Before I moved to South Carolina (about 4 months ago), I lived in central Oregon, where we got a good bit of snow in the winter.
I had a set of studded snow tires mounted on steel rims with some 16" hubcaps. Not only did I have fantastic traction with the tires, the steelies prevented my real rims from winter damage.
Granted I was in a FWD car, but a Probe GT isn't exactly a 4x4 SUV, either.
Just as an example of how effective the studded snows are... Last winter we got the first big dumping of snow before I had a chance to get my snow tires out of storage. I lived in an apartment complex which had a slight hill leading to the lower building. I lived in that lower building, and was literally trapped in my apartment for a week because I could not get my car out on regular tires. I could back out of my parking spot but that was about it. Attempting to turn straight and go up the hill resulted in a lot of sliding and getting stuck.
Once I had the studs on, I was able to bust on out, no problem.
I highly, highly recommend studded snow tires. I'd sell you my set for cheap if they weren't all the way across the country.
