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      10-04-2016, 01:35 PM   #1
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Keith's 2016-2017 Winter Tire Guide

Keith's 2016-2017 Winter Tire Guide

When shopping for winter tires, it's best to find a tire that fits your specific needs. Much like when shopping for summer tires, some people are most concerned with getting the highest performance possible and nothing else matters. While others realize they do not need the "race" performance and would rather have a touring tire that will provide better ride quality and tread life.
This same logic applies to winter tires. There is not one single tire that will fit everyone's needs.

-If you live in an area where you do not see much snow, but still need a winter tire for the bad days, it would be best to look at the performance winter/snow category. These tires will handle very well on dry roads, but will still provide adequate traction in the ice and snow. These performance winter tires typically have higher speed ratings.
-If you live in an area where you wake up to fresh snow covered roads often or maybe are new to driving in the winter, you are going to want the absolute best winter traction. The studless ice & snow category is going to provide the best winter traction, but will give up some dry road responsiveness. When the going gets tough, these tires will give you the most confidence in bad weather.

In the performance winter category, here are some of the top performers this season. Click on each and it will take you to the details:

Pirelli Winter Sottozero 3
Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4
Bridgestone Blizzak LM001

The Pirelli and Michelin have proven themselves and are currently the highest rated in this category. The Blizzak LM001 is brand new this season and while we expect it to be a class leader, we have not yet been able to test it.


Next up, for the people looking for the most winter traction and do not mind giving up some dry road handling, the studless ice & snow category is going to work best. Here are some of the top performers in this category:

Bridgestone Blizzak WS80
Michelin X-Ice Xi3
Continental WinterContact SI

I personally use the Michelin X-Ice Xi3 on my vehicle because I feel this tire provides the best balance between winter traction, ride quailty, dry road performance and treadlife. If you are solely concerned with the best ice/snow traction, the Blizzak WS80 does have a slight advantage. The WinterContact SI is still a very good competitor, but is slightly behind the two leaders.

*All these are not available in every size. The size you are using may dictate which tires you can use. Many of the performance winter tires are available in the larger 18"-20" sizes, while the studless ice & snow tires are typically more popular in the 16"-18" sizes.*

Most people will not be installing their winter tires on until later in November or even December. Please know, certain sizes and models have limited availability and will sell out before the snow actually gets here so please try to plan in advance and order earlier rather than later.

Feel free to email me directly if you would like to go over your options or if you have any questions. Keith@tirerack.com will be the fastest way to get to me.

If you do order online, when checking out please be sure to reference "Keith/F87Post" as your previous contact. This is the only way the forum receives credit.
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      10-04-2016, 08:35 PM   #2
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Will any of the "studless ice & snow category" tires fit the the stock wheels? Or are separate wheels necessary (I.e., 18" wheels)? I have always used my stock wheels as a winter set On all my cars in the past and bought a second set of wheels for the non-winter months.
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      10-06-2016, 04:09 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CHITOWN1series View Post
Will any of the "studless ice & snow category" tires fit the the stock wheels? Or are separate wheels necessary (I.e., 18" wheels)? I have always used my stock wheels as a winter set On all my cars in the past and bought a second set of wheels for the non-winter months.
Unfortunately no. None of the studless ice & snow tires are available in the correct sizes for the stock M2 wheels.

The only winter tire we have available in your factory sizes is the Pirelli Winter Sottozero Serie II :
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....oModClar=?=BS4
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      12-08-2016, 08:06 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith@tirerack.com View Post
Unfortunately no. None of the studless ice & snow tires are available in the correct sizes for the stock M2 wheels.

The only winter tire we have available in your factory sizes is the Pirelli Winter Sottozero Serie II :
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....oModClar=?=BS4
It looks like the tire size matches stock for the rear in OEM size but not exactly for the front that I can find for this tire. What would you recommend for the front tires?
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      12-08-2016, 10:51 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by m2tek View Post
It looks like the tire size matches stock for the rear in OEM size but not exactly for the front that I can find for this tire. What would you recommend for the front tires?
It looks like the fronts are almost sold out, so they have been removed from the website. This is why the link is only showing the rears.

Please call me directly to place the order. 800-428-8355 ext 4799. If you want them, I would not wait. These will sell very soon and we cannot get anymore this season.
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      12-08-2016, 12:52 PM   #6
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Some things I have learned when switching between summer and winter tires on a performance car.

19" winters tire are harder to find than 18"

in snow, narrower tires perform better than a comparable wider tire, meaning if you can look for an 18" solution and consider narrower 18" if more than one will work

buy an extra set of rims if you can. Over the life of the tires you will spend more to unmount and mount tires + there are more opportunities for the installer to introduce an imperfection to the rims, this is an OCD concern.

use a square set up and buy a spare tire!! as Keith has already posted winter tires sell out and there is a high probability that you will not find a match in the middle of the season. Also the winter tires should last a few seasons which makes the probability of finding a match even lower in following years. This happened to me twice before I learned, e.g. damage to the sidewall

Last edited by omasou; 10-02-2018 at 01:58 PM..
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      12-26-2016, 01:46 PM   #7
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Having used everything from run flat blizzaks to ws80 non run flats to continentals (cant remember which ones now currently cheap general altimax - my rwd 330i (with limited slip diff) has been equally good in snowy conditions with each of the different tires (within a small margin). the biggest loss is dry weather handling - the Generals are very squirmy at anything more than 55mph. At 75mph on the nye thruway, I find myself counter steering and correcting quite a bit.

We recently added a 14 GTI to the driveway for my spouse - there was a $70 michelin rebate offer for the Xi3 last month - it is the best all around snow I have driven on. It performs very well in cold gritty deep snow, ice and slushy warmer (31/32 degrees) snow. Best of all they are no louder that the pilot super sports that we run in the summer, and they have a fairly stable and sporty feeling in the dry - despite the additional sidewall of a 16" vs the oem 18".

Having used several brand snow tires - the worst snow tire is better than the best "all season" in the snow and slush. I think snows should be mandatory in my part of the country that gets the risk of 3-4 months for snowy days. That said, next set I buy for my old bmw will be a set of the michelins.
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      12-01-2018, 08:05 AM   #8
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