[noahe]

Quote:

Originally posted by coolmini
...The ABS works well in the Mini. However, it is my opinion that you should be driving slow & smooth enough so you do not have the ABS engaging. It IS possible.

I agree that it's good practice to know your car, and be able to threshold brake. If you executed a perfect threshold brake, there wouldn't be a need for the ABS to come on.

Anyone who always guns the car in the winter, and lets the ASC+T take care of excess wheel spin, then slams on the brakes, and lets ABS do it's thing, is driving on the brink of losing control.

However, please note that a fully independant ABS system, like the one in the MINI, will activate if even one wheel locks up. So if conditions are dodgy, and you're trying to stop without letting the ABS do it's thing, you'd be compromising your braking potential. In an all-out ABS stop, if you hit the pedal hard, and keep it there, the ABS will maximize braking to each individual wheel.

So, if you're slowing down on a street, give yourself room to stop, and if the ABS is cutting in, maybe you ought to start slowing earlier. But if you're already going, and the traffic light or stop sign is comming up on you, let the ABS do it's thing. The chances are better than you'll stop at the intersection, rather than in it. Then the next time, you can leave yourself a little more time to stop.

I am looking for a general consensus here, would you guys recommend getting the all season tires, and driving on those, summer and winter, or getting the performance tires, and buying a set of snow tires?

-Andrew

[stryder]

Quote:

Originally posted by L8 Apex
I am looking for a general consensus here, would you guys recommend getting the all season tires, and driving on those, summer and winter, or getting the performance tires, and buying a set of snow tires?

-Andrew

Where do you live? What car are you getting? Are you getting DSC? Do you expect to travel to anywhere snowy? (Skiing etc...)

Personally, if you expect to encounter snow with any regularity, get snow tires + extra wheels. If you look at tire wear, you're just wearing down snow tires instead of normal tires, so over the long run the cost isn't much more. Also, summer tires can be much stickier and much more fun to drive on. All allseasons compromise.

I have yet to see anyone happy with any stock tires in the snow, 'adequate' seems to be the top of the list down to awful.

[noahe]

Quote:

Originally posted by L8 Apex
I am looking for a general consensus here, would you guys recommend getting the all season tires, and driving on those, summer and winter, or getting the performance tires, and buying a set of snow tires?

-Andrew

IMHO all season tires are a terrible invention. Jack of all trades, master of none. There is almost no climate where these would be best-suited *.

They're easier, and cheaper, and that's it.

A dedicated winter tire and summer tire set-up is better and safer in every regard. If you have the money for an extra set of rims (that's really the only extra cost over all-seasons in the long run) and the patience to change them over, please do it.

* Can anyone tell me how you're supposed to drive from Canada in the winter, to Texas to visit relatives, without all season tires? Summer tires in Canada is suicide, winter tires on the highway to Texas is like burning money.

forgive me for being ignorent, but do you run snow tires all winter? or only when you know it is going to snow?

-Andrew

[ezrally]

Quote:

Originally posted by L8 Apex
forgive me for being ignorent, but do you run snow tires all winter? or only when you know it is going to snow?

-Andrew

Run em all winter- tread lightly.
The quality of snow tires these days is that they last at least a couple of seasons, even gumball Blizzaks or Nokian Qs.

[noahe]

Quote:

Originally posted by L8 Apex
forgive me for being ignorent, but do you run snow tires all winter? or only when you know it is going to snow?

-Andrew

Switch to winter tires preferably before the first snowfall and sub-zero (celcius) temperatures set in, and then back to summer tires when the ground thaws, and there's no more snow (and if there was, it'd melt).

[HarryHBMCC]

With the handling and tire wear of modern snow tires I wouldn't worry too much about taking snow tires down to Texas. That said, it IS a decent case for all-season tires, one of the few. "All-season" is really a misnomer -- no-season would be better as they are the best in no conditions though with street tires performance summers and winter tires are still rather generic compared to race/rally tires which may be changed throughout the day as situations change.

Most people who put on snows leave them on for the season. Some crazy people claim they put on studded snow tires for really bad weather but just regular snows for the rest of the winter and change them in their garage depending on the forecast. Not me!!!

Harry

[stryder]

Quote:

Originally posted by L8 Apex
forgive me for being ignorent, but do you run snow tires all winter? or only when you know it is going to snow?

The only stupid question is the one not asked and thus never answered.

Most people (I think everyone who has posted so far) put on snow tires and leave them on. The summer MINI tires for instance have a warm temp tread, which even on dry pavement in cold weather gets poor traction. Also in the northern half of the continent, it snows or ices regularly (and randomly) enough it'd be a pain to switch.

I do however know people where it snows sporadically in large piles (the east coast for instance) who just look at the weather report, and put on snows when they're expecting, (changing 4 tires isn't a very long task). Of course that necessitates having extra wheels to go with your snows.