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Depends on what you consider "cost effective". We live in the country and while the county is pretty good about clearing the roads around our house and to the main roads, that's not the case in all areas. Having to get out of my warm and comfortable house, don winter gear, and head out to pick up a family member stuck waiting for a tow truck is pretty expensive in my book. Plus you don't have to have to change from snow tires to regular tires in the spring. I'm an old fat guy and I don't need that kind of hassle. We've had at least 1 AWD/4WD since we've lived here. When it's nasty, only the AWD goes anywhere. Being retired does have it's advantages.

Bumping once for visibility.


To anyone who re-visits the thread and isn't located above the 49th Parallel: what's the justification for combining snow tires with an AWD car?

My Cherokee got around without a hitch in 4high..in 4 low it felt like it would climb a tree.

A couple of years ago we got a pretty nasty dump that lasted. IIRC, it was ice first then snow on top.

Put snow tires on my s10 and again got around without a hitch.

It's about knowing how to drive in snow as much as the mode.

A set or two of snow tires are going to be a lot cheaper than buying a car.

I had a '99 XJ that had a pretty cool transfer case. It had standard 4wd with Hi/Lo but you could also put it into fullt ime AWD mode. You aren't supposed to use 4wd on non-slick roads and we get a lot of spotty conditions where it gets annoying constantly shifting in and out of 4wd, so I just left it in full time AWD mode all winter and didn't have to worry about it. My 2005 Silverado had a similar setup.

True winter/snow tires are pretty badass and make a MASSIVE difference in weather.

Alternatively, Goodyear and Michelin now make a couple of really good all-weather tires (not all-season). The Michelin's are called Cross-Climates and the Goodyears are Assurance Weather-Ready. Both are damn nice in the elements and better than all-season tires, though still not as good as true snow tires. Unlike true snow tires, however, you won't need to swap them out in warmer weather.

More tires moving is always gonna be a bit better because the g-forces/load issues mentioned by Frosty. Sometimes you just get a better bite on the rear vs. the front or vice versa. Sometimes the fronts can pull you out of trouble, sometimes the rears can maintain traction better. It's the better, more versatile option.

So the BEST scenario is the AWD with a set of those all-weather tires. But if you absolutely cannot afford an AWD rig, you can make a lot of headway with true dedicated snow tires.

My 2000 Explorer was a damn mountain goat, man.

We had the 'thunder snow' storm here in Columbia in 2006 or 2007 and it shut the town down for 3 or 4 days. Well over a foot of snow and it just came down overnight. No problems at all. Then in 2011 or so we had another one that was even worse; damn near 2 feet of snow and the good old Explorer (in the last winter we had it) proved more than up to the task.

My truck does fine; no complaints. But the Explorer was out there on roads when nobody else was going anywhere. It was a true horse.

I put the Goodyear Assurance Weather-Ready tires on the wife's outback and they are amazing. Car was already good in heavy rain and snow but these tires really stick to the road. Wouldn't put anything else on it.

Slapped a set on the minivan after we got to use 10 sacks of kitty litter to get us up a hill last season on whatever the factory Falken POS tires it came with. I preferred the directional tread pattern on the cross-climates but they don't make them for the 20 inch rims.

But I've had awfully good luck with the weatherready's. They have a little more road noise than conventional touring tires but that's a minor complaint really.

About four years ago, I was in Spokane waiting for my son to come home on Christmas break. We were having him come over from Seattle on the train, which only comes in at 2 am. Well, it started snowing like hell that afternoon and they ended up cancelling the train because there was an avalanche in the pass coming over from the west. So we ended up having to get an emergency flight over, which also was coming in around 2 am.

Meanwhile, it is still snowing like crazy and piling up. When I left the motel to go to the airport, there was easily a foot of unplowed snow on the freeway. My little Subaru took it like a champ even on the long ass hill coming up out of Spokane (Spokane is kind of down in a hole with the airport up on the high plains out of the city). It was a pretty wet snow too so would pull you all over but I still made it okay.

Another time, we were coming back from Montana and it started snowing as we were approaching the Montana/Idaho border (Lookout Pass). We got right to the top of the pass and there was a bus and a semi stuck side by side, blocking the whole thing. They were trying to get chains on so we waited a bit but it soon became apparent that it wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Meanwhile, traffic is starting to pile up behind us.

Finally a big 4wd pickup went down in the ditch alongside the semi and went around. It was really deep but I decided to try it too. I had chains and both of my grown sons so I figured we could push it out if I got stuck.

Well, except for one butt clenching moment coming up out of the ditch back onto the road, the Subie did great and we got by even though it was deep enough that we were pushing snow. We went on our merry way and didn't have a single car behind us for better than an hour. You could see the other side of the freeway had the same problem and traffic was backed up better than 20 miles.

I try to avoid that kind of snow but it's nice to know I can get through if I have to.

For tires, I've become a big fan of the Continental snow tires. I have a 2 year old WinterContact tires on the Subie and we just put the new VikingContact 7 tires on my wife's HR-V and they are very nice tires without being stupid expensive.

Appreciate the feedback. Glad my intuition was pretty spot on given what everyone's been saying.

Nothing IMO.

Its fine but clearance is key in deep snow if you encounter 10 to 12 inches fresh before plowed the tread bite is important to push you through from a stopped start or pulling a steep incline. Honestly other than the pain of putting on and off chains will get you from the residential side streets to the maintained roads better than anything that isn't on tracks.

I WANT THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!