Winter Wonderland -- Tires
 

Ok I know there are a bunch of you that all live in Cold Snow/Ice area's. I for my yrs of driving have never lived in that climate. Visited it alot but never lived in it. So cutting to the Chase. What are your recemendations for Winter/Snow/Ice Tires. Oh and please don't say studs! I want to preserve the roads I drive on spirted during the dry months.

RE: Winter Wonderland -- Tires
 

I don't really see it as needing to change your tires..........it's more like the need to change where you live.;)

Personally, I run Toyo T1-R tires in the summer, but my dad has always run the Blizzaks on his german sports cars. Oh, and he lives in Boston, so I guess you'd want to follow his advice. LOL

Really, the Blizzak is a great tire but expensive. There are a couple others that are a little more reasonable, but I'm not sure the brand. And, no studs on the Blizzak's.

Cheers!

RE: Winter Wonderland -- Tires
 

Studs are awsome!
On my mini cooper s with LSD i had winterforce studded snow tires, they were an absolute blast, most fun snow car i ever had, as long as the snow wasn't to deep. Ripping into turns, ebraking, drifting, I had so much control with those tires and that car, able to accelerate out of everything, I felt like I was in a ice rally car, haha... Anyways I bought the tires as a package with steel rims for a grand total of $480 at tirerack.com. I think the same set up now is $600 for the A3. I think I might try going with the pirelli winter carving tires for the mini, along with alloy winter rims instead of steelies. I hope the A3 is close to as fun in the snow as my mini was.

RE: Winter Wonderland -- Tires
 

Blizzaks (my experience was with WS-50s) are indeed excellent in snow and ice, but they are less great on merely wet roads, and are squirmy on dry runs driven with any sort of enthusiasm.

For winter driving here in the Pacific NW, I really like Dunlop Wintersport M2 and M3s. They work very well in snow and ice, andalso are great on dry and wet roads. They transformed my E36 BMW 325i with no traction control into an decent winter driving car (it had been pretty helpless in snow). They are quiet, unlike many winter tires, and also wear very well. The M2's on that BMW had 4 winters (about 12,000 miles) on them when I sold the car last month. I expect the new owner will get another year or two out of them. My wife actually prefers her M3s to the OEM Michelin All-Season tires that came on her Mazda6 wagon.

RE: Winter Wonderland -- Tires
 

My snow tires of choice are the ones that come on the best $1500 pickup I can find. Buy it in October, sell it in April for $1500. You cannot do more than $1500 damage to it in any event.Even if you need to put chains on it. And $1500won't even cover a fender bender on an A3.

My last one was a2WDFord Courier with 170K,beat paint, plaid seat covers, a 5Speed, a good defroster and some Brand-Xsnow tires. Add4 fifty pound bags of sand in the back and you're good to go.

RE: Winter Wonderland -- Tires
 

Ok Have one Stud lover?! A yes on the Blizzak and the M2, M3 and then the guy that suggests a beater. Winter here starts in Nov and ends in March-April Thats half a year in Crap no thanks. Will check out the reviews ontop of what was said here. Thanks alot. Anymore suggestions or agrements?

RE: Winter Wonderland -- Tires
 

FWIW, I saw the Tirerack.com ad for 16" steelies and Blizzaks for our A3, mounted and balanced for like $370. Also, I read the newest Consumer Reports where they tested all-season and summer performance tires with an A3 3.2. Kinda cool.[sm=shades.gif]

Cheers!

RE: Winter Wonderland -- Tires
 

I have lived in the Denver area for 19 years and have never used, nor known anyone to use winter specific tires. Unless you have a rear-drive sports car, normal all-season tires are fine 99.9% of the time. The rest of the time, you're inside with a steaming mug of hot chocolate laughing at the people outside trying to get to whatever job is making them shovel 4 feet of snow to get there that day.

panzrwagn approach to winter driving
 

The suggestion by panzrwagn makes complete sense. A primary concern about winter driving is the tires that others have mounted on their cars!
If someone is going to come slip-sliding into your vehicle....better that it's a beater and not your shiny A3. I'm spooning aggressive winter tires on my beater and calling it a day.

RE: panzrwagn approach to winter driving
 

I lived in Denver for 40 years (ending about one year after you arrived, apparently) including 7 years as a weekend ski instructor, and used dedicated winter tires for many of those years on both rear and front-wheel drive cars. Love the superior traction with four snows, and the new "performance winter tires" like those I mentioned previously really reduce the compromises when the roads aren't covered with snow and ice.