Seeing how things are starting to cool down a little and Winter is Coming (Damn, what a great episode this past weekend
) I figured I'd start a new winter tire thread, so we've got a place to answer questions, help noobs, and discuss various topics related to winter tires.
For those new to the platform, or those veterans who are still ignorant, I will state that:
If you live somewhere that sees any measurable amount of snow, you should absolutely have winter tires!
Beyond that, it doesn't even need to snow where you live. The biggest factor that affects tires in the winter is temperature. If you are consistently seeing temperatures below 40° F (that's 5° C for you freedom hating non-'Muricans) in the winter, it's wise to have winter tires as well. Below those temps, the rubber compound in summer tires will get very hard and lose grip. It's kinda like driving around on hockey pucks, which is a bad idea.
Now that that's out of the way, I've got something a bit more fun to talk about. Up to this point, I've been using Blizzak WS-80s every winter. Living in the Chicagoland area and traveling quite a bit around the Great Lakes region in the winter my tires tend to get quite a workout, and not just in the normal commuting kinda way...
Winter rallycross is easily some of the most fun I've ever had in a car.
My current WS-80s are down to ~50% tread, making them effectively all-seasons. So I'll be selling those and getting a new set of tires. After hearing lots of great reviews and riding along in a few cars on General Altimax Arctics, I've decided to switch to those. The $100 difference in price to the WS-80s makes the performance-to-cost benefit is just too good to pass up.
However, in perusing the Tire Rack website today I discovered that General has a new winter tire out, the Altimax Arctic 12.
Anyone have experience with these yet? Based on some limited research it sounds like they were released in February to select Canadian tire distributors. I'd be interested in hearing feedback on them, as they've piqued my interest. If nobody has tried them yet, perhaps I'll be the guinea pig.