New Michelin X-Ice Snow+

[edyvw]

It seems snow tire competition is heating up for next year. It is coming now with ice symbol.
https://michelinmedia.com/pages/blog/detail/article/c/a1448/

 

[Rand]

I'm excited about all the new choices.. although I wish they came out last year so we would have better feedback.

I not sure If I want to go VC8, icepeak, or snow+ on the 2020 elantra this is likely the last year on the VC7.

Still went right up the MIL's driveway when I was doing brakes today (in garage with 60k btu propane torpedo heater (brrrr.)
I even stopped at the steepest part on ice and packed snow... just to see how much traction they had.

The fwd equinox with nearly new pirelli all seasons (5000 miles on them)
struggled and I needed a faster running start.

Of course my subaru on michelin xice snows went right up even when I was going through the 14"+ stuff.. to get the car out of the way.
its basically where the snow went when I snowblowed the driveway.

While I haven't been overly impressed with the michelins they are clearly a good tire.

The VC7 has a really good mix of aggressiveness/tread voids for snow and slush, while still providing excellent grip.
I'm sure any of the new ones would be good.. but I'm tire OCD

Might come down to price if one is significantly cheaper due to sale etc.

 

[edyvw]

I'm excited about all the new choices.. although I wish they came out last year so we would have better feedback.

I not sure If I want to go VC8, icepeak, or snow+ on the 2020 elantra this is likely the last year on the VC7.

Still went right up the MIL's driveway when I was doing brakes today (in garage with 60k btu propane torpedo heater (brrrr.)
I even stopped at the steepest part on ice and packed snow... just to see how much traction they had.

The fwd equinox with nearly new pirelli all seasons (5000 miles on them)
struggled and I needed a faster running start.

Of course my subaru on michelin xice snows went right up even when I was going through the 14"+ stuff.. to get the car out of the way.
its basically where the snow went when I snowblowed the driveway.

While I haven't been overly impressed with the michelins they are clearly a good tire.

The VC7 has a really good mix of aggressiveness/tread voids for snow and slush, while still providing excellent grip.
I'm sure any of the new ones would be good.. but I'm tire OCD

Might come down to price if one is significantly cheaper due to sale etc.

Michelin is good proposition for me bcs. mife expectancy. We do lots of road trips, particularly to Vegas. I need snow tires to go over Rockies, part of Utah. But then I get to Vegas for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and it is 70 degrees.

 

[Sequoiasoon]

Next winter the Accord will need new something. We'll see what the reviews and sales/rebates bring at that time. Spare rims so an early fall sale is a good time.

Daughter-in-laws '21 Tucson will also get something winter, maybe the same whatever above. My son just picked up 4 factory rims with sensors for $150 total to use for winter.

 

[SubLGT]

 

[rstsco]

Although we live in central Texas, we often travel to Wisconsin, so I had bought a set of wheels and had VC8s installed on them. I swapped over to them prior to this recent winter storm, which laid down a bunch of sleet which the top then melted and refroze. Our driveway has a slope and my wife had no problem getting the Pilot in or out of the garage. We only have ~4" on each side going through the garage door, so I was worried about it slipping sideways. None.

My wife said when she was out, she only felt a slight slip one time, while many others were in the ditch. For reference, my neighbor had backed his F250 out of his driveway, and the streets were so slick, he decided not to go out after all. It took him several minutes to get his truck back into his driveway because all he could do was spin his wheels.

Not much of a test, but it's good to know they'll perform good on ice if needed on our trips up north.

 

[Sequoiasoon]

Tread looks the same as X-ice Snow at least on the media. It will be interesting to see the performance tests on whatever the new compound brings.

These are on my sons Forte, bought end of 9/25.

 

[Rand]

The xice snow is already pretty solid pattern. Looks aprox. the same and not tightened up farther(smaller void areas).. a win imo.
even the sipes look very similar below: xice snow (not plus)

 

[SubLGT]

Some details in the fine print. The biggest improvement over the original "Snow" is in wet braking.

Engineered for true winters, with advanced braking and control on ice, snow, slush, and cold, wet roads [1]
[1] Based on third party ice braking tests from 25 kph to 5 kph (16 mph to 3 mph), snow braking tests from 30 kph to 10 kph (19 mph to 6 mph), wet braking tests from 80 kph to 20 kph (50 mph to 12 mph), and dry braking tests from 100 kph to 0 kph (62 mph to 0 mph) using tires in size 235/55R19 on Audi Q5 vehicles, with the predecessor Michelin X-Ice Snow SUV tire as a reference (100%), the Michelin X-Ice Snow+ tire demonstrated a relative rating of 103.8% for ice braking, 101.3% for snow braking, 113.8% for wet braking, and 107.2% for dry braking.

In deep snow, the Michelin X-Ice Snow+ tire provides superior start-up traction compared to three leading competitors,[5]....
[5] Based on third party snow acceleration tests using tires in size 235/55R19 on an Audi Q5 vehicle, the Michelin X-Ice Snow+ tire accelerated 6.3% faster than the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 tire, 5.4% faster than the Continental VikingContact 8 tire, and 8.3% faster than the Nokian Hakkapeliitta R5 SUV tire. Actual on-road results may vary according to usage, road, and weather conditions.

 

[Rand]

The marketing people doing their jobs in that marketing announcement

So a tread compound change they are measuring against a 10 year old blizzak.
I do find interesting that the blizzak icepeak went back to nearly horizontal siping vs the multi directional.
Would have liked to see results vs the ws-90.

Reusing old molds? Michelin has had some of the generic'est tread pattern tires that perform with excellence.
Although I wouldn't classify this tread pattern as generic. It seems to me that historically most of their magic is in the tread compounds

 

[edyvw]

The marketing people doing their jobs in that marketing announcement

So a tread compound change they are measuring against a 10 year old blizzak.
I do find interesting that the blizzak icepeak went back to nearly horizontal siping vs the multi directional.
Would have liked to see results vs the ws-90.

Reusing old molds? Michelin has had some of the generic'est tread pattern tires that perform with excellence.
Although I wouldn't classify this tread pattern as generic. It seems to me that historically most of their magic is in the tread compounds

Yep. It is all about compound. And Michelin generally targets all performance aspects, not just emphasizing one or two. That begs for compromises. The question is whether they can balance those compromises.
Subjectively, I liked Michelin Latitude Xi2 far better than DM-V2, because it did everything good.

 

[Sequoiasoon]

The marketing people doing their jobs in that marketing announcement

So a tread compound change they are measuring against a 10 year old blizzak.
I do find interesting that the blizzak icepeak went back to nearly horizontal siping vs the multi directional.
Would have liked to see results vs the ws-90.

Reusing old molds? Michelin has had some of the generic'est tread pattern tires that perform with excellence.
Although I wouldn't classify this tread pattern as generic. It seems to me that historically most of their magic is in the tread compounds

For the comparison the starting traction is against the older DMV2 but the VC8 is from last year, pretty new. R5's are 3-4 years.

I have multiple decisions for this year so will be watchin many reviews. Definitely will need 2 full sets of winter tires come fall '26. 95% I'll need to get new 3 season for my Accord and then need to monitor daughter-in-laws Tucson an my daughters CRV.