Snow tires

[tpdorsey]

It's getting to be that time of year again and new car means new snow tires. We live in the Green Mountains of Vermont and will be taking the kids up to ski at least once a week. (For school. Seriously.)

Anyone have thoughts on Bridgestone Blizzaks versus Nokian Norseman/Hakkapeliitta?

My local tire guy carries both. We've been perfectly happy with Blizzaks in the past and I wonder what the Nokians offer that might be worth the significant extra cost. The car is a 2000 BMW 540i wagon.

Thanks

[Stevie]

Are you running 225/55 16 or 235/45 17?

Have used Nokian's WR G2 and the newer (euro) WR A3 in 215/55 16 (on a MB W210) and 225/55 16 (e34 540i) and love them! Much better then the Conti TS810S I had before. and much more stable when putting the V-rating to good use. Might be worth asking how soon the A3 is coming to the States as the G2 was recently replaced here. If you are not going to use the studs I wouldn't bother with the Hakkepelita's as the seem a low-speed stud-tire to me.

Performance on dry and wet might be similar to Blizzaks but I have not found anything close to Nokians on Snow & Ice. Noise on the Blizzaks I had was in a league of it's own, earplugs should come standard.

[tpdorsey]

I'm pretty certain we're running 235/45 17s, although we have 8-inch wheels all the way around, not the 8/9 combo. These wheels have a poor restoration repaint, so I'm turning them into dedicated winter wheels and looking for new summer wheels.

The WRG2 sounds like what our guy is calling "Nordman," which is actually a truck tire if I'm reading the web site right. Thanks for this info, which gives me some background for following up with him. This sounds like what we need.