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Who is riding with winter tires?

7K views 17 replies 15 participants last post by  Goaterguy 
#1 ·
I have a job position I will more than likely be taking in Wyoming and I'm wondering how the car handles in the snow and what type of winter tires northerner drivers are using.
 
#2 ·
Not on the 124, but I have been using Firestone Winterforce on my Dodge Magnum for about 6 or 7 winters now, I'm on my 3rd set. While the Magnum is not the same car, it is RWD and the snow tires are 215/65R17, then summer I run Hankook Ventus V12 Evo 245/45R20. While I can not comment specifically how the FIAT handles in the snow, I would not consider daily driving any car without snow tires in Wisconsin winters.

You will be buying twice the tries half as often, but if you time it out well you will never need to by 8 tires in a 12 month period. Hopefully someone will chime in with ABARTH specific experiences, but I would 100% recommend a snow tire.

One last parting piece, if you're worried about cost of snow tires: I can almost guarantee that the cheapest snow tires will handle better then any all season tire, and definitely better then the performance Bridgestone's that come OE.
 
#3 ·
Can't comment on the FIAT specificially, but I run Bridgestone Blizzaks on my Mazda RX-8 (RWD) and the car is drivable in all conditions. I got cheap rims and tire package from Tire Rack. They reccomend going with a narrower tire and rim, which is good as it makes it less expensive. The rims actually look pretty good and cut in 1/2 the curb rash and wear you'll get on your regular rims. Just do not run the Blizzaks on non-snow/ice conditions as I believe they use a very temp sensitive softer upper layer of rubber on the top half of tire and at 1/2 life the extra grip they offer is diminished. I made the mistake of running them into April and burned then up with a couple long trips. Check TireRack and/or consumer reports. Also look into the downsizing. If you don't downsize, and you get decent looing rims, they can become a spare set of summer rims.
 
#4 ·
I have a full set of Blizzacks on my Abarth 124. Love'em. They are grippy on snow and acceptable on ice(no tire is even good). The only thing it took a little getting used to is that since they do flex, the traction control light does come on under heavy acceleration.
 
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#9 ·
I'm actually going to be trading this car for an Elise or a 4C eventually. I like it, but I just need something faster haha. In the meantime, going into Wyoming next month, I'm somewhat nervous of snowfalls still catching me and not being able to drive or worse, getting stuck.
 
#13 ·
No experience with the Spider, but I’ve ran Blizzak’s in winter on numerous cars since the mid 90’s. Make a “poor” traction car handle well and make an AWD car a tank. Highly recommend. They are strictly a “cold weather” tire, once the temps get down where they are consistently below 55 I put them on, when it goes above that I take them off. In Michigan and Iowa I was usually October to early April, here in the Bluegrass it’s usually the end of November till March. Really don’t need them here most times, but all our family is now on the eastern side of the Appalacian’s and if we need to get to them in an emergency I don’t want to worry about it. My wife’s Touareg awd is extremely competent regardless of road conditions when running the Blizzak’s.
 
#14 ·
No experience with the Spider, but I’ve ran Blizzak’s in winter on numerous cars since the mid 90’s. Make a “poor” traction car handle well and make an AWD car a tank. Highly recommend. They are strictly a “cold weather” tire, once the temps get down where they are consistently below 55 I put them on, when it goes above that I take them off. In Michigan and Iowa I was usually October to early April, here in the Bluegrass it’s usually the end of November till March. Really don’t need them here most times, but all our family is now on the eastern side of the Appalacian’s and if we need to get to them in an emergency I don’t want to worry about it. My wife’s Touareg awd is extremely competent regardless of road conditions when running the Blizzak’s.
 
#17 ·
I put on a set of 195/50R16 Pirelli Snowcontrol Serie 3 on my Classica to be able to drive the car at all in the Minnesota winters... so far I'm a fan of the traction on snow and they're pretty grippy on dry asphalt too, and they do pretty well on ice for not being studded -- although when it's really icy, I tend to start in 2nd and take it slow just in case, otherwise I run the risk of having the rear swing a bit when I'm overzealous with the throttle. First winter driving a rear-wheel drive car as well as one with this much torque (only driven econoboxes prior), so this'll be fun.
 
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