What kind of tires are you running?

I'm up north, not too north... frm NYC currently working out of CT. We got hit with a blizzard... and will get hit with a bigger one on sunday. I had no troubles last night getting home... in factI took several of my co-workers home since their cars were stuck.... andI have sports tires on!!

I'm looking to switch my tires, thinking of using an "Ultra High Performance All-Season".

Consumer Reports rated These two as Best Buys for winter traction:

Continental ContiExtremeContact
Sumitomo HTR +

These trade ultimate dry and wet grip for better traction in snow. The Continental and Sumitomo did as well in the snow as a dedicated winter tire used as a control in our test.

These were the overall best reccomended:

Falken Ziex ZE-912
Nitto Neo Gen ZR

These were essentially tied, and both offered impressive wet and dry braking. While only fair in snow, they're far better than any summer tire. The Nitto is a relative bargain.


.. but also considering using Winter tires on my stock rims.... then switching to nicer sports rims and tires for the summer - at a considerable extra cost! If you do this please post, is it really worth the pain in the a** switching tires between the seasons?

also, NH_USArecently posted that the "Yoko TRZ's are the best kept secret in the tire world".. Do you know any otherbest kept secrets??

I'm most likely going with the Conti's listed above, however they stopped making them.. and i have to get them shipped... this sucks.

Anyone know some good alround tires that i can get at pep boys?? or the equivalent local tire shop?

 

I run Yoko's year round with no problem.

In my humble opinion - The slight advantage of dedicated snow tires are not worth the $$ when you have AWD or even front wheel drive as long as you have good tires to start with and they have good tread. In the "old days" we switched to studded tires in the winter, but many states have outlawed them.

 

If you ask anyone here in saint-petersburg (oops, not florida, but russia) - we have snow and ice on the road from november till march. Most of mid size cars (and certain percentage of cuvs) use seasonal tires, not all seasonal. You may find a long discussions seasonal vs. all season. But - try to stop on icy road without studs... I would use allseasonal only on snowly road - when it is only snow there, not ice underneath.

Changing tires is not a big hassle - it takes approx 30 mins to change all four. In addition to that you could do balancing and rims tests. Now, about the manufacturers. I belive that we have different brands, so let me just list it for reference: Goodyear UltraGrip, Gislaved NordFrost 5 (they know how to do tires in a winter finland!) and NOKIAN Hakkapeliitta - these are most popular here. I use Pirelly which is more inexpensive brand.

 

I'm running Pirelli P-Zero Nero M&S high perfo all seasons on 18's. Seem to be good in the snow & ice so far... I had Michelin Pilot Alpins on my stock 16's for the previous 3 winters and would HIGHLY recommend them if you choose to use separate winter tires.

 

thanks for responding.. all the way from russia! I think switching them living in St P.is a good idea. This is my first winter here in northern CT, its snowy but it comes and goes... so i'm weary of riding on snowies for the whole winter....

however, i live in an area with alot of steep hills.. imnear a small mountain. We get thismorning mist/fog that often freezes, creating black ice... ice that you can't really see on the tarmac. although i have quattro, i still slip around from time to time...my friend from Canada told me to get winter T's, he uses them on his S4 and plows through everyone.

 

Nokian WR

So far happy (1.5 Months of winter in Alberta)

 

Thin ice on a road - that is what I was talking about. Quattro, awd, 4matic helps to speed up but then you have to stop... think about this :-))

Studded tires have another gently hided feature - you loose studs from time to time and you have to replace the whole tire on average after 3-4 seasons (of course depending on usage)

 

How's the studded tires performance on a paved road (non-asphalt)? (Many places have regulations for studded tires usage) For completely icy roads I’d suggest a BTR, deflated tires----just a joke .

 

I have a got a set of Good Year Ultra Grip 3 winter tires that rock in bad weather and are decent on dry. They have maybe 500 miles no them only. Were about 900 mounted new from Discount Tire with transferrable warranty!

 

i live in MN. nothing beats an audi quattro with winter tires. i had kumho solus kh16 which is just an all season tire then i switched to kumho acsta axs which is an all season tire too but ultra high performance. there was a definite difference. so the tire you choose does matter. now i have blizzacs on. absolutely worth it. there is a reason they make a winter specific tire. the benefit to having two sets of tires is you can get a strictly performance based tire onsomenicerimsfor summer and run winter ties on the stockers when the snow is flying.now if you live somewhere where you only get snow 5 times a year, don't bother. but if you get a fair amount of snow go for it. studded tires are the ultimate but i think there are illegal in most states except for the ones with mountains.