general consensus on best economical winter tire?
 

So I'm looking through these threads and it looks everybody is happy with their current snow tires, and blizzaks seems to get the most mentions.

Is there something more economical that gives decent results?

I hear good reviews of the General Altimax Arctics and they're on the cheaper end of the spectrum.

I'm pretty happy with my General Altimax Arctic. I don't have other tires to compare to( Other then my GF's Blizzaks on a FWD Lancer, so no comparison). They seem pretty good. The snow here has been a terrible kind. Thick slush on the bottom with more heavy snow on top, so once you set 2700 pounds on top of it over 4 small contact points, it pretty much just make a skating rink, yet I have been in control all the time. ABS when slowing down doesnt hit very often, unless it's ice, and I even turned into a parking lot that was not cleaned and with snow high enough to clog the front grill and didn't get stuck.

All in all, pretty happy. I would love to try Hakepala(yeah it's butchered and I didn't feel like googling), ya know that Finnish tire that is at the top in nearly, if all winter tire tests, but the Generals are nearly 2 times cheaper, and if you don't drive like an idiot(just do it when no one else is on the road :)) they should be up to the task. If I would drive 30,000 miles in a winter, I would go with, that brand, but just driving around town, I'm liking the Generals.

Yeah, there's a lot of imformation out there and it's hard to weed through them. I haven't tried these out myself but if you're looking for a lower price but still want decent performance, I'd go for a subbrand of the top ones. (Don't comprimise too far, only 4 things connecting you to the road) What I mean is, Michilen is the top brand and owns BF Goodrich but BF is a lower mid price tier brand with relatively the same technology transfer and share. I'm not sure 100% how to they get away with the lower price, think it's a combination of brand, smaller percentage of the performance and I think a little less tread/ durability. Check the prices of the subbrands.
But obviously, if you've got the money, spend them on a set of Nittos, Blizzaks or Nokians.

Honestly I've never driven on a snow tire that I'd consider bad. They're purpose made and everything I've driven on from General Altimax, to iPikes to Blizzaks perform more than adequately with RWD in the snow.

How does it feel when you take the traction control off with snow tires? Is it the same feeling as regular tires? (i'm talking about in the snow, not dry roads).

I think I'm leaning towards the Contintental EWC and the Altimax Artic. Can anybody comment on their differences?

I live in nYC and most of my driving is prob gonna be on paved highways. but it's those local streets i'm worried about.

I have Blizzak WS80s; with TC on in light snow (say 3in or so) it feels pretty much like you're driving on normal roads. I haven't experienced anything heavier yet, but I hear good things. With TC off it's easy to kick the rear end out and have fun, but still very manageable too.

It feels exactly as you'd expect: You have more traction than regular tires but you can still easily spin them since you're driving on snow. You still need to be careful when driving on snow tires, please don't think they're going to make this drive like summer tires on dry pavement.

I live on Long Island where the snow tends to be plowed quickly enough that I went with the LM series instead of the WS. It was more important for me to have dry winter performance than full-on snow/ice performance which we rarely have to deal with. Even on the occasional snow storm, the LM's behaved very well and got me home in one piece. Much better than all-seasons, to be sure, and dry performance is still pretty decent.

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Nokian tires 100% top shelf for winter tires on anything...I'd rate Blizzaks to be (ok) in comparison.

Haha, yea that's actually what I'm worried about.

This is my 3rd winter with the car and i haven't gotten snow tires yet. Went through the last winters with all seasons and I drive almost a 100 miles a day for work. I've gotten used to controlling the car with those that I'm worried I'll get over confident with snow tires.

I speak for no one else but myself when I say this but I would not drive in the snow with traction control on. More snow = more likely for me to turn off TCS. I'm already being careful and planning for oversteer around any turn so I'd prefer to not let traction control keep me from doing what I'm doing.

This car with a set of altimax arctics is completely predictable in snowy conditions. As long as you have some driving experience, the car will always be doing what you'd expect it to. It's wonderful.

I would more likely drive my BRZ in a snow emergency situation than my AWD forester with all season tires.

Good driving practices are far more important than x vs y snow tire, but the fact that you accept snow tires at the safe choice is already ahead of a lot of people at least where I live

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