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Today I decided to replace my front two winter tires - Nokians around 6 years old, definitely past due for replacement.
I swapped my front winter wheels for my summer set, a pair of Vredestein Quatrac all weather tires (with the snowflake symbol), so I could drop the winter wheels, along with their replacement tires, off at my local tire shop. If I do it this way, I get a discount and don't need to schedule anything, because they're limited mostly by the number of lifts and bays and can always get to stray wheels.
I've been coming and going through my driveway every day this winter without remotely having any issues. After swapping my summer tires on, I couldn't back up more than 5ft from where I park, regardless of how much sand and salt I threw out or how much I rocked the car back and forth.
I ended up taking my partner's Fit, which has the same set of winter tires. I backed straight out of the driveway and up the hill at the end, with zero issue.
If I needed a reminder of just what a difference real winter tires make, even when nearly bald, and even when compared with "all weather" tires, this was it.
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