I have purchased a 2009 JCW. It came with Perilli P Zero Max Performance
summer tires, cost about $1,000.00 for the tires. They are run flats which I hate . What is the danger of running these tires in winter other than snowy
roads ? Are the tires unsafe due to thread design, or the rubber compound ?
Will running them in cold weather destroy them ? or is it strictly a traction issue ? I'd like to leave them on because I don't use the car that much, but I don't want to wipe out a thousand bucks worth of rubber.
Thanks
Jerry

 

Well, to put it simply, lower temps will turn those into rocks, which will slide and give little traction. You'd also risk tearing the rubber at the tread blocks due to the tires loosing pliability in the cold, which is the factor in traction. Not to mention the tread design would give nothing in snow and ice.

If you keep those on your car and drive in the winter, you could potentially do a lot more than wipe out a thousand dollars worth of rubber, you could mess up $30,000 worth of car.

 

Where do you live?

If only light snow and cold temps then use All Season tires non runflat or runflats ok but not summer tires

If you do get snow and the snow plows come out to play then just buy a set of 16" wheels and winter tires to use until the spring.

 

IMO save the summers for summer...the cost to mount and remount runflats is $$, and can scratch up the rims if done yearly.
My solution, I bought a second set of cheap rims, and a second set of tires...I keep the "nice rims/tires" for nice weather.
One more consideration...if you totaled or newly totaled your car to try to save a few bucks...or even just got stuck on a hill, or slid into a ditch, the inconvience of the delay, plus the cost of the tow might make new rims/tires look cheap!!

 

It's in the mid forties to the low 50s lately where I live. I use summer tires like in my sig, even with my diff I can sometimes break BOTH of the front wheels free accelerating hard.

So yeah, summer tires are worthless when it gets cold.