Tire shop near my house...I went to a few local places, and all 3 of them have them available. Funny, all 3 also recommend the toyo winter tire over the Bridgestone. I'm looking at $1,500 with taxes, balanced and installed, which is very good for us here in Toronto.

 

I just did some research on that Toyo and I really like it.

I'd love it on some 18's to fit my Brembo-brake car ...

 

Highly considering the Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires in a 245/45R19 size to go on the stock 19" Brembo rims on my car ... they'd allow me to take my time into next summer getting "the right" set of staggered 20's while still having a great set of winter/all-season meats ...

 

We had those installed yesterday on our Mazda6. I'm impressed so far in the limited time I spent driving on them.

 

Check out the Toyo Proxes 4Plus. They look like a hell of an all-season tire that is usable in all weather types.

 

We absolutely love our Conti DWSs. Worth every penny. We wouldn't be ablr to enjoy our car this year if we hadn't gotten them.

Only have 3000 miles on them so far. No issues with cold, rain, pouring rain, standing water or road noise.

 

How bad will running the summer tires during the winter be if I'm careful? I live in the Seattle area, so I can get anything from snow to rain all winter. I'm getting mixed reviews on whether or not to get a winter set.

 

ranging from a little dicey to downright dangerous if anything accumulates.

 

You'll be a lot better off with the V6 than with the GT500 in the snow. If you've never driven a rear wheel drive car in the snow before, you'd definitely be better off with snow tires.

 

I've driven RWD all my driving life, it's just those tires were All Season tires. This is the first time I'v e had summer-only tires.

 

Put it this way. When temps dropped to 40 degrees and sun here, the stock neros were hard as heck, and spun pretty easily on any sort of medium throttle dab from a stop. Had to take it really easy already. It was sunny out and dry.

Imagine freezing or sub freezing temps, and snow. Or ice.

........

Marilyn is garaged for the season.

 

Don't do it!

At the very least get a decent set of all season tires, although true winter tires would be better.

 

I purchased a new set of rims and tires and shortly after I had them put on we got hit with Hurricane Sandy and then a Snow storm. I am 10000% happy with the Kumo 4X tires car pushed through the snow like a trooper.. Highly recommend having two sets of rimsw and tires..

 

get a set of winters if snow/ice is any kind of a risk. I have an AWD car that came with summers and i wouldnt chance that car on summers in the winter. I have PA3s for winter.

if you try to run summers and some snow comes down you will have the same reaction ron burgundy did when jumping into the bear pit.

 

This.. The Summer only tires as was said gets hard at under 40 Degree's. Tire Rack or Discount Tire where I purchased my set has great selections for Rims and All-Season tires to choose from. I am not sure what your current rim size is currently, Mine was 19" stock, so to get more selection and better pricing going forward I bought a extra set of 18" rims. They come complete with TPS sensors etc.. Hint: Mavis discount tire installed all my rims and tires once I received them from Discount tire for only $20.00.. The 2013 PP Mustang has no jack or tire iron so I decided it was just easier for Mavis to put them on. Hint 2: Mustang TPS sensors auto adjust in the car no need to pay for the computer to get updated.

 

As others have said, summer tires are designed for 40+ degree temps only and get dangerously hard below that. It's not so much about snow as it is temperature. However, based on this data (http://traveltips.usatoday.com/avera...ton-14723.html), Seattle's average winter temp is 36-47, which would make winter tires not the greatest either since they're not supposed to be used much when it's over 40 degrees since they can wear so quickly when warm. And since Seattle averages only 8.1 inches of snow per year, you'd likely be much better off with all-season tires.

My advice would be to switch to all-season tires on your car when you need new tires, unless you track your car or something. I have the stock all-seasons on my '11, and drive it quite hard around back roads all spring/summer/fall and don't think they're lacking in performance at all. I'm not sure what difference summer tires would do for me, other than costing a lot more up front (seems like they cost 25-30% more). You would only need one set of wheels/tires then instead of messing with two.

But what to do this winter is tough since your car is brand new. You could buy a set of all-seasons, have them mounted on your existing wheels and sell the summer ones. You could buy a separate set of wheels/all-season tires and sell your stock ones. But either way it's going to cost you a few hundred bucks.

All that said, don't risk driving on summers all winter long. You're asking for a wreck and that costs a lot more than a few hundred bucks, especially if there's another driver involved.

 

I'm paranoid now. I was planning on leaving the summer tires on the V6, driving it once a week, not driving on the highway, and taking the back roads to not exceed 45mph. Now I'm wondering...

 

Even at ~45 degrees or so, the summer Pirellis on my car were offering almost no traction on hard acceleration on dry pavement ... I was spinning in first, short-shifting into second and half-pedalling it still getting wheelspin into second ... then I gave up and drove like a normal person ... lol

I can't wait to get some good all-season tires on this car so I can drive it every day again ...

 

i got a set of the dunlop graspic ds3's from tire rack. i'm going to have them mounted next weekend on stock 18x8 gt rims. then towards spring i'll order a rim i think is better looking and have the stock pirelli's mounted on those. i have no idea about the dunlops but they were the cheapest and i just don't want to chance it with potential of snow/slush/icy roads. the one main component for me is driving style - slow slow slow.

from what i've heard, the pirelli all seasons lean a lot towards warmer weather performance. the nice thing is, i'll be able to swap out the tires/wheels without paying someone $100 and i figure i'll have a good 3 winters with the dunlops.

 

Thanks for all your help. Do you guys have suggestions in terms of All Season tires I could start looking at?