Quote:
Originally Posted by ZionsWrath
I think most (all?) snow tires handle generally terribly.
When I was researching snow tires I heard blizzaks are so soft (i.e wear so fast on non snow covered surface) they actually leave a film of black dust on your car. Not sure if that is true but I stayed away. If I drive more often than not on snow covered roads i would have got them though. The reality is in my region I'll probably only need snow tires a dozen or less days of the year.
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Blizzard W series use multi cell rubber for the top 45% of the tread. Once that's gone they are useless all season rubber. This "technology" was introduced by Metzler in the mid 70's and long since abandoned by the big tire makers outside Asia.
High performance winter tires on the other hand, from Pirelli, Michelin and Continental handle in cold weather just about as well as summer tires do in warm weather. In fact, I used a set of worn out Sottozeros as summer all season tires on my Jaguar XF last summer and they were unbelievably good at 5 mm tread remaining.
If you want high levels of winter performance buy a set of Sottozeros Pilot Alpin 4 or Conti TS 810 or TS 830. If you want better ice grip with good bare road handling get Conti Extreme Winter Contacts, best all around snow tire made at the moment.