95% of Sweden drives on studded tires wintertime. There have been countless tests of studded vs. studdless and studded is prefered.

Noise isn't the problem. Grip on dry pavement and dust particles detached by studs is. Also worth mentioning, we have somewhat different road surface with much more stones embedded in order to withstand stud erosion.

So in real winter climate, I would almost always prefer studded tires. I just bought an Audi S4 Quattro and are really looking forward to test the 4WD...

You will have many fun days ahead of you. Enjoy playing rally driver!

:D

I'm thinking about buying a set of snow tires for ski trips once or twice a year. We run summer tires year round in Houston, so I don't want to go to all season tires. Since the majority of the drive from Houston to Colorado would be on dry cool roads, is there any concern with snow tires? I doubt I'd wear them out using them a couple times a year, so how long can they be reasonably stored? TIA

Hey beepbeep, compared to Anchorage does Sweden have [B]real[B]winter climate?

Well depends what you see as "real" winter climate. For being so far north, Swedish climate is quite moderate thanx to Gulf stream. Northern Sweden is partly above polar circle.

I'll put it this way: we maybe don't have "real" winter climate but we do have lowest driver fatality rate in the world. Go figure ;)

Different places tackle winter differently.

In Japan, in the north, they do not plow or sand or salt - they just drive on the snow and it turns into layers of ice. Studs were popular until they tore up the roads during dry spells and during early/late winter. Now they have some pretty good "studless" technology. And driving on the ice is an aquired skill.

In America - we attack snow with giant plows, salt, sand and chemicals. Snow does not have a chance. The roads in most places are more dry or wet than have snow or ice. At least after a few hours of being attacked by road crews.

We've switched to a saline solution, no more chunks of salt, just salt water.