A/S tire suggestions for Subaru Legacy

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Looking to replace the terrible OEM Bridgestone Turanza tires on my 2012 Subaru Legacy (205/60/16 91V) as I cannot survive another winter with these tires. I do not plan on running dedicated snows as I do not drive a lot and typically use my wife’s car with dedicated snows when the roads are bad.

However, I would like to find a good all-season tire that has decent snow performance. I know A/S tires are the master of nothing, but I have had good success with A/S tires in the past with my last couple subies.
 
They can be expensive but take a peek at Nokian WR G2 or maybe Nokian WR G3 now. They are basically winter biased all-seasons and we loved these tires over the years in various iterations.

The dealers locally thankfully are reasonable on these tires but they can be expensive.

We got the highly regarded Continental ExtremeContact DWS after a man hole ring ruining our WR G2's at 40k. The well used WR G2's were better in winter conditions then brand new Conti extremeContact DWS.
 
Second the WR G2 or G3.

One thing I have noticed about Nokian dealers (when I can find one - the closest one I know of is like an hour away) is they tend to keep the outgoing models in stock for a good price.
 
I haven't used any of these, but my research pretty much singled out the tires below as the all seasons with the best winter performance:

Nokian WR G2/G3
Continental ExtremeContact DWS
General Altimax RT43
 
I had WRG2's but didn't like them, fast wear, high cost and not as good as a real snow tire. And IIRC they go loud towards the end, although my car has had wear issues, so it might just be my car. Seems like a lot of cost to avoid swapping tires. Probably not so bad if I was willing to replace once/year (on a 25-30kmile/year driving schedule) but a bad fit for someone driving say 15k/year, as the second winter the tire is no longer a snow tire. Since you won't drive much on them in winter (defaulting to the car with actual snows), I'd lean away from the WRG2's and into almost anything else.

Am going to try out the RT43's year, so if you don't mind waiting I'll let you know in about 3-4 months.
wink.gif
 
My wife's forester is nigh unstoppable with conti dws on it. Expect 35-40k life span. Get you alignment checked, you want the fronts set zero toe.

I'm thinking about hankook noble s2 for my 'winter tire' on the legacy. I ran dws on it too. Lowered, and 10" of snow was not a problem, even with low tread.
 
Originally Posted By: 05LGTLtd
My wife's forester is nigh unstoppable with conti dws on it. Expect 35-40k life span. Get you alignment checked, you want the fronts set zero toe.


That was our problem with the Conti DWS, they are unstoppable in winter conditions compared to WR G2 when STOPPING. We managed 40k with 6/32" tread left and a manhole split the sidewall(still held air) on our 2005 Subaru Legacy.
 
Originally Posted By: rjundi
That was our problem with the Conti DWS, they are unstoppable in winter conditions compared to WR G2 when STOPPING.

LOL!

I can confirm the same experience with DWS on the wife's 4matic. I'd take WR over them anytime. Still kicking myself for buying the DWS in the first place based on the rave reviews.
 
Haha, didn't mean it like that. Never felt like I couldn't stop with the conti's on in weather. They are also pretty fearless in wet conditions, esp when 60%+ tread left. Spendy, but a very good all around tire.
 
How do you drive through 10" of snow on a lowered car? Must be powder. At about 6" my vehicles are suffering badly. Even with good tires my Jetta tends to high-end on that much snow.
 
Thanks for the input; the Nokian’s seem expensive and perhaps a bit extreme since I do 90% of my driving on clear roads. I have heard a lot about the DWS tires but they do not come in my size? I was thinking about the Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season, they seem to have amazing reviews.

Anyone have any winter experience with these tires?
 
Wow everyone seems to like the Nokian. I'm partial to Michelin, and the wife's Jeep has had the same set of Michelins on them now for more than 160k with probably enough tread for this winter. They have been great in every condition, wet, dry, light offroading, snow, with the exception of deep mud. I will buy Michelin again.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSearchResults.jsp?customSizeSearch=&performance=ALL&width=205%2F&ratio=60&diameter=16
 
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While I have had good experiences with Nokian Hakkapeliitta in the past, my take now is to go with Hankook 4S all weather tires.

It handled the past winters we had reasonably well, and it's fairly economical to purchase in my case (I'm running 14" on my fit). we tend to have black ice and sometimes snows (not too much to cause "hanging") and so far, 4S has handled them in a competent manner.

That said, however, it's not without shortcomings:

e.g.

some significant tire squirms on dry road due to tire compound (all softer, winter tire compound or high silica based rubbers with winter threads tend to make squirmy sound).

some unnecessary "flex" on the tires during the hottest summer dry weather....rubber compound becomes too soft during high heat I presume? and compounded by 65series standard height, the flex is obvious.

wear rate is a bit higher than ordinary all-season tires (esp. those touted as "longer thread life rating" ones).

not a high-speed,high-performance type of tires to begin with.

fuel economy is pretty much on par with my previous Dunlop (OEM) SP317 tires, with no significant penalty detectable.

All in all, they have been on my car for 2+yrs now, and have performed admirably so far (winter, summer, etc.) just don't expect super high performance under extreme weather (e.g. can't compare with Bridgestone blizzark/Pirelli Scorpion during winter time).

Q.
 
Those Hankook 4S look nice but I do not think they sell them in the US. They almost look like a cheaper version of the Nokians WG2/WG3 tires.

Ideally looking for a A/S with the best winter grip...while still allowing me decent warm weather performance.
 
If you want unstoppable go full on winter tire.
nokian, michelin xice xi3, blizzack ws-80 yokohama ig-51v
etc.

if you have driven on All season your whole life and "that's good enough"

get general altimax rt43 (prefer H rated over T)
 
Keep the suggestions coming...just keep in mind the fitment:

2012 Subaru Legacy (205/60/16 91V)
 
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