Winter Tires

The tires the dealership sold my car to me with were crap, I knew that from the get go & hoped to burn them up enough that I wouldn't feel guilty reskinning the wheels come winter.

My plan - buy some sweet winter tires to put on my stock rims & save change til spring for a set of 17's to put some fair weather meat on.

The hitch - got a flat tire the other day. I think it was an in and out nail puncture, might be able to "fixflat" the problem away for a while. In any case I want to get rid of these crap tires.

The question - is it too early to put winter rubber on, bearing in mind I want to put a dedicated "the weather is crap" type tire on my 16's. Also, I have only been in MN 1 year, I don't have any idea how bad it is gonna get, how soon.

The other question - sooner or later I am gonna want some killer snow tires. Been looking hard at the Pirelli "carving" tires, but will gladly accept advice from people who have actually driven a Subaru through a MN winter. Last winter my Jetta got impounded and auctioned and I finished out the winter with a "new" Beetle Turbo who's clutch got eaten by the traction control system . . . so FWD was most of my recent driving and I am really, really, wanting to make it through a MN winter without repair bills that have my anus twitching like I just graduated a hardcore vid that didn't have any women. So, what tires do I want on my 16's?

 

If you want some killer snow tires. You should hop onto my nokian hakka snow tire group buy. You will find it on the vender listings

 

Timing, now or latter? I have looked at the Nokians & not without a small tent pitched. They are the bomb? & is it too early to mount them? Still yet, that is a brand I have 0 experience with. I have never been let down by Pirelli. Nokians or Pirelli?

 

Nokians, no question.

 

"Snow season" in MN isn't until November. Occasionally we'll get a lil' snow in late October, but not a great enough chance to burn the nice grippy layer off your specialty snow tires that early.

 

Even in winter, 90% of your typical driving is on clear roads (either cold+wet or cold+dry.) So imho you really aren't loosing out that much going with a slightly less-hardcore snow tire. (Like the WR mentioned, or the Dunlop M3, and Blizzak has a couple now I believe.) They will stand up better to higher temps.

 

I have nokian snow tires for four of my cars and have used them for ten years or so. They are great and hold up well. They are really fun for ice events if you like to ice drive/race

 

the first day it hits 40 in the morning i put on the snows.

it's more of a, "****!! THESE THINGS DON"T ****ING GRIP!!!" issue than a straight up snow issue.

 

personally couldnt tell you.. for 3 yrs I have runt he stock tires that came on my 03 WRX thorugh every winter... never been in a ditch, never had a problem and I drive out to my in-laws on country roads all the time too... although this season I was planning on upgrading to a Nokian or Blizzak to try them out... but looking at my tires I have enough to go another winter... so I am watching all these tire threads with curiosity

 

well, the blizzak revo 1's dominate when there is snow on the ground, and are unimpressive and downright unfun to drive on dry pavement. its a trade off, but I can say that driving a few times in heavy snow the blizzaks were worth every penny, but I definitely had to slow down daily driving.

 

ive got the blizzacs on steel rims for my car, i like them alot, usually put them on after the first snow fall.

 

no to mention that this thing completely OWN on the ice!

 

I run dunlops M&S tires on factory wheels from mid nov thru early April. "Austinpike" was accurate in pointing out that even with the snow tires on...still not hardly any snow on the road, at least if you live in the metro.

 

So....they are on? It was 39 last week (Tues morn, I think)

 

i'm gonna be rocking pirelli sottozero's this winter!! apparently they are designed to give snow traction without giving up dry performance. they are a new offering from pirelli i think cause tirerack didn't have many reviews on them at all, or any testing, so we'll see.

the tread pattern definately looks bad ass though for a winter tire

 

I will be on the good ole RE92s. Doesnt get much better than that.

 

If you want a good mix of winter grip and decent dry road performance, look at Blizzak's Wintersport M3 tires. My bro has these for his Protege 5. I was quite impressed with how they handled. I personally own a set of Nokian WR tires as I was expecting to run them as an all-season tire. I eventually got a set of summer rims and tires anyways. The WRs are great tires, no akilies heel in any conditions. However, they simply do OK everywhere. They are an all-season silicon compound, 400 treadwear, 50,000 mile, that's built like a winter tire, lots of siping, agressive winter oriented tread, soft carcass. Tire pressure is important for getting them to feel right. Too little and they're squirmy, too much and they get a little bouncy over bumps. A couple psi above or below 40 is the sweet spot.

Going back to the M3s. Compared to the WRs, they do offer greater winter grip. The compound is softer and the tread is more aggressive, deeper, and more widely spaced. They just want to grab more than the WRs on anything involving snow or ice. On pavement, they do equally well. The M3s have a very stiff sidewall leading to very, very little tire flex. In fact, the only flex you notice is the tread. For being soft and quite deep, it's understandable. The bonus is dry grip is quite high, more than you'd think high. My bro runs Yokohama V4Ss for the other 3 seasons. He says they grip better than those on dry, lol. I've ridden with him on both tires taking off ramps at max speed. The M3s do stick well. Some people have used them all year round. Wear doesn't seem to bad. They'll probably get a bit squirmy when the weather warms up though.

The WRs do better year round. They can handle warm weather and lots of miles. The M3s are geared primarily for winter providing as softer compound and agressive tread. If you want winter only, M3s are better. They won't disappoint you on the dry patches either.

 

Thanks all, My jury is still out.. . . haven't made a decision yet. The stuff many posted about not much snow in the metro really got me rethinking. I don't go outside a five mile radius of Snelling and University much. Quiet life, I know.

It sounds like full on "winter tires" might amount to "loading for bear to hunt turkey". . . . given the environment I actually spend most of my time in.

So the suggestions that include good dry/cold handling (Zapman mentioned pirelli sottozero's) sound more like what I should be looking at. Please keep the good leads rolling. looks like my POS tires may hold air for another week or so.

 

Just put my snows on yesterday. Early...maybe, but had the time. I went with the Blizzak LM25's.
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