Winter tires ?

what winter/snow tires should i get? i have ipikes but they are strating to get waren down, looking to see what is good now a days

 

I have a winter setup of 17inch Yokohamas. I got them at Discount tire, but can't seem to find them on the site (lame!) BUT I love them to death! it is like having AWD on my MS3

The Subaru has Blizzaks, I haven't gotten to drive on them yet, but I know Erik likes them AWD plus Snow Tires is just plain WIN. We actually got these off of CL and had them mounted on the stock wheels. So it was cheaper.

As long as you are good at looking at tread and wear, I think CL can work well for getting a nice set of tires for cheap

 

I run Blizzaks on my Scion and I will never own another car without it having a set of them for winter

 

I hear tons of good things about blizzaks lot of people I know run them.

 

I used to run Blizzaks. They're f'n beasts. What a riot in deep snow!

But, we live in Minnesota: Home of the perpetual-motion snow plow (or snow-cow as my 4 year old would say). Snow doesn't stick around our highways and side streets for very long. Not that I habitually seek out snow-covered side streets in my Subaru or anything...

Anyway, last year I made the switch from Blizzak WS60's to Michelin PA3's (performance winter tires) and I'm never looking back. Yes, I miss feeling like a turbocharged honey badger on low grade pcp when chugging through 8"+ of snow. The trade off is still being able to murder cloverleafs for the other 90% of the time... when I'm driving on cold, clear/plowed pavement.

I'd say I retain maybe 85% of my summer performance characteristics with the PA3's. I'd be lucky to say I had 60-65% of the performance capabilities with the WS60's. I'll definitely switch back to the Blizzaks if I move somewhere that has a problem keeping up with clearing snow. Until then, I'm not giving up my woo-ha for 6 months out of the year just so I can go nuts during the few days per year when we see more snow than the plows can handle.

 

Yokohama IceGuards -> I finally figured it out

Erik and I were talking about this and he talked about the longevity of the Blizzaks versus the IceGuards and something about the compound of the IceGuards allowing them to have a longer lifespan. BUT I think both will work well for the snow/ice.

And I agree that while we might get that crazy dump or snow once in a while. MNDot is good about clearing the Hwys very quickly. Side roads might be a different story

I think Subaru's are partial to snow anyway We had fun the first snow driving up and down 52, watching the big SUVs in the ditch. We also help several people that day (mainly Asian). It was good times for all My MS3 would have been great too if my short shifter hadn't decided to disconnect.

I'm wondering how being 2 inches lower now will affect the snow handling.

 

Had Icebears on the MS6, fucker was a tank. I have Ipike's on my '97 Tbird coupled with 240 lbs of sand in the trunk and for being a one wheel wonder it got me through that awful winter last year just fine. They're cheap, but they work.

 

Ah, forgot to mention that. The WS60's (and I believe WS70's) have a magic compound with jesus sipes on the outside that makes them ridiculously good for the first year or two. After that it wears down and it's just an average winter tire. The wear pretty quick if you drive them in anything resembling warm weather too.

 

YES! That is what Erik was talking about Thanks!