OT: Talking Cars Thursday - Tires
think we didn't have a tct this week, and i'm looking for some advice. we have a subaru outback and we have talked about getting winter tires for several years, but the rabbit hole of decisions has proved too daunting. we do want to get new wheels to mount the tires on, to simplify switching them out. costco has blizzaks on sale for $450, and an essentially buy 3 get 1 free sale on wheels. the price seems good when comparing to discount tire, belle tire and tire rack, but those places also have cheaper options. we live in ann arbor and drive up north several times a winter. we've driven through some bad weather, and appreciate anything that makes that feel more safe, but don't need top of the line just for the sake of getting top of the line. so my question is if blizzaks are a solid choice? are there other things to take into consideration? cheaper tires that will work just as well? and what factors go into deciding which wheels to get? again, we want to get reasonable performers but don't need fancy. we also need new all season tires - if we had winter tires, would it make sense to get summer tires? or stick with all season? and again, is picking a middle of the road tire a reasonable way to choose? we drive about 8k a year, mix of highway and city.
I have a VW GTI, and have had Blizzaks for the past 3 years during the winter. I've found they do make a pretty big difference when there's a good amount of snow on the ground. I swap out my winter tires in the spring to all season tires, but these Blizzaks are the only winter tires I've ever had.
did your VW come with Falkens as the OEM tire? after 23k the tech was telling me they were starting to wear significantly already. still have some time before the tread bars start to wear but curious if you ran through tires as quickly as i have. of course i'm in LA traffic so that could add to the wear but i'd hope that OEM tires would last more than 25-30k miles.
Some folks really like the General Altimax Arctic, which are a cheaper option. There's also the Nokian tires, which consistently get high marks.
On my old MR2 Turbo, I had Blizzaks and that setup was a blast in winter. RWD, mid-engine, stupid winter grip = superfun.
I'm currently trying out the Vredestein Quatrac 5 all-weather tires which have the 3 peak mountain snowflake designation, meaning it meets base criteria for winter conditions. They're supposedly better performers than most standard all-season tires. Of course, this was a relatively mild winter, so not much opportunity to test them, although they do seem to grip better than my previous Continental all-seasons, but clearly a step or two behind dedicated winter tires. Definitely more comfortable (noise) and better performance for every day than winter tires, though.
With dedicated winter tires, nothing wrong with a high performance all-season tire, although it depends on your use case. All-seasons if you go soft-roading at all. If you stick to paved roads, high performance all-seasons or summer tires would work.
And what are your priorities for your non-winter tire? Handling? Ride comfort? Noise? Wet grip? Off-road capability?
priorities for non-winter would be wet grip and handling, i'd say. we don't go soft roading on purpose ever, but have certainly been down some seasonal roads up north that pushed the definition of road, so that's a helpful point.
Blizzaks are a very solid choice, but there's honestly not a significant difference among the studless tires in that price range. Also, get the cheap basic black steel wheels, you don't need anything fancy for snow tires. The only thing I'd suggest is potentially going narrower than your normal tires if you drive through more than an inch or two of snow regularly (e.g., if you have 225s on currently, that should be on a 7.5-8" wheel, so maybe think about a 6.5-7" wheel with a 205 width tire).
True thing on the narrow tires...less surface area actually means more pressure on the portion touching the snow/ice, which means more control.
Good advice that seems counter intuitive. Think hockey skates vs snow board...one cuts ice, the other floats on it.
Winter tires are the only way to roll in MI’s winter! Way safer, and way more control on ice. I have a CRV w/all season tires and AWD, not really very stable on snow covered icy roads which we seem to be getting more of. My AWD Taurus with Blizzack snows goes through anything.
Buy the rims if you plan on keeping the car 3+ years, costs a fortune to mount/unmount and if you can store them, a fortune to have the tire guy store them. Payback is easily 3 years or less.
I've had separate summer/winter wheels setups for years.
I use the Tire Rack website and their product reviews, specs, and buyer reviews to help me narrow down my choices. There's a lot of good info on that website. I've bought several winter tire and wheel packages from them. So, use them for research and then go find the best price for what you want. Discount Tire usually has good deals, too. Now is the time to buy.
I've owned Blizzaks in the past. They were very good. I've been the happiest with Michelin winter tires, but you do pay extra for them. I got seven winters of use out of some Michelin Alpins. They had at least one or two more left on them when I sold them.
One of the tires, either Michelin or Blizzack turn into all season tires as they wear (in the lower tread depth), versus staying winter winter tires all the way thru, so that may be something to consider before buying. Ask the tire person about it, I remember hearing them discuss it with the guy in front of me a few years back(but don’t remember which was which).
If you have the capability to change them out at home, I second the opinion to use https://www.tirerack.com/ or https://www.discounttiredirect.com/ and get a set with rims. You'll have to deal with a TPMS all winter unless you opt for new sensors and the tool to remap them.
I would stick with all season for the alternate tires as you might be early or late making the swap. Best not to be in a rush to get them switched when Mother Nature throws that Michigan change-up.
Nokian is an underrated brand. They are designed in Finland but I think there's a plant somewhere in the US for production.
I had a set on a Saab 10 years ago. Handling was second to none. Plus check out this technology:
I would imagine if you're some place that salts the roads, you'll want to go with functional rather than sexy wheels on which to mount your tires.
helpful as always, rgard. i take it those are all season?
Here in the mountains of Montana, the Nokian Hakkapeliitta is the go to tire. I don’t think you could convince me to to try anything else. YMMV
I have ran snow tires on two cars. One was blizzaks(Purchased new) and one was firestone(used). The blizzaks wore fast. The firestones were loud. They both performed well in the snow. I used a steel wheels and hubbies with the snow tires.
Make sure you put the snows on late and take them off early. The softer rubber wears faster than all season tires. For all season tires I only use Michelin. They don;t let you down.
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thanks all - really helpful.