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My spark went out to play in the snow today. I'm in the snow belt south of Erie, PA anyone else in a snowy climate? what are your thoughts so far? My first impressions are that I need to lower the PSI in the tires a bit. If I can find a decent set of used rims I'll throw my Altimax winter shoes on. As is it will get me to work and back.

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Edited by westernpa25
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MIne doesn't like the wet slushy snow that we get around here. Changing lanes and plowing through the slush ridges is especially hard in this car and it jumps around a lot and feels like it wants to swap ends. The only way to counter this so far is to get on the gas pretty far to make sure the tires pull through the slush. Sliging slush into the fender wells is also extremely loud compared to any of my previous cars. This may sound odd but I might actually need to slow down to the pace of other drivers in the snow, not too happy about that since I'm usually one of the faster snow drivers on the road.

I have my cheapo snow tires on 14 inch steel wheels. Need to get in the shop and make them fix my alignment issue before I can really pass judgement on snow performance.

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If you get real snow (and you'll know what I mean), then you should always have a set of snow tires (all four wheels). It's not cheap but I normally suggest an extra set of wheels for the snows, but with these tire pressure monitor systems it makes this very expensive or you get to live with the idiot light on all the time. It's about $200 for a set of sensors, another $100 for the tool needed to program the car for the new sensors, and then of course tires and wheels. If you buy the snows at a place where they will change summer and winter for free each year, then you can save a lot of money by just swapping them. Even if it costs $100 each swap you will get 4 years out of it before you equal the cost of a second set of wheels and tires.

BTW, my favorite snows are the Winterforce tires, they work great in the wet sloppy stuff that we get here and are normally fairly cheap. I have a set of cheapo General snows and they are without question not as good.

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That's why I call them summer tires. Sometimes you are OK, but sometimes it isn't worth the fear. I have a very long very steep hill I have to navigate to get to work, it can be very difficult without real snow tires, going up isn't the biggest problem but going down is frightening if you are sliding around.

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We have a bunch here, but I haven't left the house since I came home Friday night, need to try and get it in the shop to fix the pull to the left abd maybe check the fuel level issue (never full and 2 gallons left when it says dead empty with flashing refill light).

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We haven't had much snow here to speak of, but that's all gonna change today. Expecting 3-6" today, but haven't left the house yet. I will, seriously, after reading these posts consider getting snow tires also. I'll let you know how it handles. To be continued................... :)

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Now that I have had several consecutive days of snowfall, my winter weather driving confidence in the Spark is alot greater. It sure isn't the Swedish toboggan that my v70 AWD was (Bork Bork Bork!) but the Spark is perfectly capable at getting around in the snow!

Edited by westernpa25
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After shoveling off the foot of snow on top of my car I went out for some things and to find a slightly plowed lot to play in, going to need more time to really get used to everything but it does do a really good job in the traction control department. Wasn't able to check stabilitrack and the ABS may not be too useful for me. One thing I noticed is that if you hit traction control on a snow covered road, you are best off if you just keep your foot in the throttle or maybe increase it a little. Going through a corner and having this happen may be different and going to take time to find a course where I can test this. But straight line with snow tires makes this feel pretty good.

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I'm really glad I bought the Nokian Hakkapeliitta's. I kept reading the reviews of the Conti's and that one review by the Mini owner convinced me not to buy them. Michellin snow tire had similiar reviews. No Blizzaks available in our size, so I bought the Nokian's. We had 8 inches of snow and I had no problems. Car drove and handled as well as my Mini did with Blizzaks.

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