Originally Posted By: nfs480
Originally Posted By: y_p_w
Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
Originally Posted By: nfs480
I ordered them earlier today, I chose them for winter handling and because they aren't expensive at all. Also, the last time my dad bought super cheap tires they became out of round pretty quickly (the reason for buying this set)
Those are ultra high performance all season tires. They're going to be FAR from the best all season tire for winter driving.
IMO, you'd have been much better off going with a standard all season tire. Something like the Pirelli P4 4 seasons.
The Bridgestones are meant for high performance cars that need basic all season traction as well, like BMWs and Mercedes. High Performance capable that won't make you skid off the road should you encounter light winter conditions. If you get a blizzard, they're not going to do you much compared to the Pirelli I mentioned.
The 195/60R14 size is one of those odd sizes. In many ways it was considered somewhat of a "performance car" size for some of the lighter cars with better handling of the late 80s and early 90s. The P4 doesn't come in that size, and the choices aren't going to be much different - basically performance all seasons and some all-season touring tires. I really don't think that the RE960AS in that size can be beat considering the price. I can't find anything else in that size that costs less.
There probably were a lot more options for that size years ago. Right now the tendency for cars in similar performance classes are to go to 15"/16" wheels.
I've actually driven on RE960AS in somewhat deep snow. It actually did OK. Traction was decent for an all-season tire and I never really felt unsafe. I did once slide out after taking a turn too hard, but basically I knocked over some snow and figured out that I couldn't take a tight turn at 20 MPH. Of course I probably would have had a tough time finding the right tire for snow short of a real winter tire.
This would probably be the ideal solution:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?...cleSearch=false
When I was searching on tirerack, the Bridgestone RE960AS seemed to have one of the best snow ratings in my size and was the cheapest so I figured it would be the best overall for my situation. Unfortunately, snow tires are out of my budget right now so i'm just trying to do the best I can with what i've got. So far i've gotten through 4 winters in this car with terrible, nearly bald, and out of round Enduro tires so I think these will definitely be an improvement for me.
Personally I'd think that's about as good as you're going to find in that size. It's state of the art for an all-season tire when it comes to winter traction. That doesn't mean as good as a dedicated winter tire, but pretty good nonetheless.
Just one more thing to think about when you're talking about hydroplaning resistance and snow traction is that the 1989 Accord is a relatively light car (about 2500-2600 lbs) and heavily biased to weight over the front axle. The tires are actually quite wide with a fairly large contact patch. Unless you've got weight in the trunk the rear end is likely to give out first. A lot of the reviews for the same tire model are from their application in much heavier cars with only marginally wider tires. When reading the Tire Rack reviews, it's probably better to concentrate on those applications that are closer to your car. A lot of the heavier cars can do better in snow because their heavier weight means that they've less likely to "float" on heavy snow.
, had to put on seat covers. At least the seat covers are leather 
