hey guys. i have a slight problem. in short, the gf has southern tires. thats the obvious culprit given everyone drives civics here and hers is the only one that wont drive right.

anyway, her car has super hard tires with about a million siphons on them. the traction is so terrible that you can literally set the parking brake, put it in drive and get out of the car and watch the front tires just spin all day at idle on ice.

this problem is so bad that i was attempting to stop from 30mph with about a block of space to stop in and still overshot it. not sure if it was the tires or the crappy abs system in this car, but either way its a problem. another problem i had, on the same day in the same half inch of snow, was when i hit a very modest incline. the type of hill they generally have to go over a highway. it was about maybe a 1/4 mile up the hill, i started at the bottom at about 45mph and about half way up i was at the point i had to let off the throttle so much to keep the tires from spinning that it wouldnt move. in order to get it up the rest of the way i literally had to turn around and go up in reverse.

so far, i have lowered the tire pressure to 15psi with the tires almost on the side wall and still have had no luck. i know i need to buy new tires for that car but its not in the budget right now.


being that the tires themselves are not much wider than the donut in the trunk of my buick, im thinking maybe wider junkyard rims/tires for the front. what i need to know though is how to measure to figure out if it will rub or not. im not sure what to do as far as compensating for backspacing and all that fun stuff.

any other tips are greatly appreciated. no problems with fishtailing or anything like that because the car is pretty well balanced being a coupe, so i dont have the rear end slowing me down with sandbags or anything.

theyre bf goodrich touring t/a tires (no i didnt buy em, im a Michelin man)

the ratings seem to be good on most sites, yet somehow almost all the reviews suck.

i have these on my 2004 bmw 325ci i just bought recently and they are brand new and WOULD NOT RECOMMEND FOR ANYTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH SNOW OR ICE even with traction control they are a NIGHTMARE to control, everything else so far seem to be ok, but as an all season tire i would recommend a winter tire and keep the all season for spring/summer/fall only

Second worst tires I have ever encountered, only second worst to the old Firestone 500s. Poor traction in all conditions, dangerous in the winter, extremely noisy. Kept them on the car until I wore them out at 60,000 KM. When removed all 4 had a split on the inside rubber sidewall that went almost entirely around the tire. I never rotated them as I was not interested and making them last any longer than I had to.

thanks again!

You don't want wider tires for snow / winter traction, they will only make handling worse. If you already lowered the pressure then I really can't think of anything else to help with those tires, although I think 15 PSI is a bit too low, I would try maybe 23-25 PSI.

If you can't afford new, what about used snow tires? Check craigslist out for stock size snow tires you may find some deals on there, and if not look into some Firestone Winterforce snow tires as they are about the cheapest out there but still will greatly improve winter traction over even a very good all season.

i agree 15 is too low for a radial, and wider is not better. one of the best cars i ever had in the snow was a 86 escort coupe with bicycle narrow full snows and a 4spd. that thing would literally plow snow with the bumper, being a winter beater i tried several times and almost never got stuck even going down unplowed seasonal hwy.

as far as all seasons, thats all i use now. bfg is the only thing i would spend money on, traction t/a is what you want though the touring ones are summer highway use only. ive had probably ten sets of these and always amaze me in the snow and ice and are quiet and fuel efficient in the summer. the only other one i bought this last time for my bonnie i had to get advantage t/a but the softer spec there is two, a 50k and 60 or 65 but the 50 has better traction and its doing fine so far. i still want the traction t/a'* though im going to find a different place to get them

thanks for the tips guys. just found out the gf will be going to chicago twice a week for her job so ive gotta hop on this before the storms get bad.

Might try going to Tirerack (you can do a local pickup) and punch in the model year and see what Tirerack suggests as a winter tire.

I wonder if any of the tires shop do 12 monthly payments with credit card or?
All I know is....if the weather is bad the tires better be good!
No sense in risking any type of collision !!!!

Short term would be tire chains.

I learned proper drift techniques and got myself out of some slippery situations lmao

Ditto, I steer with the back tires more than the front tires in the winter myself lol.

In all seriousness though pick up a set of used or cheap new winter tires, they are a must for driving in snow if you want decent traction. Those BFG'* are as hard as a rock, couldn't imagine trying to drive with those in the winter!

they do ok but im not running them real hard truck likes to kick sideways alot anyway though