We got our first noticable snow here in southern ohio yesterday (less then an inch). Was the first time I had the X out in snow since purchasing it. I was unpleasantly surprised at the way the car handled in the snow, specifically stopping. Checking the tires i have on the car I think they are/were probably 100% of the problem. They are Pirelli PZero Rosso's which are pretty much straight summer tires. I picked up a set of winter tires and wheels on tire rack. Will post pictures when I receive them and get them on the car. I got General Altimax Arctic tires with 17" Rial Como wheels. Wheels look like this http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/Wheel...atin+Sil+Paint


edit: added the pictures




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[IMG]local://upfiles/4536/0E902EBC389C444B9FC32AFE415071D4.jpg[/IMG]

 

I actually didn't get the 16s and stayed with 17's. If i like the way they look i may eventually use them as my summer wheels and my stockers as winter wheels. I just assumed that the tires on the car were all season tires. I never looked them up after purchasing the car. My own fault. I figured all seasons and awd and i would be ok. That might have been the case if i had all seasons.

 

i got my winter tyres just a few days ago there brillant!!!

 

Geez didnt expect to get ripped for thinking all season tires would work in the snow. They seemed to work decently on every other car i have owned and for the 80% of the people in Ohio or any other state where it snows that run all season tires all year round. And no i am not a teenager thank you very much. My winter car for the last 8 years has been an awd suv. So switching back to a sedan is obviously a little different.

 

I've been running all seasons here in Nebraska on the Jag and my front wheel drive cars for many years and have no problems getting around in the winter. All you have to do is use your head while driving after all we're not racing. Last year we have packed snow and glare ice on almost every side street in town and the Jag had no problems getting started or stopping. I just don't drive like a maniac, slowing down some and watching what's going ahead and around me so I don't get suprised by some idiot. I'm 70 years old so I driven a few winters during my life. The last time I had winter specific tires was probably in the 1970's and they were for my '67 Charger which I ran 70 series tire on and they didn't do very good in snow. The wide tread on the front tended to pile the snow up like a plow making it hard for the rears to drive, so I had a set of 78 series mounted that I switched to in winter with studded snow tires for the rear( we could use studs back then from Oct to Mar). Don't need the snow tires anymore because the Charger is stored during the winter.

 

The only "all-season" tire I have used in the snow with great success is the Conti Extreme contact. And really, it looks like a snow tire anyway. This is on my Saab 9-3t, which if it is really snowy or icy, I park it and either drive the Jag with dedicated snow/ice tires, or the Jeep ZJwith General Grabber AT II's.

Green Machine certainly can talk from experience

 

Just got Kumho Ectas ASX tires on mine. All season. They've worked great in the snow. We had a few inches two weeks ago and I took in into some unplowed areas and it cut through it like butter.

 

Of course actual snow tires are going to be better in snow than any other tire. I don't think that's what everybody is saying. All season are supposed to be effective in dry-wet-snow (up to an inch). Not everybody wants to buy new rims and snow tires for the season. There's no reason AWD and all-season tires shouldn't get you through, up, down and around anything winter throws at you. Otherwise it's a person's driving habits that suck.
Just my 2-Cents.

 

That's exactly what I'm saying. If you're a good driver and got your head on straight, you adjust your driving to the conditions. I got around fine last winter on the original Conti's that had 50000 plus miles on them, no spinning when starting up and no sliding when stopping.We sure get more than an inch of snow here in Nebraska and for those of you who think the our terrain is flat, you've never left I-80. It would be nice if everyone had the money to have mounted sets of tires for each condition but many of us don't. Also many of us don't have other vehicles to bail us out when the conditions bet bad. Our X-type is a daily driver and at this time our only transportation and it does just fine no matter what the conditions. This winter we will have the benefit of new all season tires and I don't expect to have any problems getting around. Of course I know the Jag has it's limitations (for 1 it's quite low to the ground) so extremely deep snow is a problem. But it's not a truck and I don't plan on using it as a snowplow, we have city crews that do that for us.

 

Not everyone lives in Canada Bruce.

I am a proponent of snow tires and always have a dedicated winter set (due to growing up near Lake Erie). That being said, even here in Pittsburgh, whichdoes not have a flat stretch of more than 10 feet and we get lake effect snow for 6 months of the year, a good set of all seasons and AWD are plenty good for 99.9% of the drivers 99.9% of the time.

Perhaps if they experience the winters up in the hinterlands, then then would have different opinions. But I can't argue with them that they are making a HUGE mistake, because they are not.

 

Let's move on, you have downs.

 

Finally got around to adding the pictures. Figured its 66 out today might as well snap a few quick shots. So far no complaints with the new tires and i like the look of the new wheels

 

woops!
I almost missed this one! Thanks for pointing it out to me!

My $.02 about tires:
I just bought new AllSeasons as well. I could not rationalize the space in the garage to store a set of tires all year.... nor could I imagine a situation where I'd need Snow tires, without first having made a LOT of bad decisions to get myself into that situation.
We got 14" of new snow fall over the last 36 hours here. That's on top of already 6-8" that were on the ground. And since I've installed the new all-season tires (and had the car aligned) I have not had a problem one with getting around in the X-Type.
Might I someday be in a situation where I could not avoid something that I could have with Snow Tires? It's certainly possible...
But I find it ironic that the guy who told us (with the fervor of an Evangelist ) that there was no point in using slotted rotors and ceramic brakes, because the benefit they offered would not be needed 99% of the time, is now telling us that we should buy tires that will work MORE than that 99% of the time. So I'm not sure if Bo is buying based on the 99% or the 1%..... ?? Or maybe it's both?

 

Snow tyres ...Again![&:][&:][&:]....lol

No offence guys to anyone that uses them, just my opinion. I've been driving over25 years and seen some of the worst winters that the Uk has to offer with snow and ice. Never in all my years have I ever had a dedicated set of rims and snow tyres for these conditions. Good driving habits, common sense, driver awareness and even a little skill sometimes has always been wayyyy more than enough to get me about.
A set of good quality All season tyres with good tread depth should suffice for anyone with the above, unless you live in SERIOUS winter conditions for like 6 months or the year or more.


Jim