Mwarps, sure sounds like you have no idea what winters and snow are. If you would have read my original post, I live in northern Wisconsin, not too many places with winters like we have. Once off the county highway, my road is snow and ice covered until late March, early April.

The fact is, this car handles worse than my sons' Honda Civic and our Honda Odyssey. My previous vehicle was a 4x4 Tundra, and it only had highway tires on it. Oh, yeah I forgot you can't read either. If you know anything about driving in snow, you would know that a pick-up truck in two wheel drive is the absolute worse vehicle to drive in snow. Well, I rarely had to put the Tundra in four wheel drive, because the stability control system was simply outstanding. It worked well. The CX-5 system may be quiet, but, it works like crap. The understeer and oversteer are horrible. If the tires are the only thing between the system working or not, shame on Mazda for producing such a lousy system. Why sell the vehicle in northern Wisconsin with lousy tires anyway? Oh, here I go blaming the tires only. The stability control system doesn't work, period. Get over it, you don't have to love a brand so much that you can't ever be honest and not find a fault in it.

So, if you wan't to chime in on being an expert in driving in certain conditions, why don't yo try it, maybe then you might have the knowledge to make intelligent comments on this discussion.

 

Just had to register to put NewBoldzmanz in his place.

Sir, if you truly know anything about cars, you must know having the proper tire for the season makes the largest difference.
I've driven everything from Audis, Mercedes, VW, Ford, Subarus, and yes, Mazdas with AWD systems.

It doesn't make a lick of difference how fancy the differentials are, how quick the traction or stability control works, if you have no grip, those systems are worthless.
Nearly every manufacturer puts the lowest quality tires on from the factory, even Mercedes.
If you trust OEM tires for your Wisconsin winters, you are a foolish person, I would never ride with you, and I feel sorry for your family, you put them in very unsafe driving conditions without being prepared.

Get some Nokian studless snow tires, and report back how well the car handles snow then, until then you have no evidence to back up your claims that Mazda makes poor AWD systems.

Most people truly don't understand what goes into a tire, your entire vehicle is only touching the ground with about 18 inches at any given point, so your 4,200 pounds have a strip the width of duct tape per wheel to make acceleration, turning, braking, and everything happen.
If you do not respect that, I will be pulling YOU out of ditches with my vehicle with proper tires.

(I've pulled out Ford F350's with a small Audi A4 wagon in the snow, guess who had the proper tires, and guess who thought their fancy AWD system would keep them out of that ditch?)

 

Time to agree to disagree. This car handles terribly in snow compared to how my Toyota Tundra in 2 WD with highway tires did. That's a fact, no more to say.
Thanks

 

Well, after another white knuckle winter driving experience I traded in my CX5 for a Forester. I loved the feel and fun of the CX5 on dry roads, but living in northern Wisconsin the CX5 was just way to squirrelly throughout the long snowy winters. The car was just terrible in snow and slid out on me one too many times. I actually think it might be that the car is too light. And all you tire experts out there, forget all your comments. The Forester uses the exact same Yokohama Geolander tires and loves to travel in a straight line, can't say the same for my CX5. The Subaru has a far superior vehicle stability control system. Go out and drive both back to back and it will be perfectly clear to you. I had the CX5 to two different dealerships and they both said the stability control system checked out fine. With not much effort at all I could do doughnuts with the CX5. The Forester doesn't allow you to get anywhere close to the feat. Bottom line, if you value your life and your loved ones lives think long and hard about your purchase. Goodbye zoom zoom and hello safe winter driving.

 

Goodbye.

 

Too light, better off with no comment.


Trading is expensive. New tires would accomplish much more at less cost (and no need to drive ugly droning CVT Forrester too).

 

TIRES! --- Some Good points here:

Fourteen reasons to ditch your all-season tires for the winter:

1. All-season tires are a bad compromise. On snow, ice or cold pavement, the stopping distance of a car with winter tires can be up to 30 to 40 per cent shorter than one with all-seasons. Since the force of a crash increases as the square of impact speed, this could be the difference between life and death.

2. Although it’s the treads that you notice, the most important part of a winter tire is actually its rubber compound, which is designed to stay soft in freezing temperatures. Like a gecko climbing a sheet of glass, a tire sticks to the road by conforming to minute imperfections. The soft rubber treads of a winter tire are able to splay and wrap themselves around minute protrusions on cold pavement, or even on what may appear to be perfectly smooth ice. Summer tires, which are designed to operate in warm temperatures, harden as the temperature falls. All-seasons, which must be designed for year-round use, cannot match winter tires in low temperatures.

3. Premium winter tires perform better than basic models. What you’re paying for is the latest in rubber technology and tread design. What you get is traction that may be up to 15 per cent better than economy-model winter tires. (If you want to see the difference between different grades of winter tires, go to an ice race. “The drivers with the premium tires are all out front,” says Ontario racer and winter driving instructor Ian Law. “There’s no comparison.”)

4. It’s about temperature, not snow. Winter tires should be installed when you expect temperatures to fall to 7 C or below. As the temperature falls, the rubber in summer and all-season tires becomes inflexible, killing traction. Watch the thermometer and use common sense, because no one will tell you exactly when to put on snow tires (unless you live in Quebec, where the law dictates that your car be equipped with winter tires between Dec. 15 and March 15).
In the middle of December, on a -5C day, the all season tire is next to useless because the rubber has become so hard it has about as much grip on a cold road as a hockey puck has on ice. The closed tread pattern also means the tire is easily clogged with snow, which exacerbates the problem.

5. Winter tires should be narrower than summer models. Experts recommend that you go down one or two sizes when installing winter tires – if you car came with 215-millimetre wide summer tires, for example, your winter tires should be 205 mm or 195 mm. Reducing the width of a tire increases the pressure it exerts on the surface beneath it – this helps the tire slice through snow and reduces hydroplaning.
Maybe the CX-5 tires are too wide for the winter, especially if the CX-5 is light? Wider tires are only good for dry pavement.

6. Winter tires are designed to move water. When a tire presses down on snow or ice, it melts the top layer, creating a thin film of water (the same phenomenon that occurs as a skate glides across a rink). If the water isn’t moved away from the area in front of the tire, the car will hydroplane. This is why winter tires are covered with grooves (including tiny channels known as “sipes”) that move water away to the sides, allowing the tire to stay in contact with the surface.

7. All-wheel drive helps you accelerate, not stop. On slippery surfaces, vehicles with four driving wheels can accelerate better than those with two-wheel drive. But their cornering and braking capabilities are little different than a two-wheel-drive model. When you’re trying to stop or turn, the limits are determined by the traction capabilities of your tires, not the number of driven wheels.

8. Black ice is not a death sentence. Good winter tires can stick to glare ice, but only if they are within their traction limits. If your car begins to slide, look straight down the road to where you need to go, and maintain a light grip on the wheel. As the car decelerates, you will gradually regain control as the tire’s rubber begins gripping surface imperfections on the ice. Slow speed and gentle control inputs will maintain traction.

9. The performance of winter tires has been significantly improved over the past decade by advanced rubber compounds that allow designers to make tires softer without sacrificing other critical properties, including wear and heat buildup as temperatures climb. Major manufacturers spend a lot of money on R&D. Jaap Leendertse, winter tire platform manager for Pirelli in Milan, Italy, told me the company has developed more than 300 compounds in the ongoing quest for the ideal winter tire.

10. In the old days, winter tires came with deep, aggressive treads designed to paddle through deep snow. This made for a noisy ride and compromised stability, since the treads deflected under acceleration, braking and cornering loads. Current winter tire technology focuses on shallower treads with closely spaced grooves that carry away the water film created when the tire presses down on ice or snow.

11. Although testing makes it easy to see the performance advantages of a winter tire (you stop faster), the technology behind it is deceptively complex. Tire designers must consider a long list of factors, including tread stability and hysteresis (a process that generates heat as a tire repeatedly deforms and recovers as it rotates under the weight of a car).

12. Although they offer an advantage on glare ice, studded tires are far less effective than non-studded models on cold, bare pavement (where most drivers spend the majority of their time during the winter months).

13. Some manufacturers offer winter tires that use rubber mixed with hard materials (like crushed walnut shells and chopped nylon strands) to give increased bite. Although these can offer improved traction in some conditions, the most important factors in a winter tire’s all-round grip are the quality of its rubber compound and its tread design.

14. Although it’s not recommended for everyday driving, reducing the air pressure in your tires can help you gain in an emergency. Reducing tire pressure increases the tire’s contact patch, and may help you make it up an otherwise impassable icy grade, for example. Bear in mind that this is an emergency technique only, and will reduce overall control of your car by making the tire carcass less stable. Unless you’re stuck at the bottom of an icy hill with no other option, you should use the inflation pressures recommended by your car manufacturer. If you do lower tire pressures to make it out of an emergency situation, drive slowly and reinflate the tires to the recommended pressure as soon as possible.

 

Years ago, I did a little traction test on a steep hill in my neighborhood.
My cars were:
1) Honda CRV awd all season tires.
2) VW Fox with Yokohama snow tires.
3) '96 Chevy Impala rwd with 255-50-17 all season tires and snow cables.
I started at the base and tried to go up.
Honda CRV failed. VW with snows failed. The rwd Chevy with cables slowly went up.
It was a torture test. But, you really need to to think of what you need. We get a couple of dumpings of snow a year so we don't need snow tires. When my wife used to drive to lake Tahoe, she drove an Audi quattro with studded snows (I like studded tires).
If I lived in Wisconsin, I'd get a set of steel wheels and mount snow tires on them, swap'em out come spring. The big problem with tires is not avoiding getting stuck; it is handling and poor braking. I'd rather be stuck on the side of the road than crash into a tree.
Also, the stabilzation programs on modern cars are merely electronic/mechanical bandaids. They can help eek out a little extra performance out of your tires, but they are no substitute for winter tires.
Heck, I have traction control on my motorcycle, but when it rains, I still drive like an old lady.

 

Terrible in snow? Not my experience, even with the stock Yoko tires. I do adjust my driving in winter to account for shorter stopping distances and slippery surfaces...

 

When I put the deal together for my 2014 CX-5 last month, I negotiated snow tires on a separate set of rims into the deal. The stock (all season) tires on my ride are 19" Toyos....the snows are 17" BF Goodrich. As I took delivery at the end of February, I figured I'd make do with the stock tires for this year...and therefore had them simply put the snows in the hatch for which I plan to use them next winter. Since then, I've gone through 1 snow storm here in Toronto, a few weeks back. A lot of people were getting stuck in the parking lot, just spinning their wheels, going nowhere.....while I simply cruised on out. I found driving in snow to be quite alright with the stock tires but I fully intend to slap on the snows next November.

Quite happy with how my CX-5 handles in the snow, thankyou very much.

Bon