teatime031

Hey all. Recent owner living in the Seattle area.

Was wondering how these tires faired in heavy rain or some snow? Highly tempted to get them replaced with the AS4s for peace of mind.

However, the only thing holding me back is that it seems like a waste to get rid of brand new tires.

EDIT: Anyone running AS4s on their IS500? Thoughts on it during light snow? I had it on my V6 Camry and it was decent in the snow and rain. But that was a FWD vehicle with way less power.

95bat

I haven't been in snow with them, but they don't handle cold rain very well. They are not all season tires so be careful!

I still have a good bit of tread left, but I think I am swapping mine before Winter.

arentz07

The Potenzas are driveable in light snow, but I use that word in the strictest sense of the word. I would recommend avoiding driving on those tires as much as possible. In emergencies, maybe it's OK if you have no other mobility.

You could always get another set of tires and another set of wheels. That way your newish tires wouldn't go to waste.

TGPCanada

Seems pretty risky. The very fact these are Y rated tires tells you their intended application. The all season Michelin pilots seem like a good compromise if one can't swap with another set of winters and wheels.

Bechtold

I'm sure you can drive them in the cold and as long as you are not aggressive you will be fine. However add precipitation to the mix and that is a recipe for a bad time. I would not dare try these tires in the snow. They slip on dry, hot Texas pavement.

TGPCanada

And probably turn into hockey pucks in the winter.

Fleuger99

Never drive summer performance tires in snow or temp conditions below freezing. They will get hard as it gets colder. It is a much cheaper investment to buy 2nd set of wheels and snow tires than sliding off the road and doing who knows how much damage to your car. When I lived in MA, as soon as Dec hit I'd switch to snow tires and with snows the car handled, braked and accelerated amazingly well.

jororo

Probably put a couple hundred miles of very light snow driving on them. No issues but you’ll definitely want some snow rated all seasons at a minimum if facing any hills.

Velocistar

I will speak from personal experience that driving in the winter with summer tires is very much doable, granted with very little snow. After I graduated high school, the money I saved went towards buying my first car. Me not being the wisest (and budget limited, we all know C4s are cheap LOL) decided on getting a 1994 Chevy Corvette with a 6-speed manual. Tons of fun to drive and have loved every second of owning it, however, it came with Continental Extreme Contact summer tires AND I didn't look into options of what all-season or winter tires were available. Long story short, there weren't any, but who was I kidding, who makes a 275-wide winter tire for a 17" wheel? This was even after I knew I was going to be going to college in Western Pennsylvania which is definitely known for its balmy winters... So I daily drove a Corvette with no traction control (it broke 90s GM electronics) without dying while being 18-20, including multiple 600+ mile road trips in the winter (nerve-racking, almost got completely stranded by a blizzard while driving cross country in the mid-west). Just don't be stupid and don't drive in an active blizzard or with freezing rain, go out after the storms when the roads are salted and there's no ice or slush. However, that being said it would get stuck driving onto a wet lawn, and the tires definitely lost a decent amount of grip in the winter, but they weren't terrifyingly worse.

TL;DR: You can, but you are completely bound by the weather, so it's suboptimal. If the roads are dry and it's in the 20s you're fine, if they have slush on them it gets dicey quick, not really worth it IMO. PS4 all seasons are great tires, plenty good for the winter as long as you don't live in lake effect snow areas.

arentz07

My rule of thumb here in Georgia is I'm driving the X3 if the temperature is below freezing. This is especially true if it is raining or snowing.

TGPCanada

Long time ago, I had my vehicle in for service and my mechanic decides to give me his 1997 Ford Thunderbird as a loaner to keep me mobile. It was January, there was a moderate snow storm that night, his shop was 70 km away from my home. It was 10 pm. The Thunderbird was RWD with summer tires on it - with not much tread mind you. I was young, and said, what the heck, I can do this. And I almost did. But after getting off the highway, about 5 km away from my condo, I took a turn a little too quickly, lost complete control and damaged the tires and completely bent the tie rods. It could have been alot worse. My mechanic forgave me saying I shouldn't have given you a car with summer tires on it in the winter, so he eat the costs for the repairs (although I gave him some of money back) . At the end of the day, it's just not worth it.

flowrider

iTrader: (9)

Tire Rack's advice:

604GSE21

the oem bridgestones are junk in the rain and probably horrible in the wet slushy snow that we get in the northwest, I kept noticing the tires loose grip accelerating from the light or a stop sign in the rain, I would get a set of nice snow tires, like blizzak, x-ice or nokians..

teatime031

Thanks for the input all!

Sounds like I definitely should get them replaced/swapped. I'm thinking of these two options. To give more context, I'm not really in the downtown area closer to suburbia so it's more flat and more like a grid. When fall and winter comes around, it'll rain for sure, with a decent amount. Snow wise, we'll get some snow for like a week or two. That's about it. With that in mind, my two options are:

1. Go with a more AS friendly tire (give up performance) and find a place to store these Potenzas. Swap them out based on seasons.
2. Go with the AS4s (good AS tire while still performant), use them until the end of Spring. Swap them out with the Potenzas. Try and use them up until the thread is gone on the Potenzas. Then use the AS4s exclusively.

What do you guys think?

Fleuger99

I'd go #2. Better tire, will handle light snow chores with reasonable driving and when its dry will give better performance.