I have heard great things about the Nokians.
Currently have a set of Winterforces going on their 3rd season on our 06 Jetta. A set of Blizzak WS60s on my 00 Jetta on their 2nd season. A set of Michelin X-Ice xi3's on my Fiance's Mustang. A set of Blizzak W965's on our 03 Dmax and a set of Winterforce LT's on our 11 Dmax.
All have performed well, Its tough to rate them as the vehicles are so different. Seems the Blizzak always trumps the Winterforce and the X-Ice xi3's are poised to take the lead. I'd have to compare some WS70s to be fair, but the xi3s do look impressive and have been so far.
Essentially the way I ranked them is also the way you will pay from highest to lowest (Michelin,Bridgestone,Firestone)
The Winterforces are more of a deep snow tire, but I can't really tell if they are any better in it or not, on ice/packed snow they aren't as good. They are also noisy on the road, especially the LT version, boy does it throw rocks too.
All of the tires bite way harder than any all terrain/all season or even standard M&S rated tires.
Originally Posted By: kschachn
Yeah, I have Gislaved Nordfrost 5s on my BMW, and other winter tires on the two Toyotas. Once you have winter tires you become a "winter tire evangelist", it has gotten so bad I think my friends and family are tired of hearing me tell them how they are missing out.
It's like buying unpasteurized orange juice from a grove in Florida vs. frozen Minute Maid. Not even the same stuff.
I find myself looking at tire tracks in the snow, and glancing at every cars tires while walking through parking lots and boring people to death with any kind of tire info.
In the end most people are too cheap to buy any kind of good tire anymore, but when you find somebody who appreciates a good tire its like finding the needle in the haystack.
Originally Posted By: Falken
I only know that if you have a lot of cold and dry conditions and want long wearing Winter tire, Michelin X-ice tires are good.
I had a set of the first generation installed when I lived in Calgary and had to get into work at a small engineering firm and they were decent for those conditions.
In deeper snow they were horrible. On sheer ice they were horrible. But on dry, cold roads they were very long-lasting and felt like an all-season tire, no squirm whatsoever.
Anyone find Michelin X-I3's to be any good (the latest X-Ice version)?
The xi3's are very new. They are backordered everywhere in many sizes. A lot of the sizes still have no estimated delivery date, the ladies at account service told me that they are expecting to have the full line stocked for the 2013/2014 winter.
I ended up getting a set that Michelin was out of, but went through tire rack to get a set for my Fiance's Mustang. She won't let me play around too much (with the tires that is) but after some driving, examining them and reading others reviews they seem to be a very good tire for ice. The XI3 was supposed to tighten up the feel and improve some of the grip over the XI2. They redesigned a lot of the tread to work better in a lot of situations. They "suck up" more water to help with wet ice, and have webbing in the sipes to help stiffen up the feel. Theres some big articles out there about the changes.
Originally Posted By: lyle
Winter tires are getting TOO specialized now. You've got studless ice tires which are better than non-studded snows on ice but not as good in slush or deep snow, and studdable snows which are great in slush and snow but not as good as studless on ice, and now performance snow tires (???) which are not as good on ice and snow as the specialized tire, but will let you run 130mph+ (in the USA? huh?).
To me, where you live and how the locals clear the roads are most important in your selection of sub-species of winter tire. In 36 years of driving with winter tires, slush and deep snow mobility is paramount to ice traction, because of where I live. It's more apt to snow than rain and freeze here. The locals are really good at removing the snow and spreading salt, so what you usually get is slush before it all gets plowed away. Any snow that gets packed down is removed pretty quickly, so ice traction isn't the principle concern, where I live.
I respectfully disagree with you for the same reasons I disagree with people who only feel they need snow tires on the driving axle especially on a RWD car. Okay your statement isn't as bad as the RWD folks but still.
To each their own but hear me out.
The point of a winter/snow/ice tire is safety, not how big of a drift can I get through or how fast can I get to work. Therefore while you may plow through a little deeper snow faster than the guy with the ice tires, when the icy intersection shows up he'll be stopping and you'll be sliding through. Same goes for an icy hill. You may be thinking I am talking in extreme circumastances, but think about it once more. The tires you prefer for deep snow/slush you prefer because they allow you to get through more and faster, however they lack safety on ice. The ice tire will never lack safety on ice, if it can't get through the snow drift as fast or at all, then so be it, you wont be caught sliding into someone. The point is that for the most part, an Ice tire is going to provide you with the potential to have a safer drive as it will lack the ability to hammer through some areas too quickly for its own good. It will always have the handling, just might not have the get up and go.
Just like the people I argue with about only putting snow tires on their rear two tires of their RWD vehicles. Its the opposite of what you want to accomplish. All they care about is traction when accelerating. How can I get up to speed the fastest. Its backwards thinking. What are you going to do with all of that acceleration? You wont be able to steer, you front does the majority of the braking and has all of the weight to do so? The effect in a FWD car is much lower, fishtaling is the main issue.
You also have to determine the snow type. In another thread I was talking about our most recent blizzard which was very wet and heavy. Our truck snow tires looked very non-agressive. I thought they would such. However their design doesn't dig through the snow, it packs it down and drives on top of the now hard packed snow which is like ice, the area your slush tires would be spinning. In fluffy snow things are different, but if you can ride up on top of the packed snow, you may be surprised when you see an ice tire going through more than your snow/slush tires which sit there digging a hole.
