The numbers are in, and they don’t look good.
An early December article in the Winnipeg Free Press revealed that only 20 percent of the vehicles on Manitoba’s roads are equipped with winter tires. That’s the lowest rate in the country.
It is easy to come up with reasons Manitobans don’t need to drive on dedicated winter rubber. After all, it’s a lot of money up front. Manitoba doesn’t have the hills, ice, and snow that drivers in other parts of the country contend with. And, of course, this isn’t Quebec, so it’s not against the law to drive without winter tires. So all you need to do is drive for the conditions and you’ll be just fine, right? Well, yes, if you neglect the possibility that a successfully executed emergency maneuver means the difference between a close call and a collision.
But if there’s anything the last couple of months have taught the residents of southern Manitoba, it’s that we can have lots of snow, way too much ice, and that there are plenty of opportunities during winter for inadequate traction to really mess things up.
| Pirelli Winter IceControl Tires. Click image to enlarge |
Browsing through online comments and forums, it’s clear that winter tires have their proponents, but what is also clear, and frankly alarming, is that misinformation about winter tires abounds. Many write the winter tire industry off as nothing more than a successful marketing campaign or a cash grab that preys on the gullible, but I can assure all winter tire naysayers that this is not the case.
My first winter tire purchase was for a 1989 Nissan 240 SX; a rear-drive car that I bought in January of 1996 with performance-oriented all-season rubber that must have just barely passed the provincial safety inspection for tread depth.
The car was totally useless in the slick stuff, which didn’t help my then-fiancé who was just learning how to drive a stick (she did learn, and she still married me, so all is well). Traction was so limited that this then-student ponied up several hundred of his own dollars to fit a set of first-generation Bridgestone Blizzaks to the car. When I first pulled away from the tire store and onto Pembina highway that snowy evening, it only took about five seconds for me to realize that this was a completely different car with proper winter boots on.
The point of all of this is that I don’t sell winter tires, and I certainly don’t stand to benefit financially when I tell others to buy winter tires. I recommend them because they make a real difference no matter what you drive.
Proper winter tires, identified by a snowflake-on-mountain symbol, possess rubber compounds (with secret recipes that are highly guarded by the individual tire companies) that won’t turn to rock when the mercury drops. It’s easy to see the difference for yourself: visit a tire store and push your thumb into the tread of an all-season tire and then into a winter tire. One is squishy; one isn’t.
The other trait common to all winter tires is an abundance of zig-zag slits, or ‘sipes’, in the tread pattern. These allow further flexing of the tread under load and allow several edges to bite the road surface to make the most of whatever tread is available. These first two traits are key to traction on packed snow and ice.
Beyond that, the aggressiveness of the tread pattern and spacing of the tread blocks can provide some insight into how the tires will perform in deeper snow and slush.
I typically drive on a different set of winter tires each year, and until now the test car was our 2004 Mazda6 Sport Wagon. We bid farewell to it last year and replaced it with a 2012 Volkswagen Golf Wagon [And no, Volkswagen ownership is not a prerequisite for Autos.ca contributors… –Ed.].
| Pirelli Winter IceControl Tires. Click image to enlarge |
The subject of this year’s tire review is the Pirelli Winter IceControl, which were introduced in 2011. They are touted by the Italian tire company as having been optimized for icy and snowy conditions. Now, the best tires for ice will be studded, but along with studs come increased noise and fuel consumption as well as a restriction on entering many downtown parkades due to the damage studs can do to protected driving surfaces.
The tires (size 225/45-17) were first fitted on our car late last winter, but anybody who was here in Winnipeg last winter will probably agree that it wasn’t a real test for winter tires. So I decided to wait until we had some real winter weather before reporting on the tires, and right now I’d say it has happened. A 20-cm dumping of snow followed by a high number of freeze-thaw cycles made sure that surfaces were slick. I found the most influential weather to be the small amounts of snow and sleet that fell in the middle of the month, which resulted in glazed intersections and a general feeling that the level of available traction was changing by the second. And now in late January we’re in the midst of a deep freeze with just enough snow and wind to keep things interesting.
The Pirellis have proven themselves to be very competent in all of these conditions, with the exception of glare ice where only studs would have helped. I’ve driven on them in deep water and snow, slush, loose snow, and on ice, and found that they inspire confidence no matter what the traction conditions. With my car being a front-driver, patience is still required when accelerating from a stop on icy roads, and in wet weather the tires are quite noisy, but both of these critiques can be applied to most winter tires on the market today.
There’s certainly a difference in steering feel and response when I switch from the stock all-season tires to these Pirellis, but gone are the days of winter tires that allow the car to wander excessively on dry pavement or emit a dull roar at highway speeds.
My criteria for evaluating winter tires place snow and ice traction above other factors such as noise, dry road handling, and tire wear. And with those priorities, the Pirelli IceControl tires rank at or near the top of the class for studless winter tires.
Source: http://www.autos.ca/auto-product-reviews/tire-review-pirelli-winter-icecontrol-winter-tires/?all=1
