What are your favourite winter tires?

[murphburg]

I need new winter tires for my 09 Jetta Sportwagen. Its a TDI, so I have $500 of free VW bucks to spend at the dealership (likely southland vw). I was going to get Michelin X-Ice, but I've heard that blizzaks are just as good and are more affordable...

I only have a quote from Southland VW for the X-Ice right now and they are $830 including tax, not including mounting/balance and not including current mail in rebate of $70 from Michelin.

I would love to hear any suggestions for high quality winter tires. What do you think the best bang for buck is?

[asp gti]

Re: What are your favourite winter tires?

I have the blizzak ws80 on my avant, seems to be a solid tire

[CGY_GTI]

Re: What are your favourite winter tires?

I had used a few sets of X-Ice in the past and have been happy with them, then I saw this article last year and decided to stick with those for my R.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features...mpared-feature

[onceover]

Re: What are your favourite winter tires?

Bridgestone Blizzak
Michelin X-Ice
Nokian Hakkapalita

Close your eyes and pick one. They're all excellent.

[Danaldson]

Re: What are your favourite winter tires?

loved my hakka r2's

[GINCH]

Re: What are your favourite winter tires?

Also loved my Hakka's. Very expensive once you get into the larger, lower profile sizes though. Don't make fun of me but I have a set of Federal Himalaya WS2's on my golf R and must say for the money they are fantastic. They are relatively quiet, perform exceptionally well on ice and snow, and the tread lasts forever. Only downside to me is that they are very soft so they are a bit squishy on dry pavement. When I bought them I was told they are kind of the best kept secret in winter tires (also heard the same from several other people) and I kind of agree!

[asp gti]

Re: What are your favourite winter tires?

Also loved my Hakka's. Very expensive once you get into the larger, lower profile sizes though. Don't make fun of me but I have a set of Federal Himalaya WS2's on my golf R and must say for the money they are fantastic. They are relatively quiet, perform exceptionally well on ice and snow, and the tread lasts forever. Only downside to me is that they are very soft so they are a bit squishy on dry pavement. When I bought them I was told they are kind of the best kept secret in winter tires (also heard the same from several other people) and I kind of agree!

I had these on my R32 and my wifes old mazda 3. Awesome tire, amazing in the snow/ice. I wish they still made these.

[miketweedie]

Re: What are your favourite winter tires?

i'm with Derek. put those on the wife's new Q5 last week as well.

[Fizzo20]

Re: What are your favourite winter tires?

1. Nokian Hakkapeliitta
2. Bridgestone Blizzak
3. Federal Himalaya

[Geobmx4life]

Re: What are your favourite winter tires?

Nokian Hakkapalita R2
Nokian Hakkapalita 7 studded
Living in the mountains we need great winters...have used IceX and was happy with them too.

[witchcraftz]

Re: What are your favourite winter tires?

What no Pirelli Sottozero?

Honestly the only winter tires I have run are Nokian and Blizzak and I loved both.

[stefan]

Re: What are your favourite winter tires?

1. Nokian Hakkapeliitta
2. Bridgestone Blizzak
3. Federal Himalaya

I had studded Federal Himalayas. Very good traction at a great price, but maybe a little too soft for my liking. I found they wore quite unevenly and required a lot of rotating. Any sort of spirited driving was very hard on them.
Sticking with a little cheaper tire, I next went with General Altimax Arctic (Studded). They are much wider than my old Federals, so it's not really apples to apples, but I find these drive so much nicer. I didn't really get a good feel for winter performance, since there weren't too many bad winter days last season. I can definitely push these a little and they still feel stable. The Federals felt very squishy.

I would assume, since the Generals are a little harder compound, that they may not handle the ice conditions as well as the Federals, but I think it was a good trade off given that our winters consist of a lot of dry road driving.

[Kor]

Re: What are your favourite winter tires?

I can say that I had some Hankook winter tires on my last car and they sucked. Really sucked.

[CGY_GTI]

Re: What are your favourite winter tires?

I can say that I had some Hankook winter tires on my last car and they sucked. Really sucked.

We had Hankooks on my dad's old CC and I agree, they were hopeless.

[All_Euro]

Re: What are your favourite winter tires?

I’ve always run Nokian which are awesome... the A4 I bought this summer came with a set of Federal Himalaya’s so I’ll find out how they compare soon enough.

I’m under the impression that most winter tires will be good at full tread but the lesser quality rubber starts to act more like an all-season once the tread depth is around 50%... Nokians don’t do that so I can’t say first hand.