer tires last longer. No need for super expensive tires, either. Tirerack.com has some reports comparing various tires.

Got an Sti and live just south of Buffalo NY. I've had LOTS of winter experience!

I buy max performance summer tires and Blizzaks for winter. The summer rubber is great but useless on snow. Change them myself, no cost penalty since you're using the same miles, but on two sets of tires, so they last twice as long.

There's a huge difference in running on snow between the Blizzaks and the All Season's on my wife's Legacy Outback. It's fine with all season but very stable and controlled in even the worst snow with the Blizzaks. On ice, forget the all seasons - uselss in comparison!

A old friend told me 30 years ago that all a snow tire needs to do is stop you 1 foot shorter at a critical rtime and you've payed for all the tires you'll use in your life!

Philip

I'm a flatlander from a warm State, but you have just reiterated what I've read from other's living in snow country. The BEST all-season is worse in snow than the worst 'snow' tire.

I think your tire usage is what I would adopt.

What tire brand and type is used on new Subarus as the default?

I think so, and just about any other front wheel drive garb, er, crossover. On CR-V the delay probably is not as humongous. If I had to guess it's probably around 1/20th of a second. On an other wise frontwheeldriver long delay basically serves nothing escept irritating the driver which is why there is a subaru with the alway on symmetrical layout : works fine if your objective is not to get stuck - not so fine if your objective is to have some fun in the process which is where 325xi comes into the picture if you just got to have some power to both axles on those occasions when your car has to serve as a plow.

Hmm, I'm getting a slight vibe that you plan to save some money by running allseasons. IMHO if that is a concern subaru might not be the best choice as you will have to be meticulous about

1. rotating tires
2. replacing all 4-5 as a set when you wear out/blow any one or two of them.

I currently run some sort of studded Continental knockoffs on my rear wheel driver and it's fun to have all the power go aft, but i do wish i had 5-15% torque going to the front when climbing the proverbial ice and snow covered hill John McGaw reminded you of in the neighboring post.

Depends on the Subaru model. Bridgestone RE-92 used to be common on Impreza up to 2005. Don't remember how good it was on ice, it was mediocre on snow and horrible on wet and dry pavement. Basically it's trash despite the high price. If there are some strong sides in that tire bridgestone made it's best to hide them well since other reviewers on tirerack could not find them either.

I believe Legacy, Outback and Forrester lines use different tire models.

You have to visit the dealer and give us the exact tire model to provide the posters with enough fodder for yet another tire thread(tm).

I purposely buy low-lifetime tires for the very reason that I will someday need to throw away 1/3 the tread life on 3 tires and buy a full set - just because one is irreparable. Everyone talks about shaving tires - but that costs, wastes the lifespan of a new tire and finding someone to do that is not easy.

Hmm, shaving summer tires should be a no brainer. but as for winters i dunno if the customer grade snow or ice tires are nearly as good as winter slicks.

If you run into something close to a winter slick do let us know, please. I would care for a glare ice traction more than for loose snow whenever I switch to some (>1) wheel driver.

PS: I failed to plow through the loose snow with my rear wheel driver this morning (no LSD in the back): had to take public transit to work :-[

I enjoyed the RE-92's on my OBW until abut 20k miles- Then they got scary but up til then they were fine yiresin all conditons.

Hmm, shaving summer tires should be a no brainer. but as for winters i dunno if the customer grade snow or ice tires are nearly as good as winter slicks.

If you run into something close to a winter slick do let us know, please. I would care for a glare ice traction more than for loose snow whenever I switch to some (>1) wheel driver.

PS: I failed to plow through the loose snow with my rear wheel driver this morning (no LSD in the back): had to take public transit to work :-[

*** Try putting your left foot on the brake a little with right foot on the gas. It will act like an LSD by transferring torque to the other wheel. I did it alot when there were only open diffs on cars..

Thanks. With the three pedals it's easier to modulate the handbrake though as I have rear driven wheels. Gotta have fun with the three pedals and the lever :-)

JD stands for Japanese Domestic?

Ok, i've used handbrakes to apply force to the driven (rear) wheels only and got out of my parking spot this morning.

Das ist fantastish.

Thank you JD.

Of course what that does to the car handling is entirely dependent on the car in question. With subaru so unwilling to rotate it's not as much an issue but as car and driver had recently found out going taller does make a lot of difference on a properly balanced machine such as lancer ralliart with the car becoming much more prone to oversteer at freeway speeds with 60+ tall sidewalls on winter tires.

Going down 1" is probably not as bad but there are no reports pouring in yet that i'm aware of.

"If" the upcoming Toyaburu FT-85 has the proper power split between the axles I'd be very hesitant to go down from 18" to 16" winter rims for that exact reason.

Being a conservative old fart i'd probably stay on nothing lesser 17"s for winter even on cars that are very hard to rotate such as STI.

As for saving a buck or two on a winter set: no matter how many driven wheels you have the brake distance goes to infinity (pun intended) as the temperature drops snow/ice or not. If you get no ice/snow but temps drop below 40F just forfeit the studs, but softer compound is a must to stay out of ditches and the bumpers of cars in front. (In a best rendition of a homer simpson voice) umm, snow slicks...

Of course they are not required if you are an aspiring rally driver and want to test the limits of the car on every low temp day.

The winter set pays off on the first day when you avoid kissing the bumper in front. Unless you are living in one of those "no fault" states that is.

The key element is the concept of "Right Tool For The Job", and what most people don't realize about the question of All-Seasons vs. Snows is that it isn't just tread pattern - - it is also the rubber compound. The most graphic examples of this can be found when one takes a high performance summer tire out on a dry, clear but very cold (20F) winter morning: over 75% of the tire's grip will be gone.

With the advent of AWD, the question has evolved into "AWD or Snows?". Obviously, the *best* answer is actually "Both!". But for someone demanding an exclusive or (XOR logic), the answer is that Snows are better than AWD, roughly 80% of the time.

This was as per testing done by Car & Driver many years ago ... this is an oldie, but a goodie (and fortunately, still online):

As another poster mentioned earlier, the only real advantage of AWD is to get your car moving ... but from there, everyone needs to be able to stop...which one is the higher priority at that instant you want it? :-) While my wife's Audi is no longer a Quattro, it still runs a full set of four snows (as it did when it was a Quattro), as does my daily driver as well. In both cases, we've put on as small/narrow of a rim as we can fit over the brakes...and most importantly of all, when the weather is bad, we choose to not risk fates and stay at home. Afterall, it isn't the end of the world if we run out of eggs, milk or bread for a day or two.

-hh

Last I heard, the Toybaru is RWD.

I think you meant to say "unless" you are an aspiring rallye driver. And even then "overpriced" tires are not required. There are decent snow tires available that are not "overpriced" - particularly if you are willing and able to go to a higher profile tire on a smaller diameter rim. As for the handling, you will not develop enough lateral traction for the sidewall height to be a handling issue with winter tires under anything approaching sane winter driving conditions.

I am not an aspiring rallye driver - I am a retired rallye driver.

And I totally agree with you, snow tires are pretty well a NECESSITY, not an option in snow country.

All "all wheel drive" does is get you farther from help.

Ok, lets change the angle then: after having RE92 pushed down out throats for ages we know how an overpriced all season tire looks and smells like. Would you show an example of an overpriced winter tire - i'm yet to find garbage to match RE92 all season.

I somewhat agree on the winter tall sidewalls being not much of an issue.