Winter handling

I only have a Clarity on order, but as someone who lives in frigid northern Alberta, I can say with absolute certainty that winter tires are the single most important safety item when driving on snow and ice. Nothing else will hugely reduce your braking distances.

 

I had the clarity since Nov 2018 in NYC. We had some light snow. No problem what so ever. Usually the highway is clear of snow.

Agree winter tires play a big part when the weather drops and the rubber no lower grips the road. I know a few guys that run on winter all year round over all season.

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We have had our Clarity for a year so we are headed into our second Colorado winter (in fact it is snowing right now here in Boulder). We have the stock tires on the car and do have plans to replace them before we have to. I commuted back and forth to work every day last year with no handling problems. The times the Clarity stayed in the garage I was mostly worried about the giant glacier that gets piled in my parking spot breaking the bodywork than the handling on the road. When the time comes to replace the tires we will be looking at true all-season tires

 

Purchased my Clarity December 2017, so I have gone through 2 winters with original tires and no problems on snow covered roads.

 

I iive in Ottawa. No problems with winter handling whatsoever in lots of snow and ice last winter ... of course I did have winter tires installed.

 

No problems here with driving on snowy/ice roads... oh wait that's when I drive my Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk.

 

You don't say where you live, but I assume it's someplace that gets snowy and icy. If you are commuting in any car 100 miles a day in snow country, winter tires are a great investment. You may not need them everyday, but that one time you have to stop ot make an emergency maneuver, they could be a lifesaver.

 

I had no trouble last winter using winter tires in the same size as the OEMs. It seemed to me that it handled much better than my 2012 Prius Plugin which also had the same brand of winter tires in a much smaller size. Of course I am not a hot shot driver; as I have mentioned before I am a passenger who just happens to be in the driver's seat.

Here in VT my driving is mainly on paved roads which we actually plow (unlike southern IL where they do not seem to have heard of snowplows even for their interstates. Seeing a succession of 18wheelers in the ditch with their wheels in the air is a disheartening sight as you tootle along on winter tires.

 

I bought the Clarity accessory rims and put the OEM tires on them. I put my snow tires on the OEM rims (because I like the accessory rims better, even though they don't have the noise-canceling resonators). Not only do snow tires make your car safer in the winter (assuming you drive in snow), but having an alternate set of tires stretches the life of your OEM tires.

Also, having the extra rims makes it easier to rotate my tires by doing it when I'm switching from winter to 3-season tires and vice-versa.

One more thing: If you get a flat tire near home, and someone at your home is strong (a Clarity rim+tire weighs 55 lbs), they can bring it to you (along with a jack and a wrench). You could also use one of the off-season tires as a spare if you didn't mind losing a big chunk of trunk space (unfortunately, there's no easy way to safely tie the rim down in the trunk).

 

The factory energy saving tires are a hard compound, which makes for a not so good all season tire. If you can live with the fuel mileage decrease, any quality all season or winter tire will make a significant positive difference in winter performance.


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^^^ True!

The factory energy saver tires are best: low rolling resistance, dry, summer OEM rubber.

I'd get a winter set when my OEM runs out just because I like the high silica content that makes it grippy all year round....

 

I had a set of wheels with Michelin XIce snow tires that I bought for my ‘16 accord touring that fit just fine on the clarity. The car drove well on them with the extra weight causing the clarity to handle better then the accord in the snow.