Well, winter is coming up and I'm looking to probably get a decent set of new tires......I'm still using the Goodyear RSA tires (I know people have had bad luck with them, but so far, I'm doing okay with mines) but I just got a new job in New York which requires travel to Queens, and my boss has a 04 Max too and he had issues with the Goodyear tires too, and he put on some Michelin tires and he said they are great on the road and said that I should get new ones before the winter hits really hard with the snow......so I'm looking on Tirerack at some tires and I see the only winter ones they have are:

Bridgestone Blizzak LM-22
Continental ContiWinterContact TS810 S
Dunlop Winter Sport M3
Michelin Pilot Alpin PA2

You guys have any recommendations or expereince with any of these brands.....let me know...

Thanks....

 

do you need all season tires or dedicated winter tires?

 

blak,
from your title - just a pair? REALLY recomend you go with all 4. haven't tried any of the brands you listed but i have hankook 401's all around. we have it all up here in the far north black ice, snow, slush & mountain grades .....

 

Get all four tires for sure. Having the rear slide around on you is even scarier than losing traction on the front.

I would also recommend buying some cheap rims and mounting the tires on them. It will give you several seasons worth of good use. If you have a garage, you can also mount them yourself and not wait in line at the tire store when a storm is approaching.

Of the tires you selected, I would take the Blizzaks, which are probably the best ones in snow. The others are more like high-end sporty tires designed for use in some snow -- better than all seasons, but not really kick ass snow tires.

Most of the people here swear by the Nokian Hakapeliitta for non studded tires, followed by the Blizzak and Toyo Observe (which is very similar to the Blizzak). It is more common to find studded tires here, though, since they are legal.

I have a set of Cooper Weathermaster S/T tires on my Maxima fully studded and I love them.




On my QX4, I have a set of Hercules Signet Winter Trax, also studded. They aren't as good as the Coopers, but they do better in the snow than any all season tire could dream of and I have few complaints. I had a set of Blizzaks on a previous Maxima, and they were fairly good in the snow, but I wasn't 100 percent sold on them, although they were significantly better than any all-season I have ever driven in the snow.

I should probably add that I live in the Columbia Gorge, which has lots of hills, snow, ice and pretty crazy winters. I am also less than an hour from Mt. Hood ski areas, less than three hours from Mt. Bachelor ski area and about an hour from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest (Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens). The people here know snow tires and sell lots of them that get lots of real world use.

 

It depends on how much you are willing to spend. The Nokian Hakkapeliitta's (RSI) are arguably the best snow tires available for our cars; most current snow tires are based off of them, though they are very expensive. The Dunlop M3's are also very highly rated and similar to the Nokian's, though I have not personally used these. You can get these relatively cheap from tirerack. The Michelin's are also good. The Dunlop and Nokians, while designed to work on dry as well as snow covered roads are very soft and will wear quickly if you leave them on in dry coonditions. The fact that they are so soft makes them better in the snow, however I would highly recomend mounting them on a cheap set of rims and changing over for snow.

For the price and what you get performace wise, the Blizzaks are very overrated.

 

Thanks for the suggestions guys.......I actually meant a pair of 4 (sorry for the confusion there).

 

Consumer Reports did a writeup on tires and snow tires either this or last month. May want to check it out. They rated the tires for snow, wet and dry handling and wear, among other things. For all around snow, wet and rain they liked some tires called Vikings, distributed by Continental. I don't remember which tires they rated best, but hopefully someone here has the article handy.

 

1 vote for Blizzaks.

 

I like my Gislaved Nord Frost 3 tires and use them (unstudded) in the winter on my '03. My mom lives in Northern Vermont and has a set of Gislaved Nord Frost 3 (studded) on her '97 and loves them as well.

The Cooper Weather Master ST/2 are good (have used them on a AWD Outback and a 2WD Ford Ranger) and are usually less expensive than the Gislaved if that is a contrant.

 

I have a set of Nokian Hakkwhatevers and Gislaved snows siting around, I think this winter I am going to try the Gislaved's, I know I love Nokians.

 

I have 1 pair of Blizzaks and 1 pair of hankook 401's . Hankooks go on rear axle.

I like them both. The hankook 401's were very cheap but they seem to be working just fine in winter conditions. They have soft sidewalls - softer than the Blizzaks.
I put mine on 4 16" steel wheels and i keep them inthe garage when not needed. I will use them for at least 2 more winters.

Blizzaks are definetely a very very good winter tire. Get them if you don't want to spend the extra $$ for Nokian.

 

I've been hearing good things on Tirerack about the tire by Avoln....it's all seasone and pretty cheap and good in the winter too....I think I might check these out.