GET YOUR DEDICATED SNOW TIRES NOW !!!

Meh, I spent about $1000 (CDN), they've seen nine winters of use, will be going on again this winter.

 

How many miles on them?

We drive less during winter months, my estimate is 6K in Nov to Apr 6 months with snow tires on the car. With my last purchase of wheels and tires at $376 total and 40K miles tread life for Xice, I should be able to get 6-7 years, but realistically I should not drive them down to 2/32. I would give it 4-5 winters. $75-$94/season.

 

We just turned 84K kms on the odometer. The snows purchased right after we acquired the car, installed with the odo at 300 kms, and I would guesstimate they've been in use for 1/4 of the odo reading, say 21K kms, or 13K miles.

Yeah I paid full-retail, because the dealership was the only one that would commit to a turn-key install, with a rim they weren't 100% sure would fit.

New tread depth is 10.5/32", and I checked them recently they're all at 7/32". 6/32" is my threshold I think, and considering it took 9 years for 2.5/32" worth of wear, I think they're good for another 1 or two winters. Maybe this'll be the last winter though: their manufacture date was somewhere mid-2010.

The thing too: if you're completely happy with a set of snow tires, and they last you 7, 8, even 10 years, the up-front cost becomes increasingly irrelevant.

 

With only 13Kmiles in 9 years, the time factor rather than the tread life will determine when to buy a new set. Although I never believed the long tread life some tire models advertise, AFAIK, Xice is the only winter tire I know that comes with any tread warranty. Most snow tires have no UTQG ratings.

This is very true. However, even with very long-lasting operational life, if you can cut the initial cost substantially, then the saving is even more dramatic.

 

Yeah next time around I'll just head for Costco, when the Michelin's are discounted. The Costco Canada discounts suck now though: it used to be $70 off, at the tire shop till. No nonsense, and it reduces the (12%) sales tax as well.

Now you get an emailed "gift card", nothing physical, just a confirmation you've got a $70 credit when buying stuff in store. The one time I tried getting that honoured it was a gong show.: I figured when I handed them my Costco card the $70 credit would show up. Nope. I'd happened to take a picture of the "gift card" page with my cell phone, and had to use that as proof, lol.

 

For the US, Micheline promotion has always been $70 Prepaid Master Card as long as I have known. Yap, it's another marketing gimmick. There are many consumers who get enticed to buy merchandise because of the advertised low price which including the mail-in rebate in the final price, and then either forget to mail-in or just simply give up on making a claim.

Currently, there is Goodyear tire promotion with $300 rebates on the purchase of 4 Weatherready tires on their credit card. Essentially that will bring $122 tire down to $47. And it is one of those All-Weather tires with the mountain peak and snowflake logo. I am tempted to try that set for my PRIME after current OEM Dunlop tires are done. The only reason I have not pulled the trigger is because of this test result: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/spiderChart.jsp?ttid=243

Yokohama Avid Ascend GT which is highly recommended by @Rob43 just blows every category of the test when compared side by side with Goodyear WeatherReady. I am waiting to find a deal on Yoko that will bring the price of this already a very economical price of $89/tire to be down to ~$47/tire range where Goodyear is offering for the WeatherReady.

 

Thanks Tideland Prius. I only just started looking at the Nokian s but I'd heard about them a few years ago at a locat tire shop. I see the 3 and 3R are nice looking winter tires. I'm also looking at both the - Nordman and the 9 studded -.
We get a lot of lake effect snow here, but it's typically cleaned up fairly quickly, so snows are not a necessity, but can be very nice if that unexpected situation presents ifself, if you know what I mean.

 

Thanks. That's very interesting. I must say that I have absolutely no racer in me. With Xice snow tires on, I have driven on actual snow, maybe 4-5 days out of a season. The rest are all DD on a dry road. Yes, I want snow tires for safety measure on snow, but most importantly the tires must do the best performance on every day on dry pavement. And for me, the comfort is even more of importance than performance. That's definitely not for racing I would think.

 

@Rob43
1 Fair enough, I agree he does a decent job, I just wished he'd have done it again and taken a few more measurements to satisfy my curiosity. He did get the point across about snows compared to all weather.
2 Thanks, I didn't know squat about hub rings before today. I had spacers for my chrome reverse 15s rears on my 65 VW baha bug when I was in High School.
3 Thanks for your take on the sizes too, I was actually looking for 185 70 or 75s but I didn't find any in my search this morning. I'll keep looking though.

@Salamander_King You also make a good point. I'm thinking about studded snows, but the amount of time spent in hazardous conditions here is occasionally as well, perhaps more than 4 or 5 days but certainly not most of even 1 month, Feb.. And the studs might make driving on cement especially more slippery when wet.
So many things to consider.

 

Nice aggressive threads, a lot like the Blizzaks. I'm a bit soured on the blizzak though, since mounting a pair myself. Their sidewalls are a bear to get over the lip of the rims. As apposed to the pair of michelin defenders I mounted that slid over the wheel lip like budder.
Probably not something even the pros would know unless they mounted by hand. or paid close attention to machine as it was spinning the tire onto the rim. I'd like to know more about how the snows rubber stays more supple in the low temps and why there is so much of a difference in the sidewall stiffness.
How to Install a Tire on a Rim by Hand | It Still Runs
I will take a look at those nexens too. I'm getting interested in the specs. I noticed the michelin iceX have a max pressure rating of 50 lbs. I haven't seen the rating on the Nokians yet either but now I'll be looking to see how much air they can handle.

 

The first snow tires I bought was on old Civic (ICE) circa 15 years ago after moving out of a big city. They were studded. I can't remember what brand or model for sure, but one that was available at a local tire shop, not the cheapest, but not the most expensive one. I was not much interested in car stuff back then and didn't pay much attention to the brand. At that time I had an impression that studded snow was better than studless and those studs made more secure driving on snow and ice. If the chain is good on snow, then it was easy to imagine those metal spikes must be great for traction. Well, the problem is that unlike snow chains, studded tires stayed on the car whole winter long. We get maybe 4-6 major Nor'easter snowstorms per season, but within a day, most of the snow are plowed and gone. I had to drive daily on a dry road with those spikes. The noise from the studs hitting the pavement was so loud we could not carry on a conversation. Handling and traction on the dry road were worse than regular all season. I was longing for the spring day when I could take off those awful tires all winter long. Yeah, studded snow is a good thing to have if you live in frozen Tundra all winter long, but where the plaw and salting take care of snow and ice on roads, it was way overkill even in rural NE.

 

More tests: (Note that some of these go back as far as 2015, and some European tire lines have different names. Some of the European testing uses low numbers as best--#1 is best, #5 is poor.)
Automobile Protection Association | 2017-2018 Winter Tire Reviews: Passenger Car, Minivan, & Compacy SUV Tires
2018 Auto Bild Winter Tyre Test - Tyre Reviews
Winter tyres tests | Laneks
ADAC Winterreifentest 2019: Dimension 185/65 R15 für Kleinwagen | ADAC
The 2015 Norwegian Automobile Federation Winter Tire Test is Out! | Saskatchewan Studded Tire Club

 

Study hard, and I think there are many rubber manufacturers who might pay you big $$ to go and work for them! I'm guessing that in the past 60 years perhaps more safety advances have been made in tyre and rubber (and brake) technology than most other aspects of automobile engineering, and they are mostly attributed to improvements and lessons learned in motor-racing! (…I read somewhere! )

Edit: When I first got the "car-bug" back in the late 1950s (…in the UK), radial-ply tyres were almost unknown (…anyone else remember Michelin-X tyres?)

 

Was that a Costco house brand? Seems familiar.