My lesson in the importance of winter tires came when I was in my early 20s and didn't think I could afford them. I was driving a Hyundai Accent a couple hours after a storm on a road that hadn't really been ploughed yet. Just driving in a straight line at low speed, nothing more than the angle of the road made the front tires let go. I spun across four lanes and ended up in someone's driveway, somehow not hitting anyone.
I bought winter tires the next day. After that the little Hyundai went from hopeless at the slightest hint of snow to handling the worst winter could throw at it like a champ. The difference really is like night and day.
In a country with winters like ours, it's almost criminal that we rely so much on driving. We easily have the worst passenger rail of any northern country.
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Originally Posted by manny_santos
Were winter tires just never a thing prior to this century? Yearly tire changeovers were just not something my family ever bothered with, despite living in the Snowbelt - and to this day they still do not change tires over as they just don't see the need when their tires are for "all seasons". I know it's only within the past 5-7 years that auto insurance discounts were offered in Ontario for having winter tires.
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I distinctly remember my dad changing the tires every spring and fall when I was a kid.