Winter tire suggestions

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dgunay

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Hey fellas, I am on the market for a new winter tire set (205/55/R16), here are some options - Bridgestone Blizzak WS80 - Michelin X-Ice XI3 - Continental Wintercontact SI - Pirelli Ice Zero FR I checked Tirerack's website but couldn't find tests for the Wintercontact and Ice Zero FR. There are few to no reviews of these tires, since they are relatively newer than the others. I am curious if any BITOG'ers (especially driving FWD) use any of these tires, and I would like to hear good/bad experiences about them. Thanks in advance. Dan
 
how often do you get deep snow... 8"+ Dont know much about those particular pirelli winter tires. but they appear to be more of a performance winter tread pattern.. with a lower speed rating. I'd probably go with the michelin xice xi3 or the continentals but a sale could sway me to the blizzaks or possibly the pirelli tires. No wrong choice in there. The michelins will wear much better(40000mile warranty in USA), maintain better mpg, feel like a normal passenger tire(vs the blizzak esp). If everything was equal... price, availability,etc that would be my first choice.
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
how often do you get deep snow... 8"+ Dont know much about those particular pirelli winter tires. but they appear to be more of a performance winter tread pattern.. with a lower speed rating. I'd probably go with the michelin xice xi3 or the continentals but a sale could sway me to the blizzaks or possibly the pirelli tires. No wrong choice in there. The michelins will wear much better(40000mile warranty in USA), maintain better mpg, feel like a normal passenger tire(vs the blizzak esp). If everything was equal... price, availability,etc that would be my first choice.
I rarely drive on deep snow. Continental is $143.xx Canadian - $65 mail in rebate. Also Canadian Tire offers 12% cash back + 24 months equal payment. Seems like this is the best deal so far. Pirelli $142.xx - $80 mail in rebate Bridgestone $136.xx - $70 mail in rebate Michelin $170 and no rebate
 
The Pirelli seems to be the outlier in that group. I’d get whatever’s cheapest among the other 3.
 
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you dont need deep snow to realize the benefits of winter tires. deep, wide tread pattern with softer compounds and tons of siping. all of those in your list are excellent choices. I've had the Blizzaks for two seasons on three of our cars. two are FWD, one is AWD.
 
Originally Posted By: dgunay
I rarely drive on deep snow. Continental is $143.xx Canadian - $65 mail in rebate. Also Canadian Tire offers 12% cash back + 24 months equal payment. Seems like this is the best deal so far.
I'd get the continentals at that price. Its a very new modern winter tire. I loved my conti extreme winter contact tires. Amazing in the snow. The new model you are looking at are tweaked to give up little of the deep snow traction and have better handling, packed snow/ice performance and less noise. A great tire for Toronto conditions. I just picked up some blizzak dmv2 on MB14 wheels for my cherokee trailhawk. 390$ in rebates for black friday on wheels and tires.. total around $1020-390= $630 out the door. All the tires I wanted were out of stock in stock size.. and only michelins available would have ended up being 200$ more in a goofy alternative size(smaller) Went big with 245/70r17 blizzaks.
 
Bridgestone has a $70.00 rebate on qualifying set of Blizzak tires. You would have to go to their website or just go to tire rack and check there. I did just buy another new set of Blizzak's for my Subaru. Mine were dm v2'sthey did qualify for th rebate and tire rack was the cheapest place. Walmart usually has the lowest price, but not this time. I have Blizzak's on my chevy for the winter tires also, so I'm happy with Blizzak's. But, I belive Michelin has a rebate going on the icex, and belive it or not, they are just about the same price as Blizzak's.
 
Only have limited experience of all season and Winter tyres. Michelin Alpin PA3 on work vehicles were very good. I have had Nexen Winguards on the Berlingo Multispace that I just gave away for two years, Winter and summer use, they wore great and show hardly any wear despite having well over 10k on them. Had GoodYear UltraGrip tyres, can’t remember which ones but they were nice enough though had a slightly squidgy feeling to them on my V50 Volvo. I have just fitted Dunlop SP Winter Sport 4Ds to my S Class in OE MO spec and so far they feel great, no extra noise, no extra vibration and they feel just as direct as the OE Continentals that came off. £620 fitted and balanced . Also just had a full set of GoodYear Vector 4 Season G2 tyres fitted to my daughters Kia Picanto for £284 fitted and balanced, not cheap but the 165/60/14 size is rare and that pushes up the price! I don’t think any of those premium brand sthe OP is considering will be poor performers. Money no object Inwould go for Michelin. I used the Michelin Alpin PA3 on work vehicles and they were a very good tyre.
 
Have you checked tire prices at Costco? Also, CAA members get discounts or promos on Pirelli tires. I saw the ice zero's in person and they appear to be well constructed. Soft compound and solid sidewalls. Im no Pirelli fan though. Nokians are a bit more of a pain to find but worth looking at.
 
Below is Consumer Reports winter non-performance tire ranking (green only). On my previous vehicle, Scion XB, I had the Dunlop WinterMaxx 205/55/16. They served me well for 4 winters. On my current vehicle I have Gislaved NordFrost 100's. Fantastic winter tire but availability or its derivative could be an issue.
 
Thanks for all input I checked Gislaved tires, and you are right. Hard to find one in a physical store (I don't like to shop online when it comes to tires), and price is almost same with big 4 brands.
 
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Have you checked tire prices at Costco? Also, CAA members get discounts or promos on Pirelli tires. I saw the ice zero's in person and they appear to be well constructed. Soft compound and solid sidewalls. Im no Pirelli fan though. Nokians are a bit more of a pain to find but worth looking at.
I've never used Pirelli before. However, I would prefer Pirelli over Goodyear. In the past, I used Goodyear Nordic tires for 4 years, and it was a horrible experience. It was really loud and grip was average. Now I am sure anything on the list above will perform better than those Goodyear [censored], so price and road noise are my priorities.
 
Originally Posted By: dgunay
Hey fellas, I am on the market for a new winter tire set (205/55/R16), here are some options - Bridgestone Blizzak WS80 - Michelin X-Ice XI3 - Continental Wintercontact SI - Pirelli Ice Zero FR...
APA of Canada likes the WS80 and Nokian R2. More of their opinions are here: http://www.apa.ca/wintertire_reviews.asp I've seen a few overseas tests of the Pirelli, and it generally scores behind the best winter tires from MIchelin, Nokian, Continental, Bridgestone, and Goodyear.
 
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Out of that list I would go for the ws80 of I had to but I would strongly consider the new general altimax arctic 12. I have a set of the older model arctics on steel wheels for the mr2 and they are excellent for the money. The new "12" model is even better.
 
Originally Posted By: dgunay
Thanks for all input I checked Gislaved tires, and you are right. Hard to find one in a physical store (I don't like to shop online when it comes to tires), and price is almost same with big 4 brands.
The Gislaved website doesn't tell you where to find stores? (or emailing them) You can always go with the General brand, which uses older Gislaved tires. The "new" Altimax Arctic 12 is a NordFrost 100.
 
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I've had a couple sets of X-ice (1 and 2) and they are good quiet tires. I wouldn't rate wet braking as bad as CR has the X-ice 3 but maybe they messed up on the newest version, as I've had much worse wet braking with studdable winter tires.
 
Originally Posted By: dgunay
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Have you checked tire prices at Costco? Also, CAA members get discounts or promos on Pirelli tires. I saw the ice zero's in person and they appear to be well constructed. Soft compound and solid sidewalls. Im no Pirelli fan though. Nokians are a bit more of a pain to find but worth looking at.
I've never used Pirelli before. However, I would prefer Pirelli over Goodyear. In the past, I used Goodyear Nordic tires for 4 years, and it was a horrible experience. It was really loud and grip was average. Now I am sure anything on the list above will perform better than those Goodyear [censored], so price and road noise are my priorities.
I used GY Ultra Grip Ice WRT tires for 3 seasons and they were fine for me, I do a lot of highway driving in dry conditions in winter as well as having to deal with living in a hilly area that can really get socked by Noreasters and driving up to ski in storms and they were capable enough to keep me going. I am not very brand loyal and ended up replacing them with Hakka R2 SUVs that I found on sale in the spring, those have not seen hardcore winter conditions yet but they definitely require me to adjust my driving when it gets unseasonably warm...never had that issue with the GYs. These Hakka better be absolute beasts in snow and on ice to make up for their braking in warm (for winter), dry conditions.
 
Do you have a extra set of rims/wheels? Can the car (brake calpier) take a minus one setup? 195 65r 15 may be better in the snow on all 4. I went from 16" to a minus 2 setup (14" Dia) in steel on my Honda.
 
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