Snow storm report in new england (CT)

There are several Toyo tire dealers in Winnipeg. With the Toyo Observe G-02 Plus for passenger cars, and the Toyo Open Country G-02 Plus for pickups and SUV's, they claim a special tread compound with ground up walnut shells.

http://www.toyocanada.com/products/microbit.asp

http://www.toyocanada.com/products/ObserveG02plus.asp

I have the Open Country G-02 Plus on my FJ Cruiser and they work excellent in snow and slush, and ok on glare ice. My Prius has Goodyear Nordic studded tires from Canadian Tire. This is the same tire as the Goodyear Ultra Grip 500 sold in the EU

http://eu.goodyear.com/home_en/tires/repository/UltraGrip500/index.jsp?page=benefits

The Goodyear Nordic/Ultra Grip 500 is excellent in deep snow and on glare ice, but on dry pavement the tread pattern is very noisy. If you routinely drive in real winter conditions, I highly recommend this tire. It's also *very* reasonably priced

Nokian has a new tire out, the factory studded Nokian Hakkapeliitta 5

http://www.nokiantires.com/en/tire_hakka5.aspx?season=winter

Even an "average" studless winter tire is a huge improvement for the Prius. If yours does have the hyper-sensitive Traction control, studded tires are best

 

New Paltz, NY

Went out this morning and all the "sand" from yesterday had partially thawed and refrozen into 2 inches of solid hard ice. After 20 minutes of scraping and spraying, I backed the Prius up over the ice with no problem until I hit the end of the driveway, where the ice was probably 6-8" deep from the snowplows and got belly hung. Spent another 1/2 hour chipping ice and rocking and finally got out with the help of a Good Samaritan who gave me the final push.

Watch out what you say about these drivers of gas guzzlers. One of them could save your @$$ someday.

 

Doc, when are you getting your winter tires and wheels, and which ones are you getting?

 

I am getting them after the third major snowstorm. If we don't have 3 storms, then I am not getting them at all, and will get through using my minivan on snow days.

If I get anything it will be Nexo wheels from Wheelmax.com (do a search for Corolla wheels, since the Prius is not listed), and Toyo Observes if I can get them, otherwise Michelin Ice-X tires.

One storm down.

 

Makes sense to me, since $800 is still heavy metal in my eyes. I have it, but I have to think twice about spending it.

 

Nokian WR G2's

...I purchased a 2008 Spectra Blue Mica Package 6 on Dec 12th and had Nokian WR G2's put on the next morning before the winter storms hit the Connecticut shoreline...the WR G2's effortlessly handled Mother Nature's best punch...we have the first-generation Nokian WR's on our non-hybrid cars and I cannot imagine a tire out there that does everything so well without compromise...we're so confident with the Prius/Nokian team that it will be the car of choice for a holiday trip to Western New York...I'll post a more detailed WR G2 report upon return...happy holidays!