Here is my experience with the potenza re92. I had them OEM in my 95 Civic EX Coupe. Got 75K mikes out of the re92s which handled well in all conditions. At 75K miles I put on a set of Dunlop D60/A2s, next snow fall with about 2" of snow on the ground and tried to make a right turn the re92 would handle confortably and ka-blam, there goes the chin spoiler which I dragged all the way home... Every review I had read about the Dunlops said they were great in the snow!

Fast forward about 5 years. 01 Max SE, OEM re92s w/ about 40K miles. I knew the capabilities of the car/tire combo and driving extremely cautiosly on about 2" of snow I could not manage a left turn at 10 mph (the ABS doesn't even kick in at those speeds). Luckily there was no damage this time, except for a bruiced ego as the guy in the RWD 323 behind me laughed as he made the turn (he didn't have snows as far as I could see).

Moral of the story, different cars handle tires different.

 

pretty decent. On my way to vegas from socal it started to snow. Never in my life have i drivin in snow but since i got my falken 512's, i was very confident. It didnt snow a lot but was enough to make other drivers spin out and a lot of trucks to jack knife. Well, it was a lot because the highway patrol in california shut down southbound 15, the only freeway that goes directly to san diego from las vegas. But also, a lot of the crashes had to do with the fact that SoCal drivers can't drive in anything else other than Dry weather.

 

the max sucks in the snow, hands down, whatever tires you have. Tires make it better, but still intolerable. I must drive in the snow to get to work and all, but once it gets ****ty, which for the max is like slight dusting, out comes the winter war wagon: 84 toronado 307 haha. It's like pikes peak going to work. Do yourself a favour and get a beater.

 

when i had the potenza's on the car it was terrable!! we thought of trading in the car. spoke to the dealer and had 235/45/17 Nokian Hakawhatevers put on the car.... i can honestly say it is now the best car i have ever driven in the snow. i now have Conti Extreme Contacts and they are great as well. we had a decent amount of snow this week and i decided to go and test them in a old parking lot...

it was honestly pretty hard to get them to drift... i had to speed the car up to 50mph and rip the e-brake and that only got it to drift for a short amount of time.

my 2003 Saab 9-3 Vector is terrable!! even with snow tires it sucks. i think it is too low.... the Vector has two models in 2003, later in the year, they revamped the suspension and dropped it some more. with the chin spoiler it feels like i am doing free plowing work for the state.

 

Do 2K2 SE Maxima's come with standard traction control?

 

<---- Commutes daily by train.

Interesting thread. I've only been in the snow once with my Maxima (back during the RE92 days, about 2 years ago).

 

No, it's an option on auto maximas.

smx95- yes, a lot of us here have the habit of dangling the flag in the rearview. hehe

 

my car isnt too bad. i have turanzas on it. the two front ones are new and the rears are worn a good bit. my only problem is getting it going when there is a ton of snow. we had about 3 ft + in a weeks time and the car drove fine. it was just starting off from a dead stop that it didnt like. rwd cars were getting pissed and going around me cause it would take me forever to get up to speed. after i got goin i could drive fine. no problems stopping or turning. though that was with one total bald front tire. ive since had that replaced, but we havnet had much snow

 

I took my car out a few days ago, and tried getting up my gf's driveway. It took me 5 mins to get up that damn thing. The second my tires touched the snow, they were like "nope, you're not going anywhere".

 

This thread is about driving in SNOW, and only about 2 posters have mentiond "SNOW TIRES"! "Good all-season" is not equal to any snow tire, period. Put it this way: a cheap snow tire is better than any all season tire in winter. I used to feel the same way as you guys about all season's until one day on the highway during a snowstorm. My "good all-season" gave away when the inside of the front tire caught a rut and the back end of my '95 snapped around. I hit the guardrail with the driver's side bumper pretty good, but was lucky that was all that happened. I can't imagine you 3.5 guys on potenza's, guess you like that white-knucklefeeling

What I did after that guardrail incident was go out and buy Nokian WR tires. They are the only "ALL-Weather" tire rated for snow use in Canada. I've used them year-round and now on my second set. They are great in snow/slush/deep standing water, but not as good on ice as pure-blooded Nokian snow tires. They've worked great for me so far.

Another way to think of getting snow's is that you can get some cheap 15 or 16 (3.5 owners) steel wheels with dedicated snow tires for winter and save your all seasons for summer. The initial cost is out-weighed by the fact that you save wear on your all-seasons/rims & there's that extra safety & peace of mind. Not to mention what the cost would be if you smashed up your car due to inadequate tires

 

I concur, knocking on the all-seasons. An all season tire is only all-season in places that rarely get snow. Otherwise, it is a three season tire. I've always bought cheap steel wheels for winter with good snow tires. My max has 16" steelies, and they save my 17" alloy rims from the inevitible winter damage; plus the bigger sidewall gives a nicer ride over ruts and crap. I currently have Michelin Pilot Alpin snow tires on my max. They're not quite as grippy as the Michelin Arctic Alpin's on my wife's van, but they are at least H speed rated for hitting the highway on days when the roads are clear; and are far superior to any all season tire.

With snow tires, my max is fine in snow.

And because I'm changing tires Spring and Fall, I'm getting the wear equivalent of three sets of tires from two.

 

the best solution for this is a LSD

 

Got out of a movie over the weekend, and it was snowing pretty good. Was a lil' scary trying to slip the clutch and keep from spinning off the line. Surprisingly, my Dunlops worked pretty well on the freeway at 65 or so...

 

most people dont know this but if you drive over 60-65 mph you decrease your tire life by about 60%. Just got that from the National Highway Trans. the other day.

 

Any tire can do 65 or more on snow given enough room. The question is, could you stop if you needed under those conditions? That's where the snow tires have any all-season beat.

 

I got the Goodyear Assurance Triple Tread technology- i think all together it was like 560 plus change out the door installed balance and alignment. Best investment i have made. They handle awsome in the snow/dry/rain/etc... They even come with an 80k mile warranty and 24/7 roadside assistance - comes with the tires. If anyone is looking for a goodtire i rate these tires 9.9/10

 

My Gen3 Maxima was better in snow than my current Gen5. Last year I was still on the Potenza's and it made for some interesting driving. IMO not a very good tire all around. I now have Coopers, and if we ever get any snow in NC, I will report on them.

 

True. I was just referring to the fact that I wasn't sure how they would be in those conditions, and they proved to be confidence inspiring, not squirrelly at all.

 

My max has seen a lot of snowy the last 2 weeks, i wouldn't say it does *good*, but it's not bad. I'm used to RWD, so the fact that it doesn't always turn is a new feeling (understeer vs oversteer). I find that the tires will spin REALLY easy from a dead stop on slick surfaces. So much so that I practically have to let it roll up to 10mph, or so, before I get any traction.

 

on a scale of 1-10 , 10 being the highest

Score: -2

 

Yeah i was hearing some good stuff about the Nokian WRs, there are some places that sell these tires.. ill check them out.

 

I've got a set of KH11's on my Max and i was caught in some snow on a trip from Illinois to NJ. Driving on the highway was fine, I just slowed down and kept my distance, but once I got onto the side roads, the KH11's didn't grip at all. I was making a left turn (going very slowly, little throttle ~5 mph) and the car started to plow towards the guard rail, luckly, I wasn't going very fast and the car regained traction, saving me from hitting the guard rail. Getting back onto the highway, I had the same trouble with traction. I was at a stoplight with a slight incline. I started in second, and the tires were having a lot of trouble gripping, again with little trottle.

The KH11's are summer tires and are good when its dry or wet outside. I wouldn't recommend them in the winter, but if you do get caught with the KH11's in snow, just slow down, keep your distance and you'll be all right.

 

I think the Max sucks in the snow, it does OK with dedicated snow tires, but does not even come close to my last car, a Contour SVT. Yeah, the SVT had dedicated snows also, but it didn't loose traction on acceleration and cornering as much as the Max does. My car is tricked out for handling and even so equipped, it still doesn't handle very well. Oh well, my next car will be 4 wheel drive, so I am sure this will improve things. At 81K the Max is running smooth and strong, so I'll be holding on to it for a while yet....

 

i had master craft 250/17's all the way around that i just put on 3 weeks before my accident (caused mainly by a lack of traction) and they were s**t. Bad traction....real bad traction for 170 bucks a tire. My maxima didn't have traction control...and it could've used it. My dad's maxima has TCS with a 3.5VQ and it actually isn't all that bad to drive in the snow. I'd rank mine a 6 his a 9

 

you guys just need to learn to drive in the snow. I have had no troubles in the snow, and I search it out in the mountains (to ski in, of course). I wish I had a photo of the maxima charging through 24" of fresh snow last winter while my buddy's WRX was stuck in a parking lot up in the west virginia mountains. It was priceless.

Maxima = high (stock) ground clearance, alot of weight on the drive (front) wheels. The only downside is the power to the front wheels...but you just need to know how to modulate the accellerator and brake pedals with some "touch". You can't just expect to hit the gas like you do when it's dry. Of course, tires make a big difference.

I run Falken 512's and they work fine....of course dedicated snows would be better, but it doesn't snow often enough here to justify them...

following the plow up into the mountains in the above-mentioned 24" dump.

 

The only cars i've driven in the snow so far are a Toyota RAV4 and a Honda Pilot. So I cant say how it compares to other FWD but it was difficult to accelerate on an inch or 2 of powder slid fairly easily but brakes are good. Had lots of trouble getting up hills. I have BFGoodrich Traction t/a on front and Michelin XGT4 on rear. I saw another maxima slide sideways into a curb...an 03....ouch!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Traction T/As are 200% better than the falkens. I have about 75% trwad life left on my falkens and cannot wait till their dead. What a terrible tire. If the ground is even damp the tires break lose at the blip of the throttle. If you look at the road wrong my car hydroplanes. DO NOT BUY FALKENS!!! BUY TRACTION T/As for winter.

 

My 2001 honda civic ex coupe hoooptie was better in snow with 15 inch hubcaps & stock tires lol

 

235/35/19 Toyo Proxes 4 all season - too bad we haven't had snow

If I had a Maxima, I'd get a set of Dunlop M3's

 

the gaurdrail i bumped into would rate my max pretty bad, but i think its more of ****ranza tires i got, compared to the snow tires i had last year on the accord.

 

I bought my 02 SE 6 spd new and from day one it was terrible in the snow, as well as in the rain. THEN I bought Michelin Pilot Alpin PA2's and put them on 16" steel rims. Unbelievable difference. It is like driving a completely different car. I can now drive confidently through rain and even heavy snow. We've had lots of ice this year and it has been great. Even on dry pavement these are better than the stock tires for starting from a standstill. Like any winter tires they aren't as good when it comes to cornering, but they sure underscore the value in getting separate tires for summer and winter. Get the best for both seasons not a year round compromise. If you drive a lot the only long term added cost is the extra rims.

 

??You have the 512's? I've found them to be outstanding wet traction tires, and the snow traction is good too (as you can see in the photo above of them in the snow).....We had torrential downpours this morning (really, it was hurricane-like) on my work commute, and I was smashing through large puddles and standing water with impunity, both on the highway and smaller roads....

If you have the 512's....check and make sure they're not on backwards (directional tread!)....a soft compound, soft-sidewall directional tire like te 512s is always going to be good in rain and snow

 

I don't think they are on backwards irish. I am judging them based on hydroplaning. I hydroplane every time there is a decent downpour. It is also extremely easy to break them lose after it has ained and the sun has come out. Do you have the 6 spd irish? Maybe this is the difference? My traction T/As are hard to break lose even on wet roads and never hydroplaned. LEt me know about the 6spd thing. I have also had the ever popular problem balancing these tires. About 500 miles after installation the vibration started and from talking to people it seems worthless to balance them again because from what I hear the vibration will come back sooner than later.

Mark

 

eh...the backwards thing was more sarcastic than anything...just thinking that when I bought my car it had 2 potenzas on the front and 2 falkens on the back, and both falkens were on backwards!!!

As you can see, I have a 2k, so I can't have a 6-speed but I do have a 5-speed. Can I break loose the tires? Yeah. But with a 230-260hp FWD car, you can break free any tires IMO.....As to vibration/balance...I'm on my 2nd set of 512s and haven't had that problem on either of them (and I'm extremely bothered by stuff like that)....So as with many products (see recent D2 coilover threads...) maybe it's just a matter of some batches being better than others. The 512's seem to be loved by many here and hated by many here. All I can do is speak from my experience, and all you can do is speak from yours.....so let's call it a push.

 

Yeah. Once again we agree to disagree. Nothing wrong with that I am glad there are different opinions on here.

Mark

 

I got 512's on my 2k2 they spin out in a little bit of rain with barely no thrrottle they handle good on turns but from stand still they suck and theyre loud.

 

im going to be slapping on some 512s before i head up to loon mountain. Decided as long as its cheaper than the Craptenzas and better than the craptenzas. Im happy.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in with their experiences with the falkens. I will take the advise into account when im driving in the snow next time.

 

So, has anyone decided on which dedicated 'winter' tire is best? It looks like I'm moving either to IN, NY, OH, or IL for grad. school (from sunny Tampa, where snow would close down the entire Bay area) around late August and I need some tires that really grip for that famous northern winter. Hell, even with good tires, I'll be the Max you see sliding down the road...anyway, help me out!

 

ANY dedicated snow tire is best

 

yah, some 16" steelies with winter tires is the best way to go.