I saw the thread below about the slippery Portenzas, and many of the responses came from people who live in the Northeast, with lots of rain/freezing rain. Can anyone in traditional snow country recommend a tire to switch to? I took my new SE out after a snowstorm and was spinning my wheels so bad I had to return to the house and get the Explorer. Parked the car for a few days.

What is a good tire on the Maxima for snow but is also good for dry highways? We'll get a big snow followed by a melt where I live (Wyoming). I've heard Blizzaks are OK.

Thank you in advance for any information.

 

are they really that bad? i don't find them bad, and I live in the great white north...

 

blizzak is excellent. I have semperit and they're pretty good... a little howl at high speed but it's manageable. The canadian folks really like nokian (I think that's right).

look around, you'll find plenty of suggestions.

 

I have mounted a set of 16" rims with Dunlop Winter Sport M3s. The ride is great (less bumpy and harsh) compared to the stock Potenza's on 17" rims. Handle great on dry pavement, and are impressive in snowy/icy conditions. They also don't hydro plane in the rain, which scared me with the stock tires. Bought the winter package at tirerack.com.

 

I heard Michelin Pilots are very good tires. Many .orgs use it.

 

I'm in Syracuse NY and if you are familiar with upstate NY and Lake Effect snow, you know I'm in major snow country and few places in the world rival our snow. I use Goodyear Ultra Grip performance tires. I use 16" wheels for winter and the tires alone ran about $800. I'm an insurance agent and put on about 50k miles per year, so I can definitly vouch for the reliability and performance of these tires.

 

I don't know if they still make these tires, but the Michelin MS+330 is really good, I have them on the bimma.

 

I second that. I used to live at 9200ft in Colorado and could not drive PERIOD unless I had my Blizzak WS-50s on!

 

Blizzak is a great snow tire, but when you drive more on asphalt than snow, they'll wear very quickly.

I've owned Pirelli Winter 210's for years, and still think they're a great snow tire. I've got them on my 2K SE and have been able to maneuver just fine in 6-8" of snow.

I'll get 3-4 years out of the 210's, too. Blizzak's won't last you more than 2 (not around here, anyway).

 

You are right, they wear real quick, but stick big time in the snow.

 

I personally recommend the Nokian Hakkapalita NRW for performance snow tires and Nokian Hakkapalita 1 for all out snow tire.
A lot of us up here in Canada use the Nokians. Awesome tires.
Made in Finland by the tire division of Nokia (cell phone makers).
I was skeptical at first but so many people said they were awesome so I ended up getting them. And they were all correct. I had Pirellis before and these are way way better (I bought the NRW because I live in a city so I wanted more dry performance than all out snow).
Even with the NRW I was able to climb a 10% incline with 6 inches of snow with 800 pounds of extra weight on the car (passengers and ski equipment and luggage for 2 weeks) so I was so low (I'm already 1.5 inches lower than stock) that I was pushing a lot of the snow.
Made it up the incline no probs. And that's with the performance snow tires, not full out snow tires. And the best part is that they're not super expensive. Just letting you know of another option.

 

I'll echo Axel's comments. The Hakka NRW are awsome, even better than I thought they would be. If you check the Nokian website you will see that these tires are best in a slush/mud condition. That just happens to be what you get in a city after snowfall melts a little. I like these tires so much I may buy a set for my second car.