Coming straight to business: if you really love your vehicle you should use more than one set of tires and wheels for different seasons. You may use a particular type of tire all through the year and possibly with good performance. But you will soon notice significant changes in the performance of your car and that is on the negative side. If on the other hand you are wise enough to choose the tires according to seasonal needs, your vehicle will give you best services even during worst driving conditions. So invest in at least two types of tires: summer tires for summer and snow tires for winters.

Winter tires are specially designed to provide you a safe and hassle free driving experience in the snow covered winter days. The winter tires are unique in their use of special rubber compound that are softer than those used in the summer days. Thus these tires give your vehicle better grip on ice and snow. In some tires you will find on the peaked mountain some snowflake symbol. Buy the tires marked with this symbol for the winter uses as only these tires meet specific snow traction performance standards. You can safely use these types of tires even in the severe snow conditions. The other types of tires are stiffened and lose gripping power as the temperature touches zero degree Celsius mark. As the temperature drops down, this lack of traction on icy roads may prove to extremely dangerous.

If you live in a region where snow covered winter is the rule, a winter tire is a must have for your vehicle. The winter tires have special tread that work for improved traction. This empowers the tire to rid itself of snow as it rolls on the road. The winter tires of the yesteryears used to be noisy. They had better grip over snow but had poor traction in the dry and wet. But today's winter tires are more technologically advanced and they are able to deal with not only snow but they are also able to handle cold, dry, wet or muddy driving conditions.

It is recommended that you should replace the winter tires as spring approaches, as the tires can be damaged by becoming too soft due to the heat of the warm weather.

It is recommended that always install winter tires in sets of four. It will ensure maximum control and stability of your vehicle in winter conditions.