Best Snow tires?

General Altimax Arctic are available with or without studs and get very high ratings in Tire Rack road tests. Winter Testing at the Arctic Circle: Studdable Winter / Snow

 

CR recommends Michelin X-Ice XI 2, General Altimax Arctic, Nokian Hakkapeliitta 5. ADAC.de seems to prefer Continental year over year. I'm using Vredestein Snowtrac2 on a front wheel drive (non-Prius) vehicle and these are fine, but hard to find and pricier than most. If you can get to the CR report you'll see that they all are mediocre in dry conditions, especially dry braking.

Note about General Altimax: Somewhere along the way Continental bought Gislaved. And it seems they just relabeled the Gislaved Nordfrost as a General Altimax Artic (Continental has owned General for quite some time). Tread designs are identical implying the use of the same molds. Internal changes are of course unknown -- to us.

 

I've used non-studded versions on other cars with good results...except glare ice.

 

I don't know a lot about cars, especially the complicated hybrid system, but I guarantee I know more about winter tires than 99% of priuschat users so here's the breakdown by brand, I will not cheerlead for any one brand:

Michelin X-Ice Xi2 is the first ever winter tire to offer a warranty, they come with only 10.5/32" of tread whereas the industry standard is 11 or 12/32" of tread, so obviously michelin has found a trick to allow winter to wear well, I think they just a compound that isn't as soft as their competitors. Choose this tire if you are either A: too lazy to change b/t a summer and a winter set as they can be driven yearround (in theory) or B: a commuter who drives 25K+ miles a year as the michelins will wear much much better than any other winter tire, although they do not perform as well as competitors in snow and ice but as a commuter you drive on the expressways which are much better cleared than surface streets.

Yokohama Ice Guard ig20: I owned a set of these years ago on a Sonata, they were great back then but just outclassed by newer competitors.

General Altimax Artic: the obvious choice if you plan on running studs (check for legality of using studs in your area). To quote a Sham Wow commercial: They're made in Germany and the Germans always make good stuff.

Continental ExtremeWinterContact: the best winter tire for city driving, and great value for money, especially if you plan on buying a wheel and tire package from tirerack.com as they will mount them for free and give you free lug nuts and hubcentric rings, and the shipping is almost offset by not having to pay sales tax.

Bridgestone Blizzak WS-70: not all blizzaks are created equal, many are performance oriented and therefor should only be used on AWD sport sedans or AWD sport crossovers, the WS-70 replaced the already wonderful but outdated WS-60 I currently use, the WS-70 is an excellent winter tire.

Goodyear Ultra Grip Ice WRT: don't look down on these tires simply because Goodyear was late to the winter tire game (think the Lexus LF-A supercar), not much info on these brand new tires, but I'm betting Goodyear poured lots of money and research into these and I'm willing to bet money that these are one of the best winter tires out there. If I can get Sam's club to match the price of tirerack.com this will be my next set.

Nokians are very good but are so overpriced, absolutely not worth the money.

Pirelli and Toyo both make decent winter tires, but with all the other excellent choices why anyone would choose them is beyond me.

economy winter tires that you get what you pay for: Mastercraft Glacier Grip II and Cooper Weathermaster s/t II are the same tires, Firestone Winterforce, Dunlop Graspic DS-3, Hankook iPike w409 (sold almost exclusively by discount/american tire). The cheapest winter tire will outperform the most expensive all season tires in cold temperatures.

Winter tires are a must for the Prius because we cannot rock our cars out of trouble like a normal car, and you have very little power in reverse as reverse gear runs off the electric motor only. 185-65-15 tires are 24.47" tall, I run 195-65-15 tires in the winter so they can be interchanged with my Corolla. at 24.96" tall, they raise the ground clearance of my Prius from 5.6" to 5.85", that quarter inch may not sound like much, but it could be the difference b/t being stuck or getting to work on time. Audi, Subaru and Acura have made and spent a fortune convincing Americans that they need all wheel drive, you do not, this is all you need to drive in the winter: Traction AND stability control, good ground clearance, winter tires, front wheel drive. If you are retired and you don't mind being shut in during a snow storm, you could even get away with rear wheel drive.

All season tires are the jack of all trades, and the jack of all trades is a master of none. It has very little to do with the tread pattern, winter tires are superior because they are made of softer rubber that stays pliable in colder temperatures, even though many tire retailers can sipe an all season tire, their siping machines are far inferior to the siping machine in a factory that makes winter tires that can put about 10 times as many sipes. In Europe police will note the make, model and tread depth of your tires during winter accidents, and the insurance company can claim reckless driving if you aren't using a winter tire and refuse to pay for repairs. I believe winter tires should be the law of the land in northern states, and if state legislatures don't have the stones to make them mandatory during a recession, at the very least insurance companies should offer a discount to those who use winter tires to promote winter safety.

I have something called 1000 broad coverage which means I pay a $1000 deductable if I'm at fault and I pay $0 if I'm not at fault. I normally lower my deductable to $500 broad in the winter but with my blizzaks worn down (they will be replaced next November) I decided to lower it to 250 broad this winter. If you run all season tires in the winter, don't forget to lower your deductable to zero because you will almost certainly get into an accident this winter.

 

Back in 2004 I bought my first set of winter tires. I worked in parts at BMW mini at the time and got the tire expert to get me the "best tire". I had dunlop graspics (not sure of the version). They were good. That year my dad asked me to get him a set for his jetta tdi. He wanted the cheapest set. Since we had lots of snow so far there were not a lot left come Jan. I got him a set of Pirelli winter carving and OH MY GOD!!!!!!! They outperformed my Mini on dunlops and made my car feel like it was on all seaons. I was very disapointed that I hadn't been given the best winter tire. The pirelli gave up a little bit of handling and softness to the dunlops but considering the difference in snow and ice traction it was worth it. I did a back to back drive and the dunlops had my abs pumping on almost every stop, the pirellis just near the end of the stop. Acceleration was much more straight with less torque steer (consider the jetta would torque steer more than the mini in the dry on all season tires).

Because of this I did some more research on snow tire design and found that the pirelli looked a lot like the Gislaved (spelling?) out of scandanavia. I then bought the winter carvings for my miata (no lsd) when I sold the mini, I could out drive just about anything else in a snow storm. Then Pirellis for my dads next car, a versa. When the General Artic Altimax came out I figured I'd go right to the source and got them on my gfs civic and then my moms new saab. Both the general and the pirelli have been amazing on all of those cars. I broke with tradition on my saab and went for Blizaks 2 years ago, they were on clear out on tire rack in the summer at a time when the generals were n/a. They were good, but not nearly as good as the general/pirelli. For the prius I admit that LRR came into play and I went michelin xice2 since I got wholesale at $20less per tire than the generals, i've been very disappointed that there has not been any snow in Ontario yet this year that has allowed me to do a back to back with the civic on the generals.

Also the same tread design has been copied by hankook, a chinese comapany (saiulun i think) and is very similar to the Can Tire nordic/good years that were also given a good review. I know that compound is very important and is impossible to tell just by looking at a tire but judging by the numerous imitations and fact that three tires have been given good reviews in this thread all with this style of tread design (V shape with a large centre grove) is enough to suggest that it is a well proven winter tread design. I also find that the Xice looks similar except it's lacking the solidness of the centre and is individual blocks arranged in a similar pattern.

 

Damn good posts. Thanks, cnschult and minispeed.

 

I know this post is old, but can you tell me whether you used the Nokian Hakkapeliitta R's with or without treads?

Thanks

 

The Nokian WRG2/WRG3 and Hakkapeliitta R2 are my choice of tires. Unlike many people, I consider all-weather or winter performance to be my top priority. Anyone can get a cheaper winter tire and pay for it somehow via poor performance and regrets. If you have the money - and I don't - to buy winter and summer tires, I will not begrudge you.

The Hakka R2 is URR and the very best in winter conditions bar none. The WRG3 is the best all-weather tire.

I find the Hakka wears more quickly in summer than the WrG3. I prefer the latter because I don't have to spend extra money. If I had to drive up I-70 and any passes all winter long, or lived in the mountain towns, I would choose the Hakkas and never bother with worrying about summer. But since I drive in the city most of the time, I prefer the WRG3s knowing that they will get me over the passes without any problems at all.

Peace of mind driving in winter: priceless. Side note: I've been stuck on Vail Pass 3 times the past 3 winters due to accidents in very bad weather. It's nice to know my Prius battery isn't going to die on me. The last time I got stuck the State Patrol asked me how in hell I got up the pass in that thing. I said "You should be asking why the SUV lost control," and pointed to my tires and my self: I'm hands down the best driver on the road and have been since I was piloting station wagons over Vail Pass in winter at age 12, LOL! True story.

 

I should have a report on the Altimax Arctics by the weekend. I installed a fresh set on the '05 last night in anticipation for our forecasted snowfall.

 

Had to join today as I felt not to would be ungrateful for all the great help I found on this thread. Thank you Classic_Pri, cnschult, and minispeed. After reading this thread, called tire rack back and changed my order to the General Altimax Artic Studded. Seems like the tire for me when driving in Montreal and up and down interstate late nights and early mornings between Montreal and Boston.

Thanks