Tr-State Winters?
 

I'm trying to order and have installed winter tires within the next week (damage to the side-wall on my summer tires, wanted to ideally wait a few weeks until the temperature dropped to put on winters but so much for that), but still can't decide on what tires to go with...

I was originally looking at the GOODYEAR ULTRA GRIP ICE WRT, but they seem to have gotten mixed reviews... So my question is simple, what winter tires have other tri-state drivers been using these past few years?

(I was originally going to create this in the tires section, but was hoping for some quick region specific feedback, as background I primarily do highway driving 100 miles to-and-from work, snow plowing has generally been great on the roads I travel - may change slightly now that my commute will take me to Short Hills)...

Thanks in advance!

I'm glad you're doing it right.
I bought Bridgestone Blizzak WS70s back in 2013 Winter and I think they now have WS80s. Blizzak also has LM series which is "sportier" version of WS series- meaning it will have a better driveability on dry roads when there aren't snow/ice on the ground. But when I buy winter tires I buy them for maximum grip on snow/ice and I'm willing to sacrifice some driveability for dry roads.

Michelin also has a good tires and I believe they were called ice-x 3 or something, you might want to take a look at that as well. But for shortest stopping distance/best grip in snow/ice- go for Blizzak WS series as they are hands down the best. Heard a lot of good things about Nokian tires but they're not worth the price over Bliazzak WS series.

You can order Blizzaks from Tire Rack and bring it to any Firestone shops and they will still honor the tires (Bridgestone bought Firestone a while ago) so they will mount tires to your stock wheels (unless if you're using a different set like steelies for winter tires) for the same price as if you got the tires from them. I think it was less than $100.. you might want to double check on that.

This will be my 3rd winter with Blizzak WS70s and I think this will also be the last winter with this set of tires. (I can probably pull another winter next year but I wouldn't risk my car with shallow treads :) )

Good luck! This was first time using winter tires and they make TONS of difference. I wonder how the car would drive if I had WRX or STI and winter tires. I bet it can climb the snowy mountains.

What size tires did you go with? I was going to go with 16'' steelies.

I think the general consensus from what I've read is that Blizzak is the way to go (as long as you timely remove them to save the treads) - just not sure if it's worth the difference in price ($310 for the goodyears vs. $491 for the Blizzaks, if I wasn't buying another set of wheels this year I'd probably be more open to ponying up the extra $180 :- / )... But then again, if those are what most people in this area are using and they haven't been giving problems, I am (thankfully) in a position to open up the wallet right now...

There's no wrong answer with any of the snow tires on tire rack right now. I have the X ice 3 and i quite like them. Performance snow tires? I don't really get it...

I went with 215/40/17 I believe, and I don't think WS80 came with that size anymore. For winter tires, narrower the better! I think I paid close to $600 or so for the winter tires by the way. I plan to put them on sometime next month before snow hits.. if you could get steelies that works, too. $700-800 with steelies on 16"? Sounds good :)

I went with 205/50R-17 Continental Extreme Winter Contact XL last winter and I love them. I also do 112 miles a day, in and out of the city, so they get used hard and put away wet at least five days a week. I ran them from T-giving into late March and they should have at least that left in them for this winter.

I put my order in today, ended up going with the 205/55R-16 Goodyear Ultra Grip Ice WRT.

With the steel rims it came out to $782 - but I should be getting a "rebate"* of $110 eventually...

*It's a Goodyear VISA so presumably you can only use the car at Goodyear, not entirely sure what I'd spend the $ on, most likely as an emergency fund I guess in case I get a flat / need a new rim, TPMS, etc.

blizzak ws80 has great reviews on the web and on YouTube videos. I was thiking on performance winter tires at some point too but that would be waste of money if they are not going to preform like a real winter tire on winter snow conditions.

i bought the ws80 with wheels from tire rack winter package specials.

I bought Blizzak LM series performance winter tires last year and was very happy. In MD/DE we get a lot more cold(dry)/rain/wet than we do real ice and snow so I thought the dry performance was a better trade-off. In real bad conditions I either will stay in or will take my wife's SUV (since she won't be going out anyway)...

i picked up a set of 05 forester wheels for my frs a few months back for $200... yea theyre 16's, but i look at it this way... why spend nearly $600-700 on snow tires every few years, when i can spend $480 every few years... the forester wheels are an investment. they are mint and i know i could get my money back on them all day. so think about going to 16's if you plan on keeping the car for a while! but i will most likely be picking up Blizzak ws80's or the michilin x-ice's. ive heard nothing but great things about both tires

You can now drive winter tires with studs in NY not sure NJ...just letting you guys know

We're huge fans of the General Altimax Artic as a cost effective winter tire. I ran them on my wrx one year just to test them out over the Blizzaks and ended up liking them enough to put them on the other cars.

i used stock 17" size hankook ipike rs winter tires last year and have no complaints.

NJ people scare me with how they drive...