While I have a set of dedicated studded snows for all my vehicles in Colorado and I'm a studded snow tire junkie, there is some truth to this statement. My Dad, who grew up on the east coast drove rwd drive cars with a set of bias ply snow tires all his life. Some winters ago we took his rear wheel drive Mustang, with all seasons, on the same roads edyvw is driving on from the Springs to Breckenridge. We hit some bad snow, ground blizzards, etc. He just drove like always and we made it there and back many times. Repeat this trip over and over, but with a Mazda RX-7, a Lincoln town car, with the same results. Me with my 4wd pickups was freaked out until I learned to watch and observe how he did it.
The problem he is having is acceptance of his own opinions. Not yours or mine. All we're doing is reporting on what we did at the time. His only comeback is he thinks we did it wrong.
My original statement was that I never thought snow tires were necessary
when I started driving, up until I left Chicago over 3 decades ago. I determined that because while snow tires did exist back then, they didn't work very well, if at all. In short, they were crap.
I based that opinion, over the course of decades of driving there, over tens of thousands of miles. I came across as many cars with snow tires stuck, or skidded off the road, or getting into accidents, as regular tires. So that convinced me
back then, they weren't worth the time, effort, or money to mess with.
That, along with the fact I successfully drove for decades without them. (This is the part where he comes running in with seat belts and cigarettes). I'm not saying that it was a scientific analysis. It was what I observed.
I am saying it convinced me not to waste my time and money on something
back then, that from my observation based on decades of driving didn't work, or offer any improvement. And I don't believe you can "get lucky" or stay lucky over the course of decades of successful Winter driving.
I also observed after most every snow storm, that people who drove properly, carefully, and with common sense made it through. Regardless of their tires. While most others who over drove the conditions, or their own abilities, did not. I believe that to be true even today. That video I posted showed nothing but modern newer vehicles, (many with 4WD), on modern newer tires, skidding and crashing all over the place. He then posted, "he see's that all the time".
Now, fast forward to today. He argues that tire technology has vastly improved over what it was 30 years ago.
Which I will agree with. And he has used everything in the book from child car seats, to seat belts, to smoking cigarettes, to the Space Shuttle, along with it's accompanying "rocket science", desperately trying to convince us otherwise.
Driving carefully in bad Winter weather is simple common sense. Not "rocket science". I don't care how many times he argues otherwise.
So while we all agree the technology has in fact improved, even going as far to say vastly improved, it would appear by all the pile ups we see every time the weather gets bad, (like in the video I posted, and that are plastered all over You Tube), people adapting their ability to drive in said conditions, or else outright avoid them, has not. And this repeats itself with or without the new, modern, "winter wonder tires".
These massive Winter 100+ car pileups, are as common as dirt today, just as they were 30 years ago. Good tires on cars being over driven by fools improves nothing. If it did they wouldn't continue to happen.
Most every single one of these huge, multi car wrecks can be attributed to people driving too fast in the conditions that existed at the time. Now, or back then. Regardless of the tires they had, or the conditions they were forced to deal with. This is why in most all chain reaction crashes, the guy who rear ends the first car ends up getting the ticket(s).
And while I'm sure you can dig up some stats that show some kind of an overall improvement in the accident rate, with these modern Winter tires, I'm not seeing anything that wondrous. I'm sure he'll say otherwise. In spite of him admitting to, seeing sliding and crashing "all the time".
And regardless if he agrees or not, none of that changes the fact that people do without them successfully today, just as they did decades ago. Would those same people be better served by using Winter tires today, than I would have been, had I used the worthless, rock hard, bias ply "snow tires" that were on the market 40 odd years ago?
Most likely, yes. I don't know or care because it's a moot point to argue. They never existed when I, along with everyone else on the road
at that time, had a need for them. And the fact is, what was on the market
at that time was pure crap. Just like the carburetors and automatic chokes that were on the engines.
But yes, they're better today based on the fact technology constantly improves with time. If that translates into fewer accidents per capita in Winter weather, I don't know. I rather doubt it. Any driver can foolishly over drive any modern improvement in tire grip. (This is where the common sense comes in). But if they don't exercise it, they'll just slide farther, and / or crash harder.