[pylon]

Absolutely it should be mandatory. All seasons at least. Especially now that summer performance tires are becoming more and more common on the higher performance cars. I see a ton of GTI's going out of our dealership on summer rubber, and unfortunately, those tires are like hockey pucks in the snow. Regardless of how good you think you can drive, they can be impossible to stop on, and will do really weird things on ice, like flip the car backwards with no notice.

I have felt it should be handled this way. If you purchase a new car with Summer only tires, the dealer should offer a no charge swap option for all seasons, or you must buy a separate set of winter tires. Its A or B, no grey area. Insurance companies should also do random inspections on vehicles to make sure summer rubber isn't being used, and the cops should have the right to impound cars with summer tires. It is far more dangerous than many other violations they will impound you for. I have seen about 4 cars come in on hooks this week, all with 18" summer rubber on them, and front ends wiped off the cars.

I do not feel its fair that a guy is potentially driving around in a vehicle that has an extremely unsafe piece of equipment on it, putting me at risked of being t-boned... simply because he's cheap. And all of these cars I have seen come in this week likely hit someone elses vehicle, devalued or wrote off their car, and potentially injured them at the expense of someone elses irresponsibilty and frugality.