Does anyone have experience driving in snow with the CX-5? I have a 2018 Mazda CX 5 Grand Touring with AWD. The car is exempt from chain and traction tire chain laws where I live because
the Toyo tires have the M+S (mud and snow) symbol. Am looking to drive up 1x on the weekend into the mountains for winter sports. I am convinced that winter tires are best, however we rarely get ice and snow in the valley
The winter season in the mountains varies and may short. It is often intermittent between until March, if even that. I have good chains. Can I get by with stock tires?

 

No experience with snow, but we drove on the beach through sand and it handled pretty well.

 

I drove my front wheel drive chevy malibu on Daytona beach a few times it never had a problem either ... lol

 

I'm super curious about this as well ... please report back when you get a chance to drive with these tires in snow ...

 

As soon as I get a chance to test it out, I will post my experience.

 

Well, where we drove it said AWD vehicles only. There must be a reason

 

 

Had a chance to drive up our snowed steep driveway with the stock tires and it handled it pretty well. Glad that we got the AWD.

 

I live in Northern Ontario and right now its -24C outside and the roads are snow packed and icy. I have Goodyear snow tires on my 2018 CX-5 GT (AWD) and it is like driving on dry pavement. There is no tire spinning or sliding whatsoever. Having said that, my vehicle has been in the shop due to rough running in cold weather (you can read all about that on this forum under Zeeman's original post), and I have been driving a Mazda CX-5 (also AWD) demo with all season factory tires. Acceleration is still excellent but there is a little bit of sliding around corners and on hard breaking. I spent an extra $1,150 CDN for my snow tire and steel rims and I think it is totally worth it. I save some money on insurance and my pretty factory rims should look new much longer.

 

Well here is my first post on this forum. I am 72 years old and an ole gearhead. I can't tell you all the discussions I have had on tires and AWD and AWD vs 4WD etc. The only comment that I ever heard that stuck was this. All season tires have a specific rubber for average driving temperatures that are ABOVE freezing. They very some but ALL all season tires have rubber that remains flexible above freezing temperatures but NOT below freezing. Winter tires have a soft rubber compound that remains soft well below freezing so that they infect stay supple in freezing temps. Easiest way to check is try to bend the rubber on all seasons with your fingers and then do the same with the winter tires. You will see a difference. And lastly I would be remiss if I did not mention that the SOFT COMPOUND where's dramatically compared to harder compound summer tires. Hope that makes sense and didn't sound to ignorant from an old redneck. Happy New Year and stay war!