Silverfox

Gotcha ... did an edit at the end

hyperv6

You left out new underwear when you crap yourself.

Silverfox

To me it mostly comes down to the follow issues to name a few;

1. Tire rubber compounding
2. Tread design
3. Amount of weight on drive axles/tires
3. Tire size and resulting final pounds per square inch at the contact surface.
4. Proper air pressure for max contact.
5. Driver abilities to maximize all situations that arise.
6. Have a feel for your vehicle.
7. Understand emergency control if possible
8. Ability to read road/snow/ice conditions
9. Front/Rear/4 wheel wheel drive vehicle
10. Electronic Traction control/Locking or No Spin rear axle
11. Common Sense and awareness
12. Fresh set of Underware per HyperV6's real life experience ...

And not neccesarily in that order...

This is a repost to update info

bfegypt13

I use only all season tires, and I live in central Wisconsin, where we get more than enough snow, and I don't have any problems at all...but, I am also an excellent driver.

hyperv6

I have a SS here in the Northern Ohio Snow belt. I put on Goodyear Assurance Tripletreads in the winter and the car never has put a tire wrong anywhere, I have even pushed snow with the front bumper because it was that deep and never had an issue. To be honest the HHR is one of the most boaring cars to drive in the winter as you can even get it to do anything bad unless you really push it to a point beyond a sane level.

FYI the Pilots on the SS suck in anything but dry weather.

As for winter tires they are fine if you have a lot of ice conditions but they do wear faster and are not really required if you have average skills and no extream driveways to deal with. It does not hurt to have them but most new All Season tires and a lot of siliicon in them and it gives them great snow and wet grip while making them last a lot longer. I used Triple Treads on the wife GTP too. Note they do not plow my street often and it has a hill. Both cars pull right up and up the hill in my drive with no drama.

The 4x4 and AWD thing is just driven by people who have no winter driving skills or live out in the country where they never plow or have long driveways. Nearly 85% of the people out there that have AWD and 4x4 really don't need it. In near 35 year of Now belt driving I have yet ever had the need for a 4x4 other than to plow snow.

This is the end of the HHR as they have discontinued the platform. The new Delta II platform is out now. There is a new GMC Granite coming and looks to be taking the place of the HHR.

Bottom line is with a good set of tires and average skills and you still can't drive an HHR in the snow you really should not be out there in any vehicle AWD or not.

American & Proud

I try to leave mine Parked as much as I can during the Winter here in the Chicago area. We had some Nasty snow last year.



And after reading all the complaints about traction in the HHR, I took mine out During some of the snow storms we got last year, and With the OEM wheels and Tires, I found mine to drive like just about any other FWD car.

And my Panel is Lowered on all fours.

Not a problem, at all. My '08 has the traction control and abs brakes, so that may help.

I found my Panel drove just Fine even with the Firestones everyone seems to complain about, and I was TRYING to drive like a madman in the Snow, really Trying to find fault and loose control, but I was able to Pass up the other cars that were doing 20mph Under the limit and I could cruise on by them.
Maybe some are expecting to much, or just don't know how to drive in the snow? Not really sure.
Or the traction control and abs brakes do Alot for the HHR that others did not get as an option or standard. And I hate abs brakes.

My plan was to Replace the oem Firestones if I found them to suck as much as others have claimed. I did not find that to be the case afterall and so they remain on my Winter rims. Only about 20,000 miles on them, to replace them would be a waste for me.
And I actually was looking for an Excuse to go buy a Winter tire for the OEM Rims.

Now if you use your HHR all winter, daily, maybe a new tire would be better for you.

I use different wheels and tires in the warm months. A nice sticky performance tire.

Len McRiddle

Another vote for the TripleTreds. Awesome tire. I run them on both of my vehicles.

Silverfox

The one thing missing here is the fact some of us live in hilly country.
The Pacific Northwest has much of that.
Just having a decent FWD helps but doesn't cut it without some help on many hills.
2 days after it snows, all major streets not plowed are sheet ice.
I lived in Seattle for 65 years and never remember most people not having lots of trouble on the hills, even with the then popular "Walnut Firestone Town & Country retreads.
No studded tires then, only other choice was Chains.
I use to load up my Pick Up with old tires for weight and with the Walnut or Sawdust T&C tires and air pressure dropped to about 25 lbs I could go most anywhere I wanted.

The hills change the equasion drastically, especially after the 2nd day of traffic.

Plus we do not usually get the extreme low temps with the snow so it is not dry powder snow to start with.

saxrocks2009

I got stock SS tires. And I have no problems in the snow. I live in Michigan and we get some snow.

hyperv6

The greatest challange for many in the snow is the fact so many have worn out tires. Just look at many of the cars in parking lots and so many have little to no tread on their tires.

FWD is point and shoot kind of driving but you still need tread on the tires. Even Stability Control can not over come that.