What snow tires do you guys use?

[TDIPWR33]

I must say I am exited about trying out the new Toyo Observe GSI-5 studless snow tires. Seems like they have some good technology put into the tire. Similar to the Nokian tires (inventors of the snow tire) I must say that the Pirelli Carving snow tires have worked wonders for me in the past, but they don't make my size tire anymore. The Pirellis are tested by someone crazy like me as excellent Let us know which ones you like.

 

[imo000]

Any winter tire is better than the best all season tire so in essence, doesn't matter that much what kind you have as long as they are winter tires. I usually go with cheap brands.

 

[steve6]

The cheapest ones I can find

 

[ScottySK]

I have Hakkapeliita's on both of my vehicles. New 7 series studded on my '07 T&C van and 5 year old RSi series on the MK4 Jetta. Best brand of snow/ice tires I've used. The RSi's haven't shown their age at all; wear very well, haven't seen diminshed performance like hardened compound and drive very nice. Some winter tires get squirmy at speed/warmer weather, these don't.

I had Hankook I-Pike W409 on my '03 Spec V, didn't like them all that much, tire tread seemed to harden quickly after a winter and ice performance was sub-par. Also would get real darty when temps were above freezing. I've run other brands but can't remember and by now, they're old news anyways. I've used dedicated winter tires for 15 years now, well worth it.

Cheaping out on tires in any season is not my way of thinking, they're the only thing between you & the road after all. Buying a good quality tire will last you longer, perform better and perform well right until the end of life. Cheap ones, generally will not.

 

[drew80a]

Michelin x-ice i3 on both cars

 

[Savageman69]

ive used

Michelin arctic alpins
cooper weather masters
continental extreme winter contacts
gislaved nordic frost 5s

and this year i just bought a set of general altimax arctics to try, have good reviews and made under continental umbrella and german made so give them a shot.

Only tires i wasnt fond of was the coopers, to hard and squirrelly...the rest were awesome. I think the extreme winter contacts were the best to date yet.

 

[gord273]

Avoid Barum Polaris 3. Car came with them and they are total garbage. Terrible tire wear and terrible performance. Thankfully they won't last beyond this season and I can get new ones next year.

 

[TDIGAZ]

I have Michelin all seasons for the summer's, and was going to buy Michelin x-ice for the winter's, but could not, at the time, justify the cost.
I decided to buy a set of Sailun Ice Blazers 3 years ago, (great deal buy 3, get 4th free).
Since 95% of my winter travelling is on a clear and dry HWY 401, I did not want to spend too much on winter tires since they wear down much quicker on dry roads.
They have performed surprising well and have held up very well also. After 40k still have lots of tread left. So will be installing them for their 3rd winter in a couple of weeks.
As ScottySK says...

... Cheaping out on tires in any season is not my way of thinking, they're the only thing between you & the road after all. Buying a good quality tire will last you longer, perform better and perform well right until the end of life. Cheap ones, generally will not.

This is typically my philosophy also, and was concerned that the Sailuns would end up being a poor decision, but so far I'm very pleased with them.

 

[mrrhtuner]

Any winter tire is better than the best all season tire so in essence, doesn't matter that much what kind you have as long as they are winter tires. I usually go with cheap brands.

The cheapest ones I can find

wow wow there guys...some people on this forum don't want you to endanger their lives with your cheap chinese tires...

Our 04 mk4 has Gislaved Nordfrost and my 00 mk4 has wal-mart special winter tires that were incredibly well priced last year.

Both work excellent when compared one to another. Obviously the 500.00 Nordfrosts work better but the chinese wal-mart tires work much better then my Michelin allseasons.

 

[steve6]

find the huge difference is just going from all seasons to winters. The difference in winter tires between brands is marginal.

I drove from ottawa to toronto the day of the ice storm last year in December

https://www.dropbox.com/s/39ynx4xib7uqhs4/2013-12-22%2014.04.32.jpg?dl=0

 

[yatzee]

I'm a nokian guy all the way - just picked up a set of R2's for the GTI - looking forward to trying them when the snow flies

 

[2.2TDI]

find the huge difference is just going from all seasons to winters. The difference in winter tires between brands is marginal.
I drove from ottawa to toronto the day of the ice storm last year in December
https://www.dropbox.com/s/39ynx4xib7uqhs4/2013-12-22%2014.04.32.jpg?dl=0

Holy crap... bet that wasn't fun...

I have goodyear nordic winters, noisy as hell but whatever, got them for cheap with good tred.

 

[yatzee]

Any winter tire is better than the best all season tire so in essence, doesn't matter that much what kind you have as long as they are winter tires. I usually go with cheap brands.

I agree that any tire is better than an all season, but they are not all created equal. Getting reliable professional reviews isn't all that easy, but there are better ones and worse ones. The best of this years crop appear to be the Nokian Hakka 8, the Hakka R2, the Michelin xice 3, and the Conti Extreme Winter Contact.

For southern ontario, the Extreme winter contact would probably be a good bet as it behaves the most like an all season tire on the dry. The Nokian tires were more pure winter tires, while the michelin was in the middle

 

[nkgagne]

I think the important thing is to not run studdable tires without studs and expect them to grip ice. Pony up for a studless-type tire such as the EWC, x-ice, Blizzak, Toyo, et al.

I agree the EWC is a good all-around tire. My only complaint is that to get full traction, it needs to slide a little - which the electronic nannies won't allow. Hence, it feels slipperier on ice than it really is. Tire rack also alluded to this quality, saying you really have to switch off the traction control to get good bite. Too bad there's not an ABS off switch, so the braking could be better. It has been pretty forgiving in the tread wear department, and if you've seen me drive around town, you know what an accomplishment that is. I'm very lucky to get three seasons on a set of Winters. I've never run the Toyo, but it looks like a great concept and is designed to work without studs. I say try them and report back.

 

[DumpInfo]

Michelin x-ice i3 on both cars

Same here they are great tires!

 

[lapse]

Cheapest ones on Craigslist.

 

[yatzee]

A lot of guys have made comments saying that they'll buy 'the cheapest tire'

I'm not sure if it's common knowledge but snow tires harden over time and if they're too hard, they behave like summer tires on ice, therefore negating any advantage. Sure, they help is snow still, but not on ice...

 

[lapse]

It's pretty easy to see if the rubber is pliable and has good tread.

 

[BigBadThor]

I must say I am exited about trying out the new Toyo Observe GSI-5 studless snow tires. Seems like they have some good technology put into the tire.

Just put a new set on yesterday. So far I'm digging riding around on walnut shells!

 

[Dirtracr95]

Im probably going to just buy a set of altimax's since they are cheap and pick up a craigslist set that I can really stud and try some ice racing for the first time

 

[TDIPWR33]

Looks like we are getting some good responses here. I had cheap winter tires, they were tiger paws and they were garbage but I guess you can say they were better then all seasons. After my experiences with the tiger paws I made a decision to buy new "better" tires and found the Toyo tires to be interesting as they utilize same technology as the Nokian tires. I didn't even know you can buy Nokians here in Ontario because they are not talked about much, or advertised easily. I found out about them for the first time when shopping around online and comparing tires. I think that in certain parts of Ontario where studs are illegal, you should find stud less tires like certain Nokian and toyo tires; as mentioned before a tire designed for studs will not grip as well w/o them. Walnut shells is a cool concept, let alone other features of the tires. It kind of separates them from the rest. They actually even have carbon in the rubber of there tires which if I rmemeber correctly absorbs water to prevent hydroplaning. Nexen walmart tires are horrible. After buying there all-season tires I will not ever try anything Nexen ever again, very bad experiences from first hand use of them. What works for you might not work for me however. I am more of I guess you can say "aggressive driver" Pirelli does make a decent tire, but for the same money I would go Nokian or toyo because of there unique qualities. Pirelli has done a very good job for me for being a studded tire used w/o studs

 

[drew80a]

For all you cheap TDI guys putting on crap tires thinking any snow is better than nothing.
This consumer alert was on tv last night.
http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=490350&playlistId=1.2099535&binId=1.815892&playlistPageNum=1&binPageNum=1

 

[imo000]

All seasons are called "no season" for a reason. They are so so in all seasons. Summer tires.are good innthe summer and winter onemin winter. All season tires are lile a jack of all trades, mster of none. They are fine for most conditions in the winter but when the worst hits, their lack of performance will show. Also, during emergency situations, the all season tire will not perform as well as a winter one. Most people drive on all seasons and that's ok BUT I think there should be a law to make winter tires mandatory. It only makes sense.

 

[yatzee]

All seasons are called "no season" for a reason. They are so so in all seasons. Summer tires.are good in the summer and winter one in winter. All season tires are lile a jack of all trades, mster of none. They are fine for most conditions in the winter but when the worst hits, their lack of performance will show. Also, during emergency situations, the all season tire will not perform as well as a winter one. Most people drive on all seasons and that's ok BUT I think there should be a law to make winter tires mandatory. It only makes sense.

I'm sorry, but I disagree. Brand new all-season tires get hard a 7c, so they'll be useless in the snow. Maybe a bit more tread depth will help in snow, but you'll still have no traction on ice. In the end, I'm not so concerned about the snow - it's the ice that worries me, especially black ice.

At this point, there is only 1 all season tire on the market (that has the snow flake on the sidewall). After that, you have summer tires (or touring tires) and you have performance tires that wear out quickly.

 

[ro.sniper]

General Altimax here on my stock 16s alloys. Good price, made in Germany as a sub-brand of Continental. I have had them since last winter and they work really well.

I run full summer and full winter and nothing else.

 

[imo000]

I'm sorry, but I disagree. Brand new all-season tires get hard a 7c, so they'll be useless in the snow. Maybe a bit more tread depth will help in snow, but you'll still have no traction on ice. In the end, I'm not so concerned about the snow - it's the ice that worries me, especially black ice.
At this point, there is only 1 all season tire on the market (that has the snow flake on the sidewall). After that, you have summer tires (or touring tires) and you have performance tires that wear out quickly.

All seasons get harder in lower temperatures but they don't get to the point that they are useless. You must be mixing them up with summer tires. Those guys turn into hockey pucl when it gets below 10C.
As for black ice or ice clear ice in general, not even a good winter tire going to make much of a difference. Black ice is usually so smooth that the coefficient of friction is very low, too lof for any tire to have much grip. To get traction on ice, you need some snow on it. The snow compacts under the tire and stick to the ice and then the tire bites into that snow.

 

[nkgagne]

I disagree... Black ice is always super-slick but never so much that good tires won't make a difference. Only one have I had a feeling of NO grip on ice with winter tires, and that was a flash-freeze with grabby metallic brake pads. Otherwise, there is noticeably more grip. It's still slippery, but the difference is that you have some smidgen of grip, whereas with all-seasons it feels like you're at the mercy of gravity. The car will not stay stopped on a hill with all-seasons, and with Winters it will.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

If you're still running 14" wheels on your A3 snow tires in the correct 195/60-14 size are hard to find. I have three perfectly good 14" Blizzaks on wheels in my garage, the 4th has a cut in the sidewall, not repairable. I can't find any snow tire in that size in the US.

 

[vanbcguy]

I just put a set of Falken Eurowinter HS439s on Jezebel today. They're 195/55R15s. Haven't had any weather to speak of yet but it is definitely below 7c here right now, and I definitely can tell how much softer and stickier these are than my all seasons.

The Eurowinters are a "performance winter" tire - they are good on bare roads and wet roads at cold temperatures but they won't be as aggressive in deep snow as say a Nokian. However here in Vancouver heavy snow is somewhat rare, while cold wet days are quite common.

 

[pparks1]

I've driven though nearly 25 winters, last year was the first year I ever did snow tires. I got the General Altimax Arctic's and thought they were absolutely fantastic. Best handling winter car I have ever driven.