Do you store your car in winter and why if or not

[HeyMoe!]

I've owned four BMWs since I retired in '09. Each time, I stored it December-February. Come March, I would begin to drive them on a decent weather day. I have always had an "everyday car," with a separate set of wheels and snow tires. Currently, it's a Honda Civic. I am a college sports referee, and I sometimes need to get somewhere through winter weather. I've used both Nokians and Blizzaks, and both worked well. Having the second car is convenient. Since I live in the middle of nowhere in Central PA, I drive a lot, just to be able to do the things I want to do. I probably drive 20K miles a year. So, the Civic takes the "have to get there" miles, and the BMW gets the fun drives. I expect to do the same when my GT arrives next year.

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[smurfslayer]

DH everyday in Maryland. But then I'm retired and I don't drive it in the snow since I still run summer tires. Now my old Foxbody was another story. Talk about fun on snowy roads. But then I also take the Cobra out for a cruise though DC every New Years Day.

First, that Cobra is --SHARP--.
As a recovering former DMV’r I can answer this. I can remember campaigning the Fox body ’90 GT, then the ’97 SVT Mustang year round. I would not exactly call that ‘fun’ but it was challenging.
I had a set of Yokohamas on the GT, took the wife out one night when it was bone chilling cold, was 0F when we left and -2 or -3 when we were done eating. It took probably 10 minutes before there was any usable warmth in the cab. So I try to take off, ease the clutch out and can hear the whir of the rear tires spinning away. I’m just trying to crawl out of the parking spot, it’s bone dry but cold AF. A few tries later I manage to get forward movement so I take a few slow laps through the parking lot. Even that was a challenge, I took about 4 or 5 laps total and got on the road. Damn.

 

[roadpilot]

Am I missing something about driving in the winter on summer tires?

The rubber composition of ACTUAL summer-only tires is not good when the temps drop below the specific tire manufacturer's specs. The tires get hard and lose traction and performace. Also, the tires can crack. All this can result in overall performance loss, damage, increase risk of an accident, and a loss of tire warranty.

Summer only tires are made from softer rubber compounds. They produce a better grip compared to A/S tires in the warmer months, but at the expense of performance and safety when it's cold outside.

Point being, if there were not advantages to summer only tires over A/S tires in the warmer months, there would be no reason to produce or market summer only tires.

 

[Cobrakit]

First, that Cobra is --SHARP--.
As a recovering former DMV’r I can answer

Thanks! The Cobra never goes out in the snow or rain, but it's nice to go through the tunnels in DC and hit the load pedal on New Years Day! For the snow, I have a supercharged 2wd PU, much better in the snow, ha, ha!

 

[glenng6]

Thanks! The Cobra never goes out in the snow or rain, but it's nice to go through the tunnels in DC and hit the load pedal on New Years Day! For the snow, I have a supercharged 2wd PU, much better in the snow, ha, ha!

Cobrakit,
We don't have tunnels like your talking about but we have one decent one going through a mountain near me. It is a blast with top down, in track mode and watching other drivers wonder where the F16 is. Glenn

 

[Alan Applegate]

Snow? What's that? Roswell, is fun and games, and you never know what you're going to get. So far this year, we've had zero snow, little rain, temps in the hight 50°s to almost 80° since September. Lows have dipped down as the mid 20°s, so why would you winterize a car here? Makes no sense.

 

[Handsaw]

In RI, when first application of salt goes down on the roads, the Dark Horse and others are in for the winter. If we get enough rain to wash away the road salt and temps are reasonable, I will take em out for a rip.

 

[Allanrock59]

First, that Cobra is --SHARP--.
As a recovering former DMV’r I can answer this. I can remember campaigning the Fox body ’90 GT, then the ’97 SVT Mustang year round. I would not exactly call that ‘fun’ but it was challenging.
I had a set of Yokohamas on the GT, took the wife out one night when it was bone chilling cold, was 0F when we left and -2 or -3 when we were done eating. It took probably 10 minutes before there was any usable warmth in the cab. So I try to take off, ease the clutch out and can hear the whir of the rear tires spinning away. I’m just trying to crawl out of the parking spot, it’s bone dry but cold AF. A few tries later I manage to get forward movement so I take a few slow laps through the parking lot. Even that was a challenge, I took about 4 or 5 laps total and got on the road. Damn.

At the minimum get some A/S tires. You are playing with your life and the life of other. Summer tires are NOT for winter and furthermore wide tires are a real snowboard when it comes to snow.

 

[smurfslayer]

At the minimum get some A/S tires. You are playing with your life and the life of other. Summer tires are NOT for winter and furthermore wide tires are a real snowboard when it comes to snow.

That was 2 Mustangs ago, and last century and a much more climate friendly relocation.

 

[Cobrakit]

Just took the DH out, dry roads, 40 deg, no problems !!!

Car is garage kept and only goes out for a couple hours at a time.

 

[Redback]

Summer only tires are made from softer rubber compounds. They produce a better grip compared to A/S tires in the warmer months, but at the expense of performance and safety when it's cold outside.

Don't you have this backwards? Winter tires are softer because cold hardens rubber, so winters are made with a softer compound to compensate. I can easily push a fingernail into my snow tires. Not so much my summers.

 

[GoldenHand]

Driving my DH HP about 2-4 days a week in winter here in Dallas. Yes, I still have my Trofeo RS's on. So long as the roads are dry and nothing colder than 40 degrees. Tires can be a bit cold to start the drive and not have a ton of grip but they warm up fast. I will say this winter is a lot warmer not only here but across the country so probably getting more use out of my DH during this season than I would in past winters. I might do an all-season wheel and tire setup in the future, but it'll cost me $4K and the longer I put it off the less it makes sense as I foresee myself retiring my DH as a daily driver and buying a beater in the next 4-5 years. Plus my longtime girlfriend has an Explorer so we use that whenever we can't use the DH.

 

[Zengineer]

I didn't spend 72K CAD on a car just to spend more money insuring and driving a second car and storing/winterizing this car in the winter. As far as I'm concerned letting a car sit half the year is probably one of the hardest things on a vehicle even if it is properly winterized and stored. Machines like to keep moving in my experience.

But my F150 cost more than my Mustang and is 100% more suited to a Michigan winter than a RWD, summer tire, convertible Mustang. I leave it at home in the winter not to "save" it, but because I have something I'd rather drive.

 

[robvas]

Don't you have this backwards? Winter tires are softer because cold hardens rubber, so winters are made with a softer compound to compensate. I can easily push a fingernail into my snow tires. Not so much my summers.

no, he has it right

you want a tire that is soft in the temperature range you will use it at

winter tires stay soft in the cold, and are too soft in the warmer weather (so they wear much faster in the summer/spring)

summer tires are soft in the hot weather and get hard when they get cold (just like other things like plastics etc that get hard/brittle in the cold)

 

[smurfslayer]

Driving my DH HP about 2-4 days a week in winter here in Dallas. Yes, I still have my Trofeo RS's on. So long as the roads are dry and nothing colder than 40 degrees. Tires can be a bit cold to start the drive and not have a ton of grip but they warm up fast.

IDK how many miles you have on those Trofeos, but I can tell you that once the ‘stick’ starts to drop off, it starts gradually, then falls off a cliff. I nailed it on 410 outside San Antonio to pass some plodding tractor trailer at about 60 mph and _spun_ the crap out of the rear tires. It was dry, 80F+ and they were well warmed up. This was at about 2600 miles or so on them.

They started giving other indicators too. Take offs from stop lights became an exercise in managing the spin and sharp turns were like tip toeing on glass. Like many others, I went to the Michelin PS4S to get some more miles out of the tires. I’d use the pirellis as dedicated track tires but I wouldn’t leave them on the car long. I think I was at 3200 and change when I had the PS4S installed.

They were impressive as all get out for about 1500-1600 miles. I first noticed some squirming and protest about 1800 miles in not that aggressive driving. past 2200 miles, it was noticeably in need of tires. They had plenty of tread, but the stick was gone. I bought new in July ’24 and they never saw temps lower than 58 or so and that was one... maybe 2 days.

Budget for tires. You don’t want to achieve youtube infamy

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