In the old days, Dad put two snow tires on the rear end of his Plymouth Belvedere and drive through places the dog sleds wouldn’t go. Now, everyone insists I need four $180 Finnish space program, computer assisted snow tires on my Honda Accord? Sure, the Accord goes great on snow, but is a thrill ride in slush (probably the tires) Do I really need four snow tires?
FWD means four winter tires otherwise your car will spin out very easily stopping since the front end will stop much quicker than the rear and tend to spin out.
RWD you can use two winters but you don’t have as great of control stopping and turning as four.
Plus, the Plymouth Belvedere’s left lugnut weighs almost as much as your whole Accord. There’s something to be said for plowing through snow with 2.5 tons of inertia backing you up.
Snow tires won’t help much on slush. Snow tires use snow to prevent the tires from sliding around by wedging snow up at the squared tires edges to prevent sideways motion. It does work. If you are allowed in your state or province to add studded tires you should winterize your tires accordingly.
But while driving in slush, don’t expect much help from these specialized tires. Your best defense in slush is to just to travel as straight as possible without braking, accelerating or rapidly reducing speeds.
Yep, 4 are the way to go, with 2 you’d have to put them on the back or have very dangerous handling, and 2 on the back of your Accord won’t do much good for acceleration or steering. Check out Tirerack.com, I bet you can get them for much less than 180 each, even mounted on rims (the best way to go).
Almost - tires+steel wheels, mounted, balanced, and delivered is $730.
Watch the video and decide for yourself
It is really amazing how much better the car steers and stops with 4 snow tires on it compared to all season. All season tires are best for no season. Studs are fantastic on ice, but cut traction on dry road a little. It is a good trade-off in the winter. The biggest problem with winter tires for a lot of people is finding a place to store them.
I’m not a big fan of snow tires. I drive a lot of slush in New England. Heres why. The soft tread that gets more traction on the snow tire leads to sloppy handleing. The tire tries to put a tread down by being flexible. I use all seasons with the best snow rating. It is a predictable and steady feeling tire. Snows without studs are a bit soft and unresponsive. Just my two. BTW yes all four. For me it is all season.
Are 4 winter tires BEST for winter conditions? Yes. The problem is, of course, the added expense and nuisance of buying an extra set of tires and changing them twice per year.
But your real question is, not what is BEST for your situation, but what is GOOD ENOUGH. And only you can decide what is GOOD ENOUGH for your situation. However, I believe you would find that a set of 4 top rated all-season tires would be GOOD ENOUGH.
For example, Goodyear Assurance Triple-Treds are all-season tires that do well in winter conditions. Take a look at www.tirerack.com and do some research using the customer surveys.
In the old days cars didn’t handle very well compared to todays cars so people either learned to sense what their car was doing in the snow or simply didn’t drive when the weather was bad. Snow tires on the rear helped keep you from getting stuck and the rest was up to your skill level. Getting through was good enough, no one hurried in the winter.
Today we have expressway driving and almost no one learn winter driving,they all buy suvs and use 4 winter tires and still wind up against the guard rail.
I live in a suburb of Buffalo NY and have snow tires in almost 40 years and have never had 4wheel drive or all wheel drive yet I am still the one that gets called to get someone in bad weather.
You beat me to it!
Here is the same video embedded for easier access:
When I was growing up in Buffalo, my father always had four good snow tires mounted on an extra set of steel rims. He would change them out himself every fall and spring. If I lived up north, I would definitely follow his example, especially since winter tire technology has improved over the years.
Dad’s Belvedere would have stopped and steered much better with 4 snow tires. Your Honda is a different animal, with FWD and ABS brakes 4 winter tires are needed.
Since you probably can’t find an old Belevdere to duplicate dad’s car you can buy a Chrysler 300, or Ford Crown Vic and put winter tires on the rear. 4 would be better but 2 on a RWD car can work. You might have to deactivate the traction control and ABS systems to really duplicated the winter driving experience.
You Probably Don’t Need Snow Tires At All (". . . the Accord goes great on snow . . . "), But More Information Is Needed And Not Provided.
How old are the current tires ?
How many miles on the current tires ?
What brand / model are the tires ?
Some tires are poor at displacing water (or slush) or the tires simply may be worn too much. We run all-season, M&S year-around on our vehicles in really extreme weather and don’t have a problem with water or slush. You may just need new all-season, M&S tires.
Just curious, what model-year is this Honda ? How much does it weigh, do you know ?
CSA
CSA,
As true as that may be that some all season tires are pretty good in snow, and that his Accord might be a decent snow car with decent all season tires on it, you don’t know this person’s ability to actually drive in the snow.
Since they are asking the question, we should assume that they are not going to be as experienced or as confident as the majority of those who are replying to the thread, saying that all season tires are their preferred tire choice, because they have never needed them in the past, and they are better drivers than everyone else because of it.
Since they are asking the question, we should respect their ability to say to the world that they aren’t as confident as they should be behind the wheel, and need some help.
Regardless of anything else, I’d like to point out that now that my Altima has better all season tires on it, it is now finally acceptable in the snow. But that doesn’t mean for a moment that if someone handed me a set of Blizzak’s or X-Ice tires, that I wouldn’t rip off my Assurance TripleTred’s in a New York Minute.
Good snow tires are better in snow, slush, and ice conditions than even the very best all season tires. Period.
BC.
There’s something to be said for plowing through snow with 2.5 tons of inertia backing you up. Until you need to stop that 2.5 tons. ?
I’m not a big fan of snow tires. I drive a lot of slush in New England. Heres why. The soft tread
Modern winter tyres are far different than snow tyres were just a few years ago.
Good quality winter tires do help significantly on slush.
Maybe snow tires don’t work well though.
I have owned the real high quality Nokian WR G2’s which are winter biased tires that are absolutely incredible on slush, rain. I think it comes down to the design.
I think he is referring to Nokian in
$180 Finnish space program, computer assisted
as Nokian tires are made in Finland.
Note I didn’t say WHAT could be said about that 2.5 tons 
They make a great tire IMHO for New England slush Nokian WR G2 and great handling. An all-seasons also rated as winter tire. I use them year round on my wife’s Subaru.