Snow tires or All seasons? Daily Driven ND1 RF

I live in Western NC where we do get snow a few times a year, but I have my Land Cruiser to drive if snow is forecast.  Usually we get 30+ degree swings in temps in the spring/fall and in the winter 15-20 degree swings around freezing.  The ND has the factory Bridgestone Potenza S001's on it.  I am thinking of getting either  a set of snows or replacing the Potenza's with all seasons like the Pilot Sport A/S 3+  later this year.  I am on track to put 25-30k miles on the car this year so the Potenzas will be nearing the end of their life anyway.

It just sees some spirited driving along with my normal 80 mile daily commute. No autox or track stuff.

What is the Hiveminds opinions?

Pic of daily

Summer tires all the time!

In all seriousness, the traction/stability control on the car is fantastic. If you can keep out of actual snow on the roads then a good non-summer tire that can deal with the temps would be my recommendarion. 

Normally, I would't run all-season (a.k.a., "no-season") tires because they kind of suck all around. Here in the northeast, I run performance tires in the summer and true winter/snow tires in the winter.

But in your case it doesn't sound like you'll ever drive in snow. And temps probably won't ever get so low that you'll really benefit from the softer compound. So, a true winter/snow tire probably doesn't make much sense for your use.

I ran Continental DWs on my E46 for about 10 months out of the year here in Delaware.  They were grippy and good-driving in summer, but didn't get grouchy when the temperature was in the 30s.  They were fantastic in the rain and wore pretty well, too.  If you live where the car doesn't really have to see snow, I'd get something like that and enjoy driving year round.

I say, "Lick the stamp and send it."

I never took the winter tires off my Miata, Mustang GT, BRZ (on Z3 Star Specs) and the BRZ even went through the light snow/slush a few times.

Sure, summer tires aren't going to grip as well when it's cold..........but that also makes a bit more fun. 

I live in PA and I don't do snow tires.  If I get a foot of snow, I'll take the 4x4.  The Impala SS has Kumho Ecsta tires that are listed as High Performance All-Season, but I've had Pirelli summer-only tires on it for a couple winters.  It sucked in the snow, but I didn't die.  There was really only one day I wish I had snow tires that I can recall, which means it certainly wasn't worth the expense and effort to get dedicated tires.

I would imagine with the minimal snow you get (comparatively) I don't think snow tires would be a worthwhile investment, especially since you have a more capable vehicle on hand if things get snotty.

If you're replacing them anyway, I might consider some UHP-4 type tires.  The ones I've had seem to be miles better in wet and light snow and only give up a wee bit of peak grip.

Of course... my UHP car is a behemoth American RWD, not a Miata, so maybe I would notice a big performance difference in a car like yours.

I'm a little confused as to why snow tires are even being discussed if you have no real plans to drive it when there is a possibility of snow and/or ice accumulation. In that case, I would even be ignoring the snow/ice performance ratings of all-season tires.

Easy button: Get the A/S 3+ and call it a day.

I run snows on the Miata in the winter, even though we rarely get snow and I have access to other vehicles. That lets me run better tires in the summer with no worries about what happens below freezing. If you're racking up the miles, the only cost is an extra set of wheels as your tire wear will be shared across both sets. 

I run some sort of Michelin all-season on the M5. It's been through some mountain surprises. Not gracefully, but with some snow experience I got through it.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Grand Junction CO is also significantly colder for longer in the winter than Ashville NC, giving more actual benefit to the winter tire compounds.

Driven5 said:

I'm a little confused as to why snow tires are even being discussed if you have no real plans to drive it when there is a possibility of snow and/or ice accumulation.

Winters tires aren't only for snow. They also remain supple in cold temperatures, whereas high-performance summer tires turn to hockey pucks in subfreezing temps. If you live somewhere with cold winters (regardless of snow) you'll generally have better grip with modern winter tires.

In reply to LanEvo :

Agreed...See my second post.

Keith Tanner said:

If you're racking up the miles, the only cost is an extra set of wheels as your tire wear will be shared across both sets.

That's been my experience as well. With separate wheels/tires for the summer and winter months, you get a lot more life out of both sets. So, performance is better all year, and it doesn't even cost significantly more since tire life shoots up. Makes sense to me.

I'll also add that older "Snow" tires that I remember from my early driving days ('80s and '90s) were pretty crappy on dry roads. The squishy sidewalls would make the car feel loose and weird at highway speeds. Cornering and braking sucked. The treads would wear out and chunk off. And they were loud as all hell. Unless you were actually crawling around in deep snow, they didn't make a lot of sense.

But modern winter tires are pretty amazing. You can drive a modern sports sedan at highway speeds and barely feel any difference compared to a good all-season tire. Good grip. Good feedback. Not much noise. It's a very different game now.

Driven5 said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Grand Junction CO is also significantly colder for longer in the winter than Ashville NC, giving more actual benefit to the winter tire compounds.

The original post quotes "10-15 degree swings around freezing". That means that it gets down into the teens. I may still do the same thing, if it means I don't have to run all-seasons on my sports car in July and I can drive my sports car in January.

I feel like this thread is mostly just an excuse to post pictures of ND RFs.

And I am not disappointed. 

Oh, if we're doing that - here's the one I took on a mid-week road trip last week.

LanEvo said:

 

Winters tires aren't only for snow. They also remain supple in cold temperatures, whereas high-performance summer tires turn to hockey pucks in subfreezing temps. If you live somewhere with cold winters (regardless of snow) you'll generally have better grip with modern winter tires.

Came here to say this, left satisfied.

Even all season tires are going to be harder than winter tires at freezing temps.

And because we haven't had enough butt shots. These are not all-season tires :) Also not off-road tires.

Not an RF, but this was not the best choice of tires for this trip. Still, beats driving a boring car.

Ah nuts. Snow tires would have been a lot better.

Now I'm just posting pictures of Miatas in the snow because it's fun and I think MrChaos has had good feedback by this point :) All of these have snow tires...

And this was my first Miata, the first time it went home to visit my parents over 26 years ago. I think I'd owned it for a couple of months by this point. Still own the car...

LanEvo said:

Normally, I would't run all-season (a.k.a., "no-season") tires because they kind of suck all around. Here in the northeast, I run performance tires in the summer and true winter/snow tires in the winter.

But in your case it doesn't sound like you'll ever drive in snow. And temps probably won't ever get so low that you'll really benefit from the softer compound. So, a true winter/snow tire probably doesn't make much sense for your use.

Second.

And I'm the guy who lifes out winter tires before they are worn...

This seems settled, but Ill comment anyway, as I have an nd with 4 ets of wheels. No, its not an addiction, I can quit buying wheels anytime, its totally under control. 

1. We mostly run 2, summer and snow. The stock all seasons and race tires seldom get used. 

2. Stay with 17's for snow tires. I thought 16's would be better with more meat, but they just feel like jelly. 

3. I switch from summer wheels to winter when the temp drops below 40 for extended periods. The extra compliance is nice, when the summers would be rocks. If it goes above 45, swap back. 

4. Even with the great traction control, and 16" blizzaks, a heavy storm can still be too much for a miata. At least once (in the mountains of colorado) I had to park and drive the truck. Where an fwd would have been difficult, the nd was constantly trying to swap ends going down hills. Balancing the front-biased brakes with engine braking seemed the best approach. That said, the snow tires make it possible, while all seasons would have stranded me. 

5. If you don't expect a suprise whiteout blizzard diring your commute, all seasons with some tire socks in the trunk would be more than enough to get you home.

Pic with 16" winter wheels, still looks nice with all that sidewall.