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...

Wow i was gonna get Blizzaks as well... i live in NYC and the snow here sometimes are tremendous but i have no idea what i should get? winter tires or ice and snow?

I do like the ContiWinterContact TS830s on my mom's 325i. A good well-rounded winter tire that's stable in the dry yet lots of (controlled) fun in the powdery stuff.

Unfortunately due to budget issues I'm probably going to have to stick it out with summer tires on my X3 this winter. Praying for no snow here in NC........

I wanna try those Goodyear Ultra Grip WRT's now. Very reasonable price and might be better than Blizzak WS70's. Its got a cool tread pattern too but that isn't a deciding factor.

also debating trying the good years...was there a link to the actual test somewhere? did I miss it?

The test is printed annually in the German magazine Auto-Motor-und-Sport. I receive and read this in German.

Here is a link to the article, unfortunately it does not seem to contain the tables with results that came in the printed mag.

Großer Winterreifentest: Premium-Marke gleich Premium-Sicherheit? - AUTO MOTOR UND SPORT

Is the ultra grip wrt and the ultra grip 8 the same thing is the 500 dollar question..

Ended up getting a set of Blizzak DM-V1's we'll see how they do

I bought General Altimax Artic's as they were available at my local ETD Discount Tire. Got through that nor-easter NJ had just fine which was especially important as I'm a volunteer firefighter for my town.

2012 Winter tire test
 

The 2012 test was in the late September issue. Sorry for being late on the update but here goes in order of the test performance.

Highly recommended

Nokian WR D3 (won the test)
Continental Winter Contact TS850
Semperit Speed Grip2
Dunlop SP Wintersport 4D
Goodyear Ultragrip 8

Recommended

Toyo Snowprox S953
Michelin Alpin 4
Fulda Kristal Control HP
Pirelli Snow Control III

Somewhat recommended

Vredestein Snow Trac 3
Hankook Icept RS

NOT recommended

Bridgestone Blizzak LM 32
Nankang NK Snow SV-2


All those trumpeting the Nokian seem to be on to something. I drove ia couple of pretty bad winters on Contis and have very positive impressions from them. Goodyear is slipping a bit but still considered very good.

Bridgestone as always brings up the rear. My personal experience with B'Stones is very bad so I am not surprised they keep scoring poorly.

The problem is that more and more tire manufacturers are either reducing their US snow tire models or differentiating them to the point where it's hard to find the same model from Europe being sold in the US. I had quite a bit of trouble choosing my most recent purchase (Pirelli Ice & Snow) because Continental has essentially split apart its offerings (almost none of the ContiWinterContacts are available anymore) the remaining offerings from Dunlop and Nokian are bleedingly expensive for something I'll use 3 months a year.

Funny anecdotal evidence for the winner of the test. When I went to Austria to ski right after New Year it was snowing like crazy driving up to the ski area in our rental car (Ford Galaxy, no 4wd). We drove right past a bunch of stuck cars getting out their snow chains. Closer to the top I had to switch off the traction control but the car kept going up.

When I got to the lifts I checked the make of the winter tires and realized they were Nokian Winter 3Ds!! So I guess those singing the praises of the Nokians have a point!! :-)