NYC is experiencing a winter storm right now and it has been forecasted to be about 12", it has been expected since last week and I thought the city was well prepared. Nope, almost all roads are not plowed and the road was not salted enough.

I had no fear though since I already have snow tires on, stayed at work until 7pm and drove 2 miles to get some food, it was a nightmare, car has no traction what so ever, even in snow mode i'd feel the tail fishing a bit, with the slightest pressure on the pedal and going 7mph. There were a downhill and I was so feared of losing control, I had to keep the foot on the brake all the time while trying not to lock it.

I did not risk it and parked my car on the street, and called a friend to pick me up.

What I don't understand is, why my car did so poor with snow tires, that some cars with all season traversed with relative ease...my colleague did fine on his q5 on all season, my friend did fine with his g70 on all season.

To be fair, on the short way home, there were quite some cars struggling, namely a m4, probably on summer tires hopelessly spinning tires in the middle of the road, and some fwd eco boxes can't get up a hill.

One of my friends commented" you got snow tires that can't handle the snow". Im so baffled, I got these sotto zeros last year and they are at most half worn, I have no idea why it drove so poorly.

 

Stay safe, sounds like you guys are getting hammered w snow. How old are your snow tires, not tread but how old by the date code I saw you bought them a year ago but that means nothing if they were approaching expire date. Tires can harden over time. What are you driving? Awd? Rwd? I dont take mine in foul weather, so thats all I got. 😉

 

Maybe too much air pressure? I drove my XKR on Blizzaks one winter and was amazed how well they performed. Only problem tires are so soft they are not recommended above 40 degrees. Before that it was on Pirellis and it was terrifying in the snow. Now she just sits all winter.

 

I will be checking the tire age tomorrow, they have been on for a month, also drove them all winter last year, they felt good, I actually prefer the ride they provide, soft and supple.

Tire pressure should be good, I check them regularly, unless the sensors have gone bad and gave me false reading.. Speaking of which, the rears seem to be not holding pressure very well, I pumped them to 38 front 41 rear on a 49 degrees day a week ago, now they are at 36 front and rear (last checked earlier today around 32 degrees).

I might have my expectation too high, roads should be plowed tomorrow and I will try it again.

 

Its not parked on a roadside I hope. You might find it buried or towed depending on snowfall amounts.

 

I suspect those other cars you reference don't have 295 wide rears with rwd and the torque of your car. I had Nokian winters on my rwd XF SC (470 hp). When it was ugly out it was ugly for traction.

 

Which series of Sottozero? 2 or 3? Series 2 looks like it has better snow tread while series 3 would be much better in cold rain. I just picked up series 3 and am waiting to try it out.

 

I grew up on Michigan's west coast. Not quite Buffalo but still pretty good for lake effect.
I would take AWD and good A/S's over RWD and snows any day. The Q has Haldex I think. The G is an X? The M probably wasn't an X.
I typically ran Sotto Zero's when we lived in A2, avoided Blizzaks because they felt too squiggly on dry roads.
Haven't had a chance to play with the F in the snow yet but I'm not expecting much with the huge rear tires and no ground clearance, even with the AWD.

 

I grew up in Northern Wisconsin. Narrow tires are definitely better for snow. Yeah, 295s in the rear are not good no matter the tire.

 

One of the bigger issues in winter driving is tire width - wider your tires, less traction in snow you get. So F-type will never be great winter car, but with winter tires it should at least handle decently.

As others mentioned - see if tires over-pressurized, see if tires older than 6 years.

The next time you get stuck in such situation - drop tire pressure by a lot. You can't do high speed driving on nearly-flat tires, but it improves snow (and sand) handling.

 

My winter car has Michelin X-Ice snow tires, and they are great. I think this year they released upgraded versions, should be even better.

 

I live in the northeast. God bless anyone that would drive these in the snow! I am not that brave. Even with the all wheel drive versions the clearance is way to low imop to be be driven in the snow.

 

Me too (South Haven.) ‘76-77 and ‘77-78 winters were fun for a 13 year old, except for the paper route. Good place to learn how to drive (or how not to drive) in a lot of snow. Got to drive our MG Midget one winter in high school - that was interesting.

I suspect the OPs expectations are too high. At 1-3” an hour, plows and treatments can’t keep up. Our NWS Winter Storm Warning here included ‘travel may be nearly impossible’ at the height of the storm.

 

There was something that stuck out to me here. No matter if you have the best snow tires in the world, your RWD F-type will never outdo the Q5 (which i think is standard AWD) and depending on if the G70 is AWD. An AWD F-type with good snows would be better in the snow, but jusdt like other people are saying, wide snows hurt more than help on soome vehicles. Also did you ever out the vehicle in snow mode? That helps change some shifting and driving parameters.

 

It's parked on a legal spot on the street so all will be fine, im more concerned plow truck hitting it or people sliding into it, fingers crossed.


sotto zero 3, you will really like them, ive had no complaint until yesterday haha. they are the only ones available on tire rack at the time of purchase and still is.


yeah completely forgot how wide these tires are, time to roll with 4 skinnies on!!? those cars that did well all had awd and narrower tires, the g70 had the widest on the rear of 255.

Not sure how this winter will turn out, if there are more snow forecasted, I should keep some ziptie style plastic snows chains handy and see how it handles. Don't care a single bit scratching the rims, these ugly stock rims are the definition of a winter beater.

 

Yup, St Joe. I was 17 in '77. I had a snow blower route. We had a Super Beetle and a Bus. Rear engine over skinny tires. You know it's bad when the city puts the snow plows away and gets out the loaders.

I firmly believe in "you need two of everything in opposites". As in summer tires and winter tires, summer car and winter car. Heck, we run a morning boat (for slalom) and an afternoon boat (for surfing) in the summer.

Get yourself a nice AWD ute.

 

@Ray Ray I didn't see whether you were in rain and snow mode?

You mentioned that the snow tires were half worn? That is a red flag...many snows lose grip when worn that much. There might be two different wear indicators among the tread blocks. How close were you to the 'higher' one? (Don't go into the slush to measure right now. That assessment should be done at the start of snow tire season. For ow, stay .)

Stay Safe!

 

Before I purchased a winter capable vehicle, I used a (modified) E46 M3 for all seasons. During that time, I used a few different brands of winter tires. While the versions of these tires that I used are older today, the Sottozero's of that era were the worst of the ones I used by far. They were terrible. I don't know which winter tire manufacturers have sizes for the F-Type but the Sottozero's are on the lower side for winter performance.

 

Yes I was in snow mode, rpm hovered around 1k, i had to use more brake than throttle. I also used normal mode with DSC off to back into parking spot, as the ~6" snow pile besides the curb wasn't moving anywhere.

The tires should be at MOST half worn, I got them last winter and did at most 5k miles total, granted there is the occasional peel out and a little bit of burn out, who can resist!!?

I do have to check it physically to be sure, and the dash TPMS might not be accurate, i will measure those and report back, doesn't seem like im heading out today though, the white stuff is still coming down.

Im thinking everything is fine and my expectation was too high, I will report back when I have the chance to drive it afterward with plowed, possibly icy roads, as the temp will be quite cold for the following days.

 

I think living in NYC, you should expect a handful of days where the car probably should stay home. A good compromise, I think, to the fun it provides the rest of the year.