New Choices in Winter Tires

[Garandman]

VVG, could you please give as comparision review between WRs and RSIs. I have WRs and they are suprsingly great in dry and wet, but I think they are not that great in snow, which is understandable - it's not real snow tire. Now, how bad RSIs in the dry/wet (i.e. no snow) in terms stability, steering response, overall performance.

 

Thank you.

Short answer: the WR is ideal for people who drive in snow but must also drive a lot on wet or clear roads. The RSi's are better in all-out winter conditions: which many of us only see 5-10 days a year.

 

Longer answer: few people drive different tires back to back. Generally, they drive their old tires until they wear out, then put on new tires - which always feel much better than the old, cooked ones! I'm fortunate to have a small fleet of company cars where I can test tires back-to-back. I will be able to do so this winter directly as we have two Accord V6's, one with RSI's and the other, WR's.

 

The RSI's, like every other dedicated snow tire I've ever driven, are not great on wet road cornering. Not as bad as Blizzaks, as good or better than X-Ice, but don't have high cornering limits. On snow or ice they're terrific, allowing a lot higher cornering speeds and stopping that typical A/S tires. But also like all dedicated snows, they have no treadwear warranty and wear down relatively quickly particularly at higher temps. We stall haven't worn any out yet so we don't know what that number is: we replace tires at 5/32nd. They don't extract a big mileage penalty, based on my logs.

 

The WR's have much higher wet and dry cornering limits. They seem to hold corners as well as most A/S tires in the dry. On snow and ice I haven't found any shortcomings. The CR test showed the WR to be as good on ice as dedicated snows, but not quite as good in snow - and CR doesn't reveal their raw data so you don't know what the real differences are. In the ADAC (German auto club) tests [lower #'s are better] - which are much more thorough - by contrast they did very well on snow, but were mid-pack on dry, wet and ice. But in both cases they were tested against dedicated snows, not A/S tires. Their only shortcomings are a little more noise than A/S's, and relatively high price. I don't skimp on tiress so the price doesn't bother me.

 

Unless you live in places that get a lot of snow - say over 100" per season - or have long periods where you have to drive on snow packed or icy roads - I would go with the WR's. Or if you just want the best possible traction on the 5-10 days a year when you need them and will live with the shortcomings on dry or wet roads. Otherwise, the WR's are mighty tough to beat.

 

Most of my friends or acquaintances in MA and central NH have WR's: four Outbacks, a Legacy GT, a Pacifica, an Accord, and a Mazda MPV. Two of us - an Accord and my Outback - have RSI's. Two others have Hakka 2's. A Subaru with any sort of good snow, or even new A/S's, is going to get you there under most any conditions you'd attempt driving.

 

I hope someone buys the new WR model, so we can get some reviews of those as well! There are a lot of other very good tires as well, like the Dunlop 3D, various Goodyears, X-Ice, etc, etc. You might also read the Car & Driver test of dedicated summer, winter, and A/S tires to see how the results fit your driving needs. Then you'll know why the F1 GS D3's come off this week!

[Guest]

Thanks a lot for the review.

 

We're getting another LGT and I have dillema what to put on it. Currently I have GY F1 for summer and Nokian WRs for winter. I was thinking about getting a set of real snows for winter. And use the WRs year round on one of the cars. Makes especially sense since they wear so slowly. Otherwise they'll rot sooner if used in winter only.

 

There is not enough snow in Boston to really justify true snows, but I don't like idea buying another set of same tires (WRs).

 

Another option is performance winter tires such as Dunlop 3D. I read they offer better handling than WRs in dry, although it's hard to complain about WRs much.

[Garandman]

That's easy - buy something different, and conduct an experiment! All these tires are really good! If you bought the WR G2 that would count!

 

The Dunlop sounds (it's in the ADAC test as well) like a good choice. You live in Boston, or West? Boston only gets about 45" of snow a year, while a few miles inlind they get 60" so that alone makes a big difference.

[RobE]

The Dunlop sounds (it's in the ADAC test as well) like a good choice. You live in Boston, or West? Boston only gets about 45" of snow a year, while a few miles inlind they get 60" so that alone makes a big difference.

Exactly why I am going with the Dunlop 3Ds.

 

Living near the coast = a lot less snow (usually)

[KA81]

got some of these

http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/findTireDetail.do?rcz=80012&rc=CODINT&yr=2004&cs=225&pc=28976&rd=17&vid=008401&ar=45

 

for 746 otd

[RobE]

^^^^ why'd you get run flats?

 

 

 

 

from Heightler.

[deeslk]

This year I decided to try Michelin Pilot Primary PA3's for winter, just swapped over today while I had some time. They came out sometime in Feb 2007 so I haven't seen any reviews, but they build on PA2's which were decent.

[miles]

This year I decided to try Michelin Pilot Primary PA3's for winter, just swapped over today while I had some time. They came out sometime in Feb 2007 so I haven't seen any reviews, but they build on PA2's which were decent.

 

 

I'm putting my PA3's on next week.

 

desslk, I like your wheels.

What's the company, model, size and offset?

[deeslk]

They are Enkei RPM2's Hyper Black 17 x 7 48 offset, 215/45/17 Michelin PA3

[tantal]

I'm late to the thread here, but a couple comments:

 

I run the TS 810 (NOT the S version) on my RX-8, and it's a great tire - I believe that it's a winter tire, not a snow tire, but I've had no trouble at all. I just love the tire.

 

If you really want a SNOW tire, and are willinig to give up some grins on the road when it's still cold but dry, then both the X-ice and the Blizzak revo are supposed to be excellent (I have no experience with these particular tires, but they are supposed to be better than what they replace, and I do have experience with those), and they are pretty cheap.

 

No comments on the G'Y's, but with these three tires to choose from, I don't need other choices. I like the 810 lots better than the LM-25, the old blizzak MZ-01, and the LM-22. No real contest there for me.

[team23jordan]

My whole family got W300 for this winter from discount tire (LGT, 325i, M3)

we'll see how they handle in snow this winter!!