German Magazine annual winter tire test
 

For those who are interested in the arcane issue of winter tires.

In order of points score

Highly recommended were:
GoodYear Ultragrip
Michelin Alpin
Continental Winter Contact

Recommended:
Fulda (a goodyear brand I believe)
Dunlop SP Winter sport
Pirelli Sottozero
Vredestein Snowtrac
Nokian WR G2

Less Recommended:
Bridgestone Blizzak
Kumho KW


Let the bickering begin :stickpoke
:D

From the tests I have seen, the Michelin Alpin have taken the cake in this catagory. However, nobody confuse "winter" tires with other "ice and snow" tires.

The difference?

Which tests?

There is a good link in this thread to one of the test. I have also seen test on TireRack.com

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ad-winter.html

Performance winter tires are designed for light snow as well as dry and wet traction in colder, winter temps. Snow and ice are designed for, well, heavier snow and ice. There are now different catagories of tires to be used in the cold and snow. Just pointing out that there are different tires for differnt uses in winter now a days.

Fwiw, I ran Michey Alpin winter tires for the 2001-2005 winter season, here in the Mtns. They were remarkable and made the ol'X as sure footed
as a mountain goat; and this is on an '01 non-Xdrive E53.
GL, mD

Germany rates their winter tires for 140mph so the tires in the test are likely performance oriented versions. Main comment in the test on almost all the tires that did not come out on top was that they lack snow traction which would subscribe your theory.

Is Goodyear sold only through their own stores in the US? I don't see them show anywhere else.

You can get Goodyear tires at many retailers. Not just their own stores/shops. At least in my neck of the woods you can.

FWIW, I am adament of those damm Nokian R tires.
The GR is more a all season tire in Nokian's lineup.

We (in the US) are like 2 models behind in Nokian's tire technology.
The Hak 7 is just short of amazing but unfortunately, by next winter season, I'll assume that would be the current tire in the lineup for the US.

2011 UPDATE for winter tire test
 

Here are the rankings as they appered in the latest test

Highly recommended:
Goodyear Ultragrip 8
Continental Winter Contact TS830
Michelin Pilot Alpin 4
Nokian WRD3
Dunlop Winter Sport D4

Recommended:
Vredestein Snow Trac 3
Pirelli Snow Control 3
Toyo Snow Prox S 953
Sava Eskimo HP (GoodYear brand)
Fulda Kristal Control HP
Bridgestone Blizzak LM32

Less recommended:
Apollo Acelere Winter (India)
Falken Euro Winter HS439 (Japan)
GT Radial CHampiro WinterPro (Indonesia)

The Blizzaks remain at the bottom of the line up ahead only of some brands unknown to me. GoodYear remains top dog overal.

But the Nokians blew all the others away in the snow and were quite good in the dry. They slipped down the ranking on the wet performance which is very important factor under German high speed conditions. Very impressive how Nokian moved up the chart! Unfortunately seems the WRD3 is not in the North American line up.

Hmm, well now I'm rethinking getting a set of blizzaks next week...