I have only put a couple thousand miles on the ones on the bmw. They are pretty good on ice. We did not get a whole lot of snow last winter it was quite cold though and I liked them enough to buy another set. I have hakka’s on my Acura though I drove it very little last winter. I have had all of the brands over the years. I chose these for the bmw as I wouldn’t have it much longer and the Pirelli snows were worn out. The online reviews that I did find were positive.
I always chuckle when peopele say "Blizzaks" as if that's a tire. That's the entire line of winter tires from Bridgestone, ranging from the cheapo basic snow tire to high-peformance winter sport tires to winter SUV tires.
Saying "Blizzaks are great" is like saying "Potenzas are great," it's meaningless.
My inputs from RWD cars (in winter rally) and AWD cars in regular winter driving:
- Firestone Winterforce has good traction, floppy sidewall, lousy steering response
- For similar price, Altimax Arctic is better in all respects (also sold as a few other brands like Gislaved Nord-Frost and others)
^^ Both of those are run-of-the-mill basic snow and ice tires. They are lousy and mushy on dry roads.
- Dunlop Wintersport M3/M4 - performance winters. On dry they feel like performance all-seasons. In snow/ice they feel like winter tires with traction. They cost twice as much as the "cheapo" winters. If you usually run performance tires, and just want to run ONE tire all winter, regardless of conditions, this is the kind of tire you want. My WRX on these was unstoppable in any conditions, period. When I was in Germany, every rental car is equipped with these in the winter for Autobahn use (Autobahn does not allow non-winter tires in the winter!)
- Blizzak LM-series - performance winters. Pretty much the same as the Wintersport M3/M4, but last I checked a bit more expensive.
In the end, any of them are better than all-seasons in snow, ice, and freezing pavement. Just depends on how much "normal road" performance you want out of them.
btw, Tire Rack currently has an $80 gift card offer on various winter tires...
I'm in the market as well. 195/55/15 for the FiST. I've had experience with Blizzak WS-80 and X-Ice 3. I'm tempted to try some cheaper tires, but I'm not sure if it's worthwhile. The price delta between an entry level winter tires and the best is roughly 50%. I prefer the X-Ice 3 in all conditions to the WS-80, although there's a WS-90 for this year. Winter tire performance has come a long way in the last 15 years, particularly in the dry and wet. I don't know if that is particular to the premium brand/models. I don't want to hate my tires for five years to save a couple hundred bucks or less.
I am running WS 80's on the FiST now, 185/60/15. Ran them two winters on the SE , this will be the second for the FiST.
I too have been tempted for less expensive tires but I don't want to take the chance.
Blizzaks have serve me well since around 2002.
I've run a few different winter tires over the years, all on various BMWs (RWD). Dunlop Wintersport 3Ds were the best in cold dry conditions, but I didn't think they did as well as a true winter tire would in heavier snow. Arctic Altimaxes (original version) were spectacular in the messy stuff; I didn't mind the compromise on dry roads, though it was pretty obvious. The latest set are Conti WinterContact SIs, which I've been pretty happy with, though in fairness the past two winters (the sum total of the time I've had them) haven't been terrible.
My Saab C900 project car came with a set of studded Hakkapelittas, which I really need to try in the snow before I destroy them in rallyx.
In reply to artur1808 :
On the Saturn, I thought they were amazing in deep unplowed snow. I was less impressed by the set on the Buick, even when they were new. This may have had to do with the sizes I chose. On the Saturn, I went with "minus one" sizing: 175/70R14 on SL1 steelies. On the Buick, I went with stock size (225/60R17).
Like most owner recommendations, you have to take mine with a grain of salt. Michelin X-Ices are the only winter tires I've ever owned. I can tell you how much better they are than all-seasons, but can't tell you how they'd stack up to other brands of winter tires.
I've ran a set of 215/50/17 General Artimax Artics since 2013. Tread depth is still good (8/9 32nds i belive), technically about to age out. Only have had a few issues where the tires spin starting from a stop. Getting through deep snow is fine for the most part (car is a FWD 5speed mazda6 lowered ~1 inch). I've gotten into/out of unplowed parking lots where my manager is figuring out how that was possible.
edit: if i had to guess, minimum of 2500 miles/year on winters
artur1808 said:In reply to xflowgolf :
I am in the Metro Detroit region. I'll probably bite the bullet on shipping rather than drive down there for the $40 savings.
I've heard that the Blizzaks lose their magic after the first few thousand miles. Can anyone else comment on WS80's?
I haven't noticed that degradation, although it is theoretically possible due to the different compound of the first few mm of tread depth.
Also, for what it's worth, we won the 2WD class (and 2nd overall) at the Wellsboro winter rally last year on Altimax Arctics. No real incidents while a lot of other people with other tires were finding ditches and trees. It was some snow, lots of ice, lots of frozen mud/dirt, and plenty of traction on everything except uphill glaze ice (but still got us there).
I still wouldn't ever want them on a street car, too mushy, but for straight-up winter conditions they're great (they are what most rally people use for winter rallies that require steet tires, on cars that can't get the high-end performance winters in their size, like old BMWs).
For any modern-ish street car with larger wheels, I woudn't even consider (personally) buying anything othr than "performance winter" tires like the 4D or BLizzak LM-series. They are just like normal tires in regular driving, but with snow/ice grip. YMMV.
I think it's somewhat vehicle it's dependant, but I didn't mind the altimax arctic's on the street. This was on a fiesta st though so the tires are the only compliant part of the suspension. The softer ride was nice but it was nowhere near mushy. The little bit of extra lateral compliance was actually super fun, made the slip angle buildup slow and super easy to control, could get it into a light four wheel drift through a long corner and still feel very much in control. I also did an early season autocross on them once and the car was much more fun and much faster than I expected. Last season I had a used older set of Yoko snow tires. They did drive/ride more like a normal tire on dry roads but weren't great in snow or ice and were downright dangerous in wet conditions. That all said I'm probably getting ws80s this season. I almost had myself talked into all seasons since the last few winters have been mild and I have a rallycross car with real snow tires for really bad conditions, but with all the rebates the ws80s are the same price as all seasons and I like the idea of good ice traction. To your point though, the rallycross car with either version of winterforce tires on it is a terrible, sloppy, barely fun to drive mess compared to its summer tires.
In reply to AngryCorvair :
The :magic depth goes far enough that you are at the point of wear that is time for new ones.
Any taction loss is probably more to decreased tread depth than any thing else.
Also, as they get older they get slightly harder, not so you could tell without a durometer.
I appreciate all of the feedback! I decided to go with the new General Altimax Arctic 12 because discount tire was (maybe still is for one more day) having a 10% off (15% if you have a discount tire credit card) and the generals had a $50 mail in rebate. So they came out to less than $300 for the tires!
Seems like reviews are limited on the new tires since they just came out, but I've heard good things and had good experience on the originals, so I decided to roll the dice on the new ones.
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