So philly/south jersey got slammed (relatively speaking) with 5-6 inches of snow on Saturday. I was out on a bachelor party as DD for the bachelor and I was extremely disappointed with the handling on my P85 in this particular snow storm (I've driven fine in other snow storms in the past, but that was when I had goodyears). This is the first winter I've had riding on 255/45ZR19 Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3's. These tires are great in dry and wet weather but when it comes to snow and ice, they suck BAD.
First every time from a stop they would spin and traction control kicking on.
We were trying to find parking in philly in a self park lot. Found one place but the car could not make it up the parking garage ramp. Tires would spin and TC kicked on and prevented car from moving. (Fyi it didn't occur to me to take TC off until later, but not sure if that would've helped anyway). So meanwhile there are cars behind me on the ramp and I can't make it up the ramp. They all had to back up on a one way road (again, philly) so I could let the car back out onto the road. Needless to say everybody behind me was pissed.
Next try ok let's not go up a parking garage ramp but instead try an open lot. One block further good there is one. Ok. Well I couldn't even make it up the 2" bump into the lot. Again, more people behind me pissed. Tires just spinning and TC kicking on. Had to leave since I couldn't even pull into the parking lot.
I was forced to park on the street in Phily. Not something anyone wants to do in general with any car on a good day, let alone while in the middle of a snow storm. Oh well. We were just going out to dinner and canceled the rest of the night anyway. Fortunately only being there 2 hrs and nobody sideswiped me. That's good.
On the way home there was one spot where I passed some junker car on a local single lane road and there was someone in an SUV behind me right up my butt going to pass me too. As soon as I changed lanes back to the right after passing i fishtailed out with back end swinging left and the guy in the SUV behind me who was also passing the other guy and now me nearly smashed into me. this was only going 25-30mph too. Coming from years of experience in a Camaro and decades of gaming fishtailing out doesn't really phase me as I know how to control it. Ahole behind me definitely shouldn't have been riding my bumper in this weather too (he was less than a car length behind me, even in dry weather that's extremely too close).
Anywho onto a local bar we go right near my place and my friends. Got stuck in their parking lot and had to rock it a bit to get in and out.
After the night I dropped my friend off and went home. Now this was an ordeal. It took me about 20 minutes to make it up my driveway into the garage. My driveway is mostly flat. Maybe a slight incline. It's just stone. With 4-6 inches of snow and ice on top. Totally stuck. And yes air suspension was set to highest. I tried everything. Rocking it. Now I took traction control off and start tearing into it to see if that helped. Eventually the only way I was making any progress was with traction control off and rocking the car back then forward and tearing it. I would go about a foot or two and get stuck again. Wash rinse repeat. Left a zig zag pattern and tore up my driveway a bit.
So, I gotta say, these tires blow in winter. They are all seasons, but maybe in reality all seasons sans-winter. Oh well. As I plan on moving to central NY finger lakes/syracuse region next year either I'm going to get a second set of dedicated winter tires or I'm going to buy myself an F150 because there's no way in hell this car will make it up my pretty steep driveway up there.
Attaching a few pics of my driveway adventure. Also fyi my tires are about 7/32" all around so they had plenty of tread left but I guess the compound itself just isn't made for this weather. Certainly the 50/50 weight distribution of the MS didn't seem to help much this night. Oh well. Yes the car is fantastic but just not this night. Honestly it didn't handle any better than my old '97 Camaro did. I guess after 2 years of ownership now this was really my only bad driving experience with it. Again I drove through a much worse snow storm the first year I had the car and I didn't have these issues. I don't want to say the Goodyears actually performed better though. Certainly they never had enough traction on dry weather for the P85 and in wet weather they floated too much. But when it comes to snow vs snow, the goodyears may actually beat the Michelins. Grrr I still can't stand the goodyears though so next winter I guess I'll get those dedicated winter snow tires put on.
First every time from a stop they would spin and traction control kicking on.
We were trying to find parking in philly in a self park lot. Found one place but the car could not make it up the parking garage ramp. Tires would spin and TC kicked on and prevented car from moving. (Fyi it didn't occur to me to take TC off until later, but not sure if that would've helped anyway). So meanwhile there are cars behind me on the ramp and I can't make it up the ramp. They all had to back up on a one way road (again, philly) so I could let the car back out onto the road. Needless to say everybody behind me was pissed.
Next try ok let's not go up a parking garage ramp but instead try an open lot. One block further good there is one. Ok. Well I couldn't even make it up the 2" bump into the lot. Again, more people behind me pissed. Tires just spinning and TC kicking on. Had to leave since I couldn't even pull into the parking lot.
I was forced to park on the street in Phily. Not something anyone wants to do in general with any car on a good day, let alone while in the middle of a snow storm. Oh well. We were just going out to dinner and canceled the rest of the night anyway. Fortunately only being there 2 hrs and nobody sideswiped me. That's good.
On the way home there was one spot where I passed some junker car on a local single lane road and there was someone in an SUV behind me right up my butt going to pass me too. As soon as I changed lanes back to the right after passing i fishtailed out with back end swinging left and the guy in the SUV behind me who was also passing the other guy and now me nearly smashed into me. this was only going 25-30mph too. Coming from years of experience in a Camaro and decades of gaming fishtailing out doesn't really phase me as I know how to control it. Ahole behind me definitely shouldn't have been riding my bumper in this weather too (he was less than a car length behind me, even in dry weather that's extremely too close).
Anywho onto a local bar we go right near my place and my friends. Got stuck in their parking lot and had to rock it a bit to get in and out.
After the night I dropped my friend off and went home. Now this was an ordeal. It took me about 20 minutes to make it up my driveway into the garage. My driveway is mostly flat. Maybe a slight incline. It's just stone. With 4-6 inches of snow and ice on top. Totally stuck. And yes air suspension was set to highest. I tried everything. Rocking it. Now I took traction control off and start tearing into it to see if that helped. Eventually the only way I was making any progress was with traction control off and rocking the car back then forward and tearing it. I would go about a foot or two and get stuck again. Wash rinse repeat. Left a zig zag pattern and tore up my driveway a bit.
So, I gotta say, these tires blow in winter. They are all seasons, but maybe in reality all seasons sans-winter. Oh well. As I plan on moving to central NY finger lakes/syracuse region next year either I'm going to get a second set of dedicated winter tires or I'm going to buy myself an F150 because there's no way in hell this car will make it up my pretty steep driveway up there.
Attaching a few pics of my driveway adventure. Also fyi my tires are about 7/32" all around so they had plenty of tread left but I guess the compound itself just isn't made for this weather. Certainly the 50/50 weight distribution of the MS didn't seem to help much this night. Oh well. Yes the car is fantastic but just not this night. Honestly it didn't handle any better than my old '97 Camaro did. I guess after 2 years of ownership now this was really my only bad driving experience with it. Again I drove through a much worse snow storm the first year I had the car and I didn't have these issues. I don't want to say the Goodyears actually performed better though. Certainly they never had enough traction on dry weather for the P85 and in wet weather they floated too much. But when it comes to snow vs snow, the goodyears may actually beat the Michelins. Grrr I still can't stand the goodyears though so next winter I guess I'll get those dedicated winter snow tires put on.
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