NEHA

Hi, I'm Alex, I live in Montreal, Canada. (Here winter tires are required by law, can't use 4 season tires. )

I'm looking for some good winter tires for the daily driver and was wondering what you guys use and why.

So, the big question is? WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORIT WINTER TIRES? STUDDED OR NOT? AND WHY?

Thanks.


EDIT: Forgot to mention... The car is a E46 328i with 17" (can't fit 16" cause i have 330 rear brakes)

I've always had pretty good luck with Nokian snow tires. Currently have the RSi on my subarus. They work great for Rallyx too. Another subie I bought came with Dunlop snows, and they also worked darn well.
I know a lot of the ice racing guys swear by the Bridgestone Blizzak.

I might add that I've worked for a ski resort for the last decade, and I MUST get to work in some of the worst conditions. The right snow tire choice was critical for the 2wd cars I've owned, and slightly less so for the AWD vehicles.

I've previously had good luck with Blizzack REVO1s but they wore out pretty quickly and when it came to deep snow they weren't so awesome, ice however, they were amazing.

I'm currently running Nokian Nordmans, which are VERY aggressive. I've run them one season already and can hardly tell that they've worn and they're excellent in deep snow. Dry handling is alright but it took me a week to get used to them after being spoiled by my Bridgestone RE070's all summer, I would still call them capable in the dry but I have to be aware of corner speeds.

I ran Nokian Hakkas on my Subaru Outback wagon year-round and they were fantastic tires, which led me to buy a set for my mother's civic, which she also uses year-round with no complaints and excellent wear.

I bought my wife a set of Gislaved Nordfrosts this season, and though we haven't had any snow I've been very impressed with their ride, noise and grip. Simply a great tire.

None of the aforementioned snows were studded.

Bridgestone Revised the REVO 1 and now has the Blizzak WS60. They found the REVO 1 was a great tire but they did not last long at all. The basically took what worked on the old WS50 and what worked on the REVO 1 and blended them together. Its a great tire. If you wanted to something a little more aggressive you could always do the General Altimax Artics. They are studdable to. This is what I run on my Evo. I have two seasons on them so far. This will be my last due to wear. I have liked them. The only downside to these are they are Loud if you choose to stud them.

Some of the reasons we like Nokian tires has to do with their casing construction - they take well to rugged use (especially the light truck sizes), and they drive well on pavement when worn - Ralph Cota ran shaved Hakka's in the mini-stocks at Airborne! We've even had good luck with the "wholesale club" Nokia clones on Michelle's van.

Nokian all the way.... been using them since 1988 or so.

I run Dunlop Wintersport 3D on my MINI, just put them back on for the third season - highly recommended - unstudded, have 'plowed' an inch-plus of snow out of our driveway to get to work, where I was informed the other 3 guys had all called in (2 w/ 4wd pick-ups) - still have at least 7/32", which I think is outstanding being as I seem to leave them too late in the spring (and I don't get passed very often ) - also worked pretty good on the ice of Lake Iriquois...

Another SCCV member has the Dunlop Wintersport M3 on his MINI, and is close to replacing them w/ the same, last I heard...

Nokian all the way, I run them on all my vehicles.

Hakkas are good and their 4 season tires are also really good. They are made opposite of an all season. All seasons are summer tires that you can kinda sorta run in the winter (if they are new). The 4 season Nokians are snow tires that you can run in the summer. They give up a little in the snow compared to the Hakkas but they are still very good.

I've been using Blizzaks for the snow/ice rallycross events with the scca because they are relatively cheap. We beat on my car with an average of 3 drivers per event, and after 3 events there was a little bit of chunking, but they are otherwise still in great shape. As far as Nokians, a fellow rallycrosser is a dealer, so send me a message and i can give you his info.