Extra stress on the snow tire requirement. Anyone who buys into the unwritten and highly erroneous conventional wisdom that all-seasons will get them safely all the way through a typical US winter is just delusional. Its just not worth the risk. This applies to front and all-wheel drive as well. I have seen plenty of front drive and all wheel drive cars struggle all over the place, just because of the tires.

With the current state-of-the-art pure winter snows available from all the manufacturers, there is no excuse not to buy a set of 4 and slap 'em on with an extra set of cheap steel wheels or other alloys. HUGE difference. We use unstudded Nokians on both our RWD vehicles.

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1995 MB E320 Wagon
2001 BMW 530i
2007 MINI Cooper S (!)