Quote:
Originally Posted by Le Chef
My wife has an aging mother who lives about 6 hours north from Chicago in deepest darkest Michigan. If she needs to travel on her own up there for an emergency in the dead of winter I'm more than happy to have paid for the winter wheel and tire set for her and my peace of mind.
I've spent the last 10 years putting winter wheels and tires on 911's and being easily capable of driving around the outside of slithering SUV's mounted with all season tires in icy and snowy conditions. It's a matter of what you personally believe is important and whether you can see a return on that expenditure.
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Yours is an argument I can agree with almost entirely. Safety of family and friends is without question a huge priority. I do, however, feel so inclined to remind you that a person's inability to shell out cash for something is not their rejection of soundness of such an argument.
If I personally believe that snow tires are important and I can and have seen it as a viable expenditure, that does not mean I can automatically place it into my budget notwithstanding of my other financial responsibilities. I would so much rather
not take the risk of going snow tire-
less, but I also remember that I chose snow tires on my last car because it was a low-to-the-ground station wagon that came with much lower profile summer performance tires, and this is an SUV with at least 75% more ground clearance and all season tires. I'll agree--the difference between snow tires and all seasons is not negligible, but in snowy, urban and suburban locales, you'd have to be a complete ignoramus to let yourself spin wildly out of control with all seasons on a continuously adaptive, AWD-equipped SUV (unless, of course, you find yourself staring at the car you're about to hit with a questionable amount of time to steer yourself to safety--but that's a different discussion). I personally believe that those idiots shouldn't drive cars as nice as these, but I am comforted by the notion that natural selection is a self-fulfilling prophecy I can trust.
And if any of you feel uncomfortable driving in certain conditions, remember that you can elect to leave your car in the garage until conditions clear. Nobody is forcing you to drive your car; it is expensive and, more importantly, the people with you are invaluable.
No disrespect, by the way. I completely agree with you, Le Chef, but I wanted to bring that to the attention of this thread. You are not the only one who has made that claim, and I understand what you're getting at.