I don't know why OldFixer would think snow tires are obsolete. They're softer, and have tread designed for the purpose. If I were still driving to work I'd get studded snow tires even though I drive a vehicle that's famously good in snow.

When I first got my license I was driving a big Caddy (rear-wheel drive, of course) in NYC. After a snowstorm my friends and I thought it would be fun to go drive around in it. I spun all the way down a block. I don't think snow tires would have helped anyone driving so badly!

It scared me off winter driving for years, and it wasn't until we moved to this house that my husband taught me how to handle slippery conditions. Still, some are worse than others, and around here we have loads of hills and winding roads. I've gotten through a few situations by trying hard and being extremely lucky.

Winters can be really brutal here and I've slid off the road from icy conditions a few times. One of the worst for me was going down a slanted hill in an ice storm. I slid off the side of the road and down an embankment into a telephone pole while I was driving my 2-month old VW Jetta. At least I managed to keep from hitting it head-on! I went to a great body man -- he fixed it all *perfectly*. :)

We I was a young teenager, we lived in the mountains of western Virginia and everyone had studded tires. If you didn't have them, you weren't going to get far. Twice a year the tires had to be changed. Of course everything was rear-wheel drive then. Front wheel drive makes a big difference and I believe that studded tires are no longer legal.

We change our tires twice a year - over to snows and then over to summers. We don't get much snow in the city but we're skiers and by the beginning of November to drive the mountain passes, even if you're not going skiing, you need snows.

Even the studs can't drive with studded tires around here - have been illegal for years, since not long after they came out.

Chew the roads up too badly ... and Canadians have months of winter ... even in the so-called banana belt of Ontario, in between the Great Lakes, that gets down into the U.S. as far as Detroit and Buffalo.

I use all-season radials, year round, haven't used winter tires. A guy either needs an extra set of 4 rims ... or must pay to have the demounting done, twice a year, as the winter kind with their soft rubber wear too quickly on regular road.

But, then ... when a retired guy looks out the window at snowing and blowing ... or freezing rain, or whatever, he just says, "Oh, well ... I didn't plan/don't need to go out today, anyway".

ole joyful

I've never lived in a cold climate, so never had to use snow tires or chains or whatever, but when I learned to drive, I learned on a stick shift. Back then, more cars were standard than automatic, I think.

I am sadly going to need to give up my stick, my clutch side knee has been hit this fall with arthritis and I can't clutch comfortably now. I love the interactive driving of a standard transmission.

I live in a warm climate too, if the roads ice and freeze here, we work from home :-)

It's hard to even find a car with a stick shift any more. I had a Subaru wagon back in the 70's that had a stick shift and a lever to pull to put it in four wheel drive. That little car went through anything. Actually, it kind of went on top of anything because it wasn't very heavy. The next two cars were Accords with stick shifts. Now I have an Accord with an automatic transmission. I really am not bonding with this car. Wish I still had any of my former cars -- if they were like new! Now I just stay home if the driving is bad.

They allow studded tires in ND, as my DD has a set to get to work. Mainly because we get snow/melt/freeze then compacted snow on ice. I have all weather tires. But most of the roads here are sloped so when you do slide off, IF you are going slow enough, you just slide in without too much damage. No chains here, just nice and slow and if you don't need to be on the roads they advice stay home. But if they turn red (on the map), they shut the roads down and NOBODY is allowed on except for emergencies.

Studded tires are legal here Nov 1 - Mar 31, Washington State. I haven't had a set since about the 80's. I've driven a 4-wheel drive since then (3) and we've always kept a 4-wheel drive truck for DH's work. There are cable chains for both, rarely have we used them. I can drive just fine in snow, I'm not nearly so comfortable with ice.

I learned to drive in a Morris Minor. One of my dads rules was if you couldn't drive a stick shift, you couldn't have a license. The day I had an appointment for my driving test (on my 16th birthday), there was water in the fuel filter of the Morris and I had to test in my mothers Olds Super 88. I couldn't parallel park the Olds, but did past the test.

The first car I owned was a used VW bug (about two years later at 18), so a stick of course.

Studded tires are legal here in PA, too, during winter months--probably the same schedule as Morz8's.

I learned to drive on a stick shift too--my dad's custom Pontiac with a truck clutch. I'm sure it gave me a very strong left leg. :-)

I drive an automatic now, but my daughter loves driving her standard shift Audi.

Cars with manual transmissions aren't hard to find - a two year old car we have has one. We've always had at least one among the family's cars.

For some reason, my wife has gotten fewer tickets over the years when the car she's driven daily has had an automatic transmission.

I live in the same area as pkponder.

Years ago, I worked pretty near my job;
all I had to do was drive my little Firebird straight up a residential street in a nice old neighborhood.

It really was a nice old neighborhood;
there were 30's, 40's, & 50's houses.
There was a fire department that looked like something out of a 30's movie.
There was, in the summer, a fruit & vegetable stand.

There were about a million swoopy, dippy intersections, & there was a stop sign at every single one.

I would stop at the stop sign & start up...& falter when the dip started uphill.

After sliding back down to the stop sign about a dozen times, I finally ran the stop sign.

This happened at several intersections.

& then there was the time that I had to brake (I forget why), & the car spun 360 degrees & gently slid into the curb.

Nobody was around to help, but the snow (!) was just deep enough that I could lean on the car & push it back into the street.

(I was Woman! Hear me roar!)

When I got to the office, about an hour late, nobody was there!

It's really *flat* around Chicago -- so flat that my Providence native mother used to drive over the railroad embankments to quell her homesickness.

Regardless, our 12-cyl. Jaguars couldn't make it up a slight incline in the least bit of wet snow. Our current little X-Type has AWD and goes along like the Energizer Bunny.

I'm a capable driver -- shift or automatic. I can get out of most ruts or slides by rocking in low gear or steering into the slide, then gradually turning out of it. I don't know how much practice I'll be getting if we keep extending our stays on Maui in winter. It's the kind of practice you don't really miss!

Snow tires--Oh MY!

Anybody else remember chains that were attached to the tires when the going got rough?

That was pretty often during the Minnesota winters where I grew up.

Oh, yes. I remember tire chains -- on my mother's Nash coupe.

We recently bought new tires at Costco. They filled them with nitrogen -- something new to me. We were impressed with the quality and service as well as the price.