Winter and all of the snow, ice, and cold that goes along with is officially here and wreaking havoc on parts of the country.
Now, everyone knows that winter tires will make your ride safer when driving through everything that mother nature throws at us during these cold months. However, for some reason, a lot of people wait until the first major snowstorm to get snow tires – or worse yet – do not get them at all.
Now, if you ask someone who drives with winter tires each year they will be able to tell you what a big difference that they can make in terms of grip, traction, and handling. They will also be able to tell you that winter tires quickly pay for themselves. Just wait until the first time you stop clear of an accident, as opposed to sliding right into one.
Here are a few other major benefits that you can expect when you install a set of winter tires.
There is No Compromising
Unlike other tires, winter tires have both a flexible rubber compound as well as a specialized tread design that is made specifically for use on snow, slush, and ice and in cold temperatures. They offer no compromises made for other seasons. This means that drivers will benefit from significantly increased traction when picking up speed, as well as impressively shorter stopping distances, and a drastic increase in directional stability at speed.
Winter Tires Offer Maximized All Wheel Drive performance
All Wheel Drive (AWD) is an absolute favourite piece of hardware for many Canadian shoppers in a variety of vehicle types. The newest car models have more precise and fast-acting all-wheel-drive systems than ever. Regardless of whether you drive a Subaru, Ford, Acura Hyundai or Mitsubishi, your car’s all-wheel-drive system reacts within a millisecond precision to low-traction situations in order to keep you and your loved ones safe by assisting you in maintaining vehicle control.
Winter Tires Offer Longer Tire Life
It should go without really saying, but changing to a set of winter tires will easily extend the life of your all-season tires. Changing them up can help offset the overall up-front cost of your winter tires.
Winter Tires Provide an Enhanced Safety System Functionality
There has never been a time before now where automobiles themselves were designed to be safer than they are now. Today, thanks to recently developed highly advanced stability control systems, as well as amazing braking control systems and even hazard-detection features like pre-collision auto-braking are becoming increasingly common.
It is important that drivers who do not think that swapping their all-season tires for winter tires is a necessary step in protecting their loved ones understand that other features like anti-lock brakes, electronic brake-force distribution, traction assist, and stability control systems do not make traction. All they do is help to maximize the use of traction that is already available (through tires). Therefore, these features are only as effective as the tires you put on your car.
At Central Driving School, our instructors are trained professionals and are adept at training you with the best driving practices so that you can drive confidently and safely in all weather. If you are not confident in driving on snow, Contact our professionals for assistance. We are located in Edmonton, Alberta.