Our Subarus and Snow Tires.

Yes, you own a Subaru, or you are thinking about owning a Subaru, right? You have fantastic taste in automobiles! Winter is right around the corner and we live in central PA, so one can argue that you have, arguably, the best vehicle for the next four months you could possibly have.

But....while the Subaru engineers perform wizardry with their AWD system, it ultimately starts with traction, and that is literally where the rubber meets the road...as in tires.

Virtually all car manufacturers choose an all-season tire to equip their vehicles. These tires are adequate to use all year around in rain, light snow, hot summer heat and everything in between. However if there is one figure of speech that could best describe all-season tires, its, "Jack of All Trades-Master of None". Tire performance is based off of many different criteria and it is just impossible to compose an all-season tire to handle as well in the summer as a true summer tire or deal with ice, slush, snow, and arctic-like temperatures in the winter as a true winter tire. Impossible. With a true summer tire, while offering superior traction and handling characteristics over an all-season tire, its benefits are not so apparent to most of the driving masses and are usually reserved for performance cars. But a true winter tire's benefits can be seen by anyone who has driven a car through a central PA winter. The problem? Most drivers have never done so. All-season tires have gotten them by...until they don't.

When many think of winter tires, they think of big, hunky, tires on the rear wheels of most cars from the 50's and 60's when there was snow on the ground from November until April. But, as virtually everything has changed in the last 60 years, so have snow tires. Front-wheel drive's popularity rise in the 70's and 80's and the convenience of only having to use one set of tires all year long had hid snow tires in our memory in the category of  "things our grandparents used" next to wash boards and black and white TVs. The truth is winter tires have made huge advances in technology over the last few decades. They are quieter, handle, and perform better than ever before. Thankfully, more and more drivers are becoming educated on the importance of winter tires, whether they are going on a front, rear, or all wheel drive vehicle.

A General Altimax Artic(Left) next to the OEM Dunlop
summer tire(Right) from a 2015 WRX

A winter tire's magic lies in it's compound. There are plenty of sites that go into great scientific detail about what makes a winter tire a winter tire, but we are going to make a very long story short(er). As the temperatures fall in the 40's and below, the rubber compound in your tire begins to harden. The colder the temps drop the harder the tire gets. As your tire hardens, it's ability to "stick" and conform to the road decreases greatly and you ultimately begin to lose traction. Now, throw in some snow and your loss of traction becomes amplified until your Subaru, no matter how fantastic it is, is unable to accelerate, turn, or slow down and stop. In fact, it's isn't just snow that is a danger. A cold November rain with temperatures hovering around freezing can be equally as troublesome as your all-season tires continue to harden into hockey pucks. As previously mentioned, winter tires will stay softer longer in sub-freezing temperatures and continue to maintain traction when you need it most. The tread patterns are also designed for snow/slush and channeling water away, which is extremely important because with all of the plows and salt agents that PennDot uses in our area, we actually spend much more time driving on wet, slushy roads in the winter than we do on completely snow covered roads. The tire companies know this and design their tires accordingly. Simply stated, a proper winter tire will enhance every single drivetrain safety feature of your Subaru, from the anti-lock brakes, to the all wheel drive system, to the precise handling, all to keep you and your family safer.

A Subaru Forester on a dedicated winter wheel/tire combo(photo courtesy of subaruforester.org)

All that being said, there are a few drawbacks to winter tires. You cannot drive them all year long. I mean, you could, but due to their softer compounds, they would wear very very quickly in the summer months. They would not handle as well or be quite as quiet as your normal all-season tires. So, with that, you have two options: 1. Have your winter tires mounted every November and unmounted come spring time, or 2. Purchase your winter tires already mounted and balanced on dedicated "winter" wheels(as shown above), then just swap the wheels out come fall and spring. Both are added expenses, but since you will be using winter tires for 5 months out of the year, your normal summer or all-season tires will last twice as long! If you currently own a 2011 or newer WRX or any WRX STi, they came equipped with summer-only tires which, to put it bluntly, are absolutely dangerous to drive in winter conditions and would be a mistake if dedicated winter tires are not used in their place.

In the end, it comes down to how much driving you do during our winter months and how confident you are in your current tires abilities to give you the best and safest option of getting you where you need to go this winter. But, I can say from personal experience, it only takes one time of all-season tires not being able to perform as they should to realize just how fantastic a true winter tire works on your Subaru to make any drawbacks seem incredibly irrelevant.

Contact your local Subaru parts department for more information on purchasing and installing winter tires. Many of the Subaru dealerships also work with bigger tire suppliers such as Tire Rack( www.tirerack.com ) so if you should find a tire you like, chances are your Subaru dealer can get it for you. Expect to pay around $130-$150 a tire plus installation costs. But when you spread the cost over the life of the tires, it is a very small price to pay for the added safety and security your Subaru and your winter tires will now give you and your family this season!

Stay connected with other Subaru owners and dealerships in central PA at Subaru Fans of Central PA on Facebook!