bea@alice.UucP (Bea Chambers) (01/03/86)
We put 2 snowtires on the front of our 1st front-wheel drive car (81 Datsun 310GX) A few years later, we bought a Honda Civic front wheel drive and the owners manual claimed 2 snow tires were a bad idea and would mess up the handling of the car. They suggested 4 snow tires. Is this really true? Or is Honda drumming up tire business? We now have 4 all-weather tires on the Honda and it does handle somewhat better on snow than the Datsun. But is that because of the tires or just 2 different cars?
wjh@bonnie.UUCP (Bill Hery) (01/06/86)
> We put 2 snowtires on the front of our 1st front-wheel drive car (81 Datsun 310GX) > A few years later, we bought a Honda Civic front wheel drive and the owners > manual claimed 2 snow tires were a bad idea and would mess up the handling > of the car. They suggested 4 snow tires. Is this really true? Or is Honda > drumming up tire business? We now have 4 all-weather tires on the Honda and > it does handle somewhat better on snow than the Datsun. But is that because of > the tires or just 2 different cars? 4 snows is definitely a good idea. The improvement in handling will be noticed primarily in an emergency: without snows in the rear, the rear end will skid out more easily on a turn in the snow; with snows in the front, the improved traction there will tend to get going in whatever direction the front wheels are pointing in, which might well be perpendicular to the road after the rear end has started slipping. Net result: going straight across oncoming traffic on a left turn, or straight off the road on a right turn. This effect is even more severe with studded snows. If you keep the car for several years, the second pair of snows will just save wear on your regular tires; with front to back rotation of the snows, you also might save having to buy another set of snow for the front a few years down the road (the front tires wear much more quickly on a FWD car). The net effect is that the biggest expense is the extra pair of rims. Unfortunately, I speak from experience. I chose to ignore the advise of the tire shop and just get two snows for my Accord. As soon as I got the car back from the body shop, I got two more.