Snow Tires Recommedations!
 

I live in New York and i want to prepare my self this year with new tires for the winter. What do you guys think its best tires and very good price too.

Dude there's like a million snow tire threads actively going right now. Search.

Blizzak WS80 or Xice3 or Nokian Haka 8

Depends on your area, in New York I will recommend X-Ice.

You might not need some crazy winter tires for heavy snow, you need handling on highway and dry road too. X-ice handled as good as all-season on dry road.

The three winter tire I named perform the same :)


WS80, XIce3 and Haka 8

For mostly dry/wet with some snow/ice I'd recommend the Nokian WRG3...

Haka8 is studded and an ice tire over even snow. Haka R2 is snow over ice, and outperforms about anything in that category (as does the 8 on ice) but overall, WRG3 is superior due to its wet/fry performance.. X-ice3 is the next closest that fits our car.

Tires are the second most important safety component of a car(after driver) - don't skimp. Nokians are more up front but typically perform more consecutive seasons and further into wear. Just put WRG3's on my wife's Prius. Shy of $600 out the door, and I was impressed with their performance.

C

I live just close by New York, actually more in the north of you... So I know what it is like for you. Go with whatever tires that have been named here. I'm on Stock Wheels with Blizzak WS80

I'm more curious if there are any bad non studded winter tires out there four our sizes...

What do you call bad? There are some that perform worse than the better all season tires, and there is a lot of variance in how they handle snow, ice, dry, and wet surfaces.

Nokian, Michelin, Bridgestone, Continental, Pirelli all seem to have well rated snow shoes in good sizes for this platform - though I may be forgetting a manufacturer, I do believe the rest fall off significantly in one or more of the four noted areas.

Dry performance should be just acceptable for a snow tire. It should perform well in snow and wet. Ice on non studded? Not going to expect a lot...

Well yeah, but it's POOR for many, and IIRC at least one winter tire effectively failed wet conditions - granted, it may still have outperformed winter tires from 5 or 6 years ago, so it's tough to know. Some good data is out there for the finding - independent testing both in EU and CA from this year's batch of tires.

I'm intentionally going for "acceptable" to "fair" on ice/snow for better wet/dry, since I just won't drive if there's a lot of snow - not everyone can actually do that, and at our old house I'd have been in a very different tire for the winter.

C

General Altimax Arctics have a great set of ratings on TireRack and are well reviewed in several web forums. I got a set for my FRS and a set for my wife's Infiniti. Here's a link to the summary winter tire test results graphic on TR. They're a lot less expensive than the big name tires, and they seem to be every bit as good for general winter use. We'll find out in 72 hours, if we get the 6 to 10 inches predicted by one weather model for the I-95 corridor.

I just installed some General Altimax's last night. Picked up 4 for $500 shipped not bad

Snow Tires Recommedations!
 

WS70s were on sale...I picked them up, about $400

The 16" steelies were another $200 though.

The generals are good but noisy and non snow performance suffers. They are super soft so it kind of kills the joy of even attempting spirited driving with them.

Blizzak LM60's here on my stock wheels. I'm in NY metro where we tend not to have too much snow accumulated for prolonged periods of time, so it was more important for me to have a decent winter performance tire that didn't compromise dry handling too much. They're not as great in snow/ice as the WS series which use the multi-cell compound rubber, but they've worked fine for me for the last two winters now going into its third.

I am one who cannot recommend the Michelin X Ice. They were fine in the snow, but dry pavement driving was not as good as I expected. They especially did not do well in single digit temperatures, where they lost all grip on me at one point, causing the rear to kick out extremely quickly. This was on a 06 Miata with no traction control, but I've never felt the car kick out like that. Meanwhile, cars with all-seasons are going faster than me and making the turn just fine. I don't trust those tires anymore.

I just bought Altimax Arctic as well and the snow performance is really good, but the dry is lacking a bit, but it's a snow tire, and I can cope with losing some agility on dry for a big gain in snow. And they are cheap.

OK - reporting time, and here's the rest of the story:

I just drove home from work through about 2" of wet, slushy snow with more falling. Many of the roads and streets I take have significant slopes, and the greater Philadelphia area is littered with weather-related accidents right now (even though it's really not that bad out).

The General Altimaxs are excellent. I didn't use the "snow" setting, and I never saw a traction control or antilock light. I had absolutely no trouble even when those around me were fishtailing and spinning their wheels. When we go out for dinner, there should be another 2" or so and I'll have a chance to see how that affects things. But for the moment, I can report that an FR-S on 16" unstudded General Altimax Arctics is safe and secure in 2" of slippery slush without sandbags in the trunk, snow mode, or any other jury-rigged enhancement.

Yes, the sidewalls are softer and more flexible - these are 16" snow tires. Yes, that affects dry road handling, and I suppose my lap times would be much greater than with better shoes on the car. Oh well - it gives me something to look forward to in spring.