Hello to all.
Thought I'd post this up as I recently bought some snow tires from tirerack.com and really couldn't be happier with them.
My All Seasons were Falken Ziex 912's which came on the car when I bought this fine auto back in June. Looking at the tread back before purchasing, I had a pretty good inclination that that tread design would be useless in the Vancouver snow. Sure enough, we had a small snowfall 3 weeks ago which we acquired about 3inches of the white stuff. The tires (falkens) allowed me to go forward and reverse, but not brake or corner at all. At least remotely close to anything resembling safety.
After much deliberation, I decided on the Pirelli 240 Sottozero in 215/40/18. Decided on the stock tire size on the stock rims since I plan on changing out the rims and rubber in the spring and these are now my dedicated winter wheels.
I've put about 2300km's on the tires in the almost 3 weeks I've been running them. Mileage is almost equal which is a bonus with CDN premium gas prices (94 Octane, $1.37/L or about $5.90/G).
But more importantly is the braking and handling. While we're getting snow as I type this in Vancouver, I was getting anxious to check these out in the snow. I went up to our local ski hills (Cypress and Seymour), found some snow and was blown away by the performance of these tires. Even with the DSC off in my Speed6, it was hard to get a real donut going. Which is almost a bad thing
Granted I'm not that used to AWD yet but I was thoroughly impressed with the tires and do not regret buying these tires for my car. At all. You can feel the snow being evacuated and very very little spinning of the wheels when the gas is applied. And braking is excellent.
Add to the fact that the set of 4 from tirerack.com came out to the price of what 2 would've cost me up in Canada and I am one happy driver.
If you're wondering what else I was considering for snow tires, it was down between the Dunlop WinterSport 3D's or M3's, both looked appetizing (especially the 3D) and maybe Blizzak LM60. But the cost of the Pirelli's was too good to pass up along with the positive reviews I've read when searching for snow tires reviews under the Speed6 from tirerack.com. There's a limited variety of snow tires in 18" that are about $150ea that are in the performance cat.
One last word about the noise. During city driving up to about 90km/h, I think they're actually quieter than the Falkens. Once you reach about 110km/h, there is a bit of whur sound from the rear but that's expected with snows and it's nothing too loud and annoying.
Thought I'd post this up as I recently bought some snow tires from tirerack.com and really couldn't be happier with them.
My All Seasons were Falken Ziex 912's which came on the car when I bought this fine auto back in June. Looking at the tread back before purchasing, I had a pretty good inclination that that tread design would be useless in the Vancouver snow. Sure enough, we had a small snowfall 3 weeks ago which we acquired about 3inches of the white stuff. The tires (falkens) allowed me to go forward and reverse, but not brake or corner at all. At least remotely close to anything resembling safety.
After much deliberation, I decided on the Pirelli 240 Sottozero in 215/40/18. Decided on the stock tire size on the stock rims since I plan on changing out the rims and rubber in the spring and these are now my dedicated winter wheels.
I've put about 2300km's on the tires in the almost 3 weeks I've been running them. Mileage is almost equal which is a bonus with CDN premium gas prices (94 Octane, $1.37/L or about $5.90/G).
But more importantly is the braking and handling. While we're getting snow as I type this in Vancouver, I was getting anxious to check these out in the snow. I went up to our local ski hills (Cypress and Seymour), found some snow and was blown away by the performance of these tires. Even with the DSC off in my Speed6, it was hard to get a real donut going. Which is almost a bad thing
Granted I'm not that used to AWD yet but I was thoroughly impressed with the tires and do not regret buying these tires for my car. At all. You can feel the snow being evacuated and very very little spinning of the wheels when the gas is applied. And braking is excellent.Add to the fact that the set of 4 from tirerack.com came out to the price of what 2 would've cost me up in Canada and I am one happy driver.
If you're wondering what else I was considering for snow tires, it was down between the Dunlop WinterSport 3D's or M3's, both looked appetizing (especially the 3D) and maybe Blizzak LM60. But the cost of the Pirelli's was too good to pass up along with the positive reviews I've read when searching for snow tires reviews under the Speed6 from tirerack.com. There's a limited variety of snow tires in 18" that are about $150ea that are in the performance cat.
One last word about the noise. During city driving up to about 90km/h, I think they're actually quieter than the Falkens. Once you reach about 110km/h, there is a bit of whur sound from the rear but that's expected with snows and it's nothing too loud and annoying.
