STG Posted November 30, 2006 Share Posted November 30, 2006 I bought four Bridgestone LM25 winter tires and four ASA alloy wheels from Tire Rack. The tires are V-rated and do OK in dry/warmer weather. I've driven between Cody, WY and Los Angeles with them on the car. The snow/ice performance is really good. They really came in handy when I transitioned from a freshly-plowed strech of I-80 onto an off-ramp with 4 inches of virgin snow and ice on it. That would have been real trouble with all weather tires. Having them mounted on an extra set of wheels is the only way to go. By the way, the ASA alloys I picked up use technology licensed by BBS. They are a few pounds lighter than the same size factory alloys and cost $119 on a close-out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackcat Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 I bought four Bridgestone LM25 winter tires and four ASA alloy wheels from Tire Rack. The tires are V-rated and do OK in dry/warmer weather. I've driven between Cody, WY and Los Angeles with them on the car. The snow/ice performance is really good. They really came in handy when I transitioned from a freshly-plowed strech of I-80 onto an off-ramp with 4 inches of virgin snow and ice on it. That would have been real trouble with all weather tires. Having them mounted on an extra set of wheels is the only way to go. By the way, the ASA alloys I picked up use technology licensed by BBS. They are a few pounds lighter than the same size factory alloys and cost $119 on a close-out! Wow, what a steal on those wheels, I need to look into a set of those! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toshiba2.5 Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 what about the stock yoko a82a on my legacy, how well do they perform in snow? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallysquirrel Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Think about it this way. If you crash because of the tires and your deductible is $500, you've just spend $500 for nothing. Add $150 to that deductible and you've got amazing snow tires. BTW I used to drive with all seasons in the mountains (30-60 days while living in CO). I did have an accident and regreted not getting snows. Lesson was learned. Now living back east I always put on snows for some reason even though it never snows in upstate NY. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Charlie Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Very well put, Rallysquirel. I like your math. I haven't been weighing insurance costs against tire costs, which is just as well- I've got a $100 deductible. $500 is a perfectly reasonable price for decent tires. I just looked some up and it looks like I could land some Conti Extreme Contacts for $432. If I don't bother with the Z rating I can get Dunlop Sport A2 Pluses for $372. I don't need the Z- I've never taken my car past 100 and won't be changing the roads that I drive on. I'll call around and beat up a few stores and see what if I can't come up with something better. I'll also look more into the tires themselves, because there's a whole lot more than simply size and price. I'm just over 47,000 miles and winter's coming, so I'm coming due. Still, I'm a cheap bastard and don't like paying for anything. Bleah. Oh, well, there's an afternoon project for me at work this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadeye Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Ice Driving: just curious--do any of you with the Sport Shift and/or Manual tranny start out in 2nd gear to avoid the wheel spin when on Ice ?? Deadeye Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vimy101 Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Had the pleasure of using the ContiExtremes in the recent snow storm. They are excellent in the heavy wet snow that fell. Very pleased with their performance. The next test of their mettle will be in snow at lower temps than the just below freezing conditions of the last couple of days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caramall2 Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Nokian WR review: I've driven these in dry, wet, snow, and ice now (and in very cold conditions...-1 F). Solid in dry, excellent in wet, good in slush, decent in snow, fair on ice. Very cold temps on ice is where a dedicated snow (with softer compound) will really take out the WR (it's always a compromise with all season). Due to the very cold, icy conditions we have in winter, I'd debating about a more dedicated snow with softer compound as I have a summer tire set too. Again, they're better than all seasons on the ice, but not dramatically. Compromises, compromises.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STG Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Wow, what a steal on those wheels, I need to look into a set of those! My wheels were a close out, but Tire Rack has these ASA J5s for $129 in 17" X 7". Weight is listed as 21 pounds. http://www.tirerack.com/images/wheels/asa/swap/asa_js5_ci3_l.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STG Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 BTW I used to drive with all seasons in the mountains (30-60 days while living in CO). I did have an accident and regreted not getting snows. Lesson was learned. Now living back east I always put on snows for some reason even though it never snows in upstate NY. After reading manufacturer's data and write-up in Road & Track and Car and Driver, I found out that winter tires are optimized for cold temps as well as snow, slush and ice. It seems that winter tires performe better in cold dry conditions than summer or all-weather tires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AWD_Rules3830 Posted December 3, 2006 Author Share Posted December 3, 2006 Well right now its either, ContiExtreme (how many miles could I get out of this tire?), RE960AS, or Nokian WRs. I took Avons off the list because they have reliability issues (not to mention NOISE). I love my car ... basically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Charlie Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 I just went to Continental's web site. They call it an "ultra high performance tire" and don't mention mileage. At work tomorrow I'll have time to do some serious looking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bendite Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 The Hankook W409 IPike tire is a true snow tire that is somewhere between the Gislaved NordFrost3 and the Nokian Rsi for tread pattern but way easier on the wallet. I was going to get this tire until I read the reviews and talked to a couple people about the Winter Force. I know several people who have the Hankook tires and they think they are great. They look good on a suby as well. They are pretty much a direct ripoff of the Nokian/Gislaved tread pattern. The rubber is soft but it is not that super grippy nokian/blizzak rubber so maybe it will last longer. I am sure the grip is less than the nokian but the rubber on Hankooks felt soft enough that it would stay supple at really low temps. I am currently running Firestone Winter Force tires and they are the best snow tires I have owned that was under $100 per tire. They are not as nice as my Nokian Hakka's but they are pretty close. The Nokians where so expensive and I drive so many miles that it didn't make sense to spend that kind of loot. I know several people who have the Firestones and I guess they last 4-5 seasons yet the rubber is really soft with lots of sipping. The noise level seems great to me and I have them studded as well. They look super meaty, almost like rally tires. I have been checking them out in the snow the last couple of weeks any they are sweet. Slam on the brakes and the antilock doesn't kick in very often, they track very true under hard breaking, great slush tire, very comfortable at 60-70 mph on packed snow and ice, the rubber is soft at 10F(that's the coldest it's been this year). The dry weather handling on these tires is not bad but you know you are on snows for sure. Both of these tires look pretty sporty on legacys, they are not really clunky at all. I have 215/55/16 mounted on black 02 WRX wheels. I have the 2.5i so that wheel clears the brakes and looks pretty cool for $300 set of wheels. I live in snow country and I drive about 12-13K miles during the 6 months of winter, so snow tires are a no-brainer for me. I know many people who drive subys and just run all seasons year after year and they are still alive. Personally I want to add some speed to my winter driving comfort zone and you never know when someone else is going to blow it and you will need good traction to avoid a wreck...man do I have stories. So you spend $800 for a decent set of snows and some sort of winter wheel (tire rack is right in there for 17 inch ASA wheels and tires). That's $200 per year if you get 4 years out of them which seems pretty reasonable. If you went with a more expensive tire like the dunlops or the conti's, or michelins, you are still only spending $1000. What I do know is that if you are on the RE92's and you deal with winter driving more than a couple times per month....you're nutty! I thought the RE92 was ok on dry and wet but not good for the blood pressure on snow and ice. The yokohama's that came on my 06 2.5i were waaaaay better than the RE92 on the snow and ice. Dunlop Winter Sport M3 on ASA 17 inch wheels...$996 mounted, balanced, shipped from tirerack.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edogcooter Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 The stocks work fine going over the pass. Wear them out and then get some new ones. I rode mine until 30,000 and made it through everything in Colorado..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Sube Dude Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 pirelli's pzero nero m+s may be ok. i have them and they're great but yea like subaruowner840 said, go to tirerack.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Charlie Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 Full Disclosure: I'm a parts guy at a dealership. Guys- call a local dealer, preferably (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) the one you service your car at. Tell Parts your tire size and what you're thinking of in a tire. Give them a number they can reach you at. They'll call you back with prices. The places I've worked at or talked to are all the same- they aren't in the tire business. We make the same amount of money on a set of $40 CMFs as we do on a set of $250 Michelins. When we're setting up a used car and it needs tires, we never go to Tire Rack or anything like that. There isn't any savings in it. We can get tires through our factory system or a tire store downtown for less than Tire Rack plus shipping. I had an asshole at the counter a month ago demanding a 10% discount on tires. We give 10% off on accessories when you buy a new car. This guy was looking at bigger wheels and got offended when I told him I wasn't giving him 10% off on the tires. I had the tires he wanted in stock at $193 each, mounted and balanced. I looked up the tires and found that they listed for $210 each. I explained that 10% off would bring it down to $189 each, but that was for the tires only, not including mounting and balancing. He decided he didn't want his discount after all. If you call a dealership, you won't get 20 choices and you probably won't get offered the brand you want. I'll offer what I have on hand in that size and I'll call my favorite tire store. I'll tell him what you are currently running, what kind of car you have and whether you're looking for snows or all seasons (or LTs, performance, etc.) He'll give me 2 or 3 choices. I'll pass them on to you. This is all for some guy on the phone. If you're an actual customer (someone who comes in for more than just warranty work, and if you're not that discount asshole above) then I'll do more looking for you, maybe even find you that exact tire you've been dreaming of. The bottom line is the back end of a dealership sells service, not tires. That can be to a tire customer's advantage. You'll probably pay less for the tire at Tire Rack, but then you have to pay shipping and get them mounted, balanced and get the old ones scrapped. Calling a few dealers should get you a good variety of brands offered, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Sube Dude Posted December 7, 2006 Share Posted December 7, 2006 fat charlie-good info, but i was recommending tirerack.com just to view specs, quality, and performance of tires. not to buy from them.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkaresh Posted December 7, 2006 Share Posted December 7, 2006 If you ever buy winter tires you'll never want to have all-seasons in the winter again. I know this because I had winter tires for the first time last winter, and the difference was incredible. And I have Michelin Pilot Alpin2's, which probably aren't the best for winter driving. This is on a Mazda Protege5. Even with FWD I no longer worry about getting stuck. Big difference in cornering and braking as well. The other advantage is that I can now use summer tires the rest of the year. I suppose it costs more up front to buy winter tires, but the cost per mile isn't much higher, since when you're using your winters you're not using up your summer tires. Got mine from CostCo. They run a $60 rebate each fall (now over, but in case someone's shopping next year). I was too cheap and/or lazy to get a second set of wheels. They charge $20 to swap the tires, so $40/year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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