Snow Tires 2014 Edition

[RobertISaar]

so, since this seems to come up at least once a year, now seems like a good time since i need to get some winter rubber before i regret the all-seasons i have around.

 

any opinions/experiences with the following:

 

General Altimax Arctic

Firestone Winterforce

Goodyear Ultragrip Winter

Continental ExtremeWinterContact

Yokohama Iceguard

Dunlop Wintermaxx

Bridgestone Blizzak

 

of the 4 sizes of winter tires i'm looking at, these are the brands/models popping up on tirerack that i'm able to shell out money for(set of 4 for ~$300ish).

[WhatTheFehl]

so, since this seems to come up at least once a year, now seems like a good time since i need to get some winter rubber before i regret the all-seasons i have around.

 

any opinions/experiences with the following:

 

General Altimax Arctic - Good all around winter tire, if a little long in the tooth

Firestone Winterforce - Same as above. More of an aggressive snow tread whereas the Altimax Arctic is more of an ice tread. Both are studdable IIRC.

Goodyear Ultragrip Winter - Overpriced but decent. This replaced the Kelly/Pacemark Snowtrakker ST/2, which was an excellent tire. I personally feel the UltraGrip isn't nearly as good as the Snotrakker it replaced though.

Continental ExtremeWinterContact - The following pretty much describes my opinion of every Continental tire ever made: mehhhhhhh

Yokohama Iceguard - This is a shallow tread ice tire. This will do better on ice than in deep snow. It has a very sticky, very soft tread. I wouldn't expect to get more than a season or two out of these.

Dunlop Wintermaxx - I am not familiar with this tire.

Bridgestone Blizzak - The Blizzak has long been the go-to for winter tires. My personal opinion is that they are generally overpriced (though TireRack has had them insanely cheap lately) and not nearly as good as other tires on the market. Also by nature of their extremely soft tread, their performance will noticeably decrease with each season of use.

 

of the 4 sizes of winter tires i'm looking at, these are the brands/models popping up on tirerack that i'm able to shell out money for(set of 4 for ~$300ish).

 

 

Opinions above in bold

 

Me personally, I am getting ready to buy a set of Nokian Hakkapelittas for the Outback this winter. Good luck finding those at a reasonable price. They are some of the world's best but they are very expensive. I've always wanted to try them though.

[RobertISaar]

i was expecting your input Fehl, wasn't necessarily expecting that comprehensive though.

 

i don't think studs are going into these tires, we deal with a lot of snow and partially frozen slush, but not necessarily straight-up sheets of ice on the road(only generally in driveways).

 

looks like the General or the Firestone are in my immediate future. the Goodyear matches or beats the prices of those two in certain sizes, but don't necessarily sound like the best route for our conditions(unless i misread). i'm leaning more towards the General tire to have somewhat more of an advantage on the occasional ice without having to run studs, but i'm not sure if things quite work that way.

[Addicted To Boost]

I've run Blizzaks and the General Altimax Arctic in the winter. The Blizzaks were pretty good, but the Generals were much better. They have extremely soft sidewalls though, so be cautious when cornering.

[RobertISaar]

i wouldn't be ragging on it with snow tires..... that's what the 255(or maybe 265) summer tires will be there for.

 

a consensus of two isn't a large consensus, but unless anyone has a reason not to run them, generals are going to be the way i go, now to just pick a size.....

[Night Fury]

I preferred the blizzaks to the altimaxs. Nick and I traded tires. I dealt with the blizzaks with full tread and altimaxs with less than full tread. Nick did vise versa. So I'd say they're both safe bets, both have annoyingly soft sidewalls. Whichever you can get a better deal on, I'd say.

 

I took those blizzaks through 4 foot drifts. Shit was cray.

[revnrob]

Hakkapeliitta winter tires... They are like having Velcro on the tires. I have had a few sets over the years and they rock!!! they are not cheap but they sure make winter driving a lot less stressful.

[LuminaPower92]

When i worked for Saab and BMW, we sold a ton of those blizzak wheel and tire packages. People loved them and would switch from summer to those blizzaks almost right on schedule.

[GOT2B GM]

I've had multiple sets of Firestone winter forces, they work great. Still have some on the STS winter wheels. I have 1 year old Nokian Hakkas on the Denali, they work really well, but they should for almost double the money. Previous to the Hakkas I had winter forces on it, they worked well on it also.

 

Sent from my Z30 using Tapatalk

[Cutlass350]

It depends what your needs and concerns are.

 

For ice, and without cost being any issue, imho, Blizzaks still are the best by far.

Just look at any ice, ice/water test, done now, done in years past, etc.

Note, they do wear quickly. After 1/2 the tread is done, the tires are JUNK tires - do NOT use them. The special tread that grips the ice is only on the outer half of the tread. Again, I said cost not being an issue. They also wear VERY quickly at temps above ~55F. So, if you have wide temp swings (like some parts of New England or Colorado) you have to watch the temperature. Imho, having another car to drive for those few higher temp days is good.

 

So, for people like me, that live in a real city and where we have ice patches at just about every stop sign in the local neighborhood streets, and we have hills (plenty of hills ), Blizzaks have been my winter tire of choice since they first came out.

Note, for ABS (and even non-ABS cars) you need to have 4 winter tires with all of the same wear. The tires should be mounted on their own rims. Tires may do 1-2 off/on cycles. Many lower profile tires may not even last being taken off once (the bead tears).

 

Good Luck!

Edited September 26, 2014 by Cutlass350

[WhatTheFehl]

It depends what your needs and concerns are.

 

For ice, and without cost being any issue, imho, Blizzaks still are the best by far.

Just look at any ice, ice/water test, done now, done in years past, etc.

Note, they do wear quickly. After 1/2 the tread is done, the tires are JUNK tires - do NOT use them. The special tread

that grips the ice is only on the first half of the tire. Again, I said cost not being an issue. They also wear VERY quickly at temps above ~55F. So, if you have wide temp swings (like some parts of New England or Colorado) you have to watch the temperature. Imho, having another car to drive for those few higher temp days is good.

 

So, for people like me, that live in a real city and where we have ice patches at just about every stop sign in the local neighborhood streets, and we have hills (plenty of hills ), Blizzaks have been my winter tire of choice since they first came out.

Note, for ABS (and even non-ABS cars) you need to have 4 winter tires with all of the same wear. The tires should be mounted on their own rims. Tires may do 1-2 off/on cycles. Many lower profile tires may not even last being taken off once (the bead tears).

 

Good Luck!

 

Actually, cost not being an issue the Nokians are far superior to the Blizzaks. In any test that has included both the Blizzak and the Nokian they have either tied, or the Nokian outscored the Blizzak. Also, you should be aware that Nokian designed the original Blizzak. Bridgestone paid them to develop it for them because they did not have the technology.

[carkhz316]

Eh, I just bought a set of new WS70 Blizzaks for the G8. I had WS60's on the Impala and loved them. Mind you, I come from half-bald all seasons prior to my first winter tire purchase, so it was a night/ day difference for me. A buddy who is well versed in tire purchases sings praises of the General's, but I couldn't find any in a 18in rim size.

[runt]

I run Arctic claw txi in 225/60/16. For the most part they have been great. I've had them on three cars (01 GP GT, 03 Bonneville SLE, 07 GP GT). I find them to be a better snow tire than an ice tire but they do perform ok on ice. I've had them in some interesting places and they have yet to let me down.

 

Put it this way I've made the trip from Pittsburgh to my house with a constant 6" of snow on the ground and I swear I was the only car that wasn't spinning or sliding.

[19Cutlass94]

I have a set of almost brand new DUnlop Graspic GR-2's sitting in the workshop. I ran em for one winter when I had to drive the car. Those things where great! Although on wet roads they spun very easily if you werent careful. Im not sure why they gripped better in the snow and ice than on wet roads though. Still cant figure that out to this day.

[sl3196]

I got a sweet deal on blizzaks for the G8 last year and they were amazing! That being said I have never had snow tires on any of my FWD cars I've owned in the past.

[BS009]

I don't know why most people don't ever consider the Michelin X-Ice, but they're on par if not better than the Blizzak's. Usually every year there's either a new Blizzak or X-Ice that dominates the mainstream market. Last year the X-Ice 3 came out. This year the Blizzak WS-80 comes out.

I can't speak much about Nokians or Nitto's or anything like that but I'm sure they're amazing; all winter tires are amazing in the winter. Some are better for certain road conditions though.

 

Here's a useful resource for the more common snow tires: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=W&VT=C