It's about that time to start thinking about buying snow tires. I have 20" wheels and really do not want to buy other wheels for the winter on my 2012 4S. But I will if it means I can get better tires. I really like the Michelin Alpins I used to run on my Cayennes and Audis. What do you guys like? I need blizzard condition and ice tires, not just get to the store in a dusting of snow.

 

August seems a bit early... even for the Rockies.

Unfortunately, while I'm happy enough with the Pirelli Sottozeros I used last winter, I didn't really drive over anything more than the occasional collapsed snowbank. Back when I was living in Bailey, conditions on the local dirt roads got a lot worse than they ever do in Boston. So I can't say for certain. All I can say is the Pirellis did not hesitate or slide at all when I did drive over actual packed snow.

 

I have a lot of travel through September, so if I don't think about this now, it will be October and snowing and I'll still have summer tires!

 

Summer just started

 

I'm running the Alpins on a second set of wheels, 19" and narrower than the available winters for 20".

They were much better in the Chicago winter than the 20" pirelli sotto zeros I had the previous 2 winters on my PTT. Especially deeper snow.

 

What 19" wheels do you use?

 

I use the Baden 5 spokes from Viktor Equipment. Great quality for what they cost - all in for the wheels, tires (alpins), TPMS mounted was about $3k. I love them.

 

FWIW, when I bought my GTS (with 20" wheels) my dealer simply threw into the deal a take-off set of 19" wheels with Conti all season tires. They weren't worth much of anything to the dealer. So my suggestion is to check around with dealers - especially where you bought your car - and see if they have anything they can sell you cheaply. I have the 19" Panamera Turbo wheels. Suncoast also sets wheels with snow tires premounted.


DMoore
'13 Panamera GTS
'15 911 GT3

 

I have the Pirelli Sotto II's on my E63S. They are very good "winter" tires, but definitely not a "snow" tire. One of their best qualities is that they don't get torn up during our periods of very warm weather during the winter. We get an average of 60" of snowfall here, so I do rely on seasonal tires, but for our other vehicles I run Nokian exclusively. If they offered the Hakka 8 when I was shopping for the Merc, I would have purchased them without hesitation.

$0.02

 

Hi all, here's a question I had since I'm looking at snow tires, too...

How big is the difference between top of the line all seasons and dedicated high performance summer/winter tires? Is it very noticeable if you're not tracking the car?

Thanks!

 

For regular driving, the difference between high performance summer tires and all seasons isn't that great. It'll make a difference on the track, of course.

On the other hand, if you encounter actual packed snow, rather than just cold weather, the difference between real snow tires and all-season tires is huge for regular driving. As in, your stopping distance goes up by 50%. The Tire Rack has a short article on it. Snow tires vs. all-seasons has a much larger effect on safety than all-wheel drive.

Snow tires wear quickly if it's warm. If you're going to switch tires (or tire + wheel sets) anyway, your 3-season tires might as well be summer tires rather than all-seasons. The main drawback is that the summer tires turn into dangerous rocks when the temperature drops to freezing, and all-seasons don't, so you have to be more conscientious about switching out of summer tires.

 

One of the reasons I love the Michelin Alpins, besides their amazing traction on snow and ice, is their longevity. They routinely have lasted 30k miles - and that included summer driving.

 

Thanks for the tip! I'm stopping by there today (unfortunately with the P4S on a tow truck) and will ask.

 

Are you talking about the Michelin Alpin snow tires? They performed well and didn't degrade in summer??!?

 

So are the alpins better than the pirellis? Or is it more so that the 19s are better than the 20s?

I have 20" wheels with summer tires and I've been going back and forth on whether it's worth it to get 19s for winter.

What are the actual differences you noticed?

Thanks!