Best tires for winter for XC70

[doublecheese]

Hi Guys,

By looking at previous posts I found some answers but I am still not sure what to buy and I need to hear it once more from you guys.

I have owned a 1998 S40 T4, a 2000 V40 2.0T and recently I bought a 2001 XC70 2.5T for my wife. My question is which winter tires I should buy for the following purposes

1) Winter maximum 3 months here. Jan-Feb-March
2) Average Temp about 7 C or 44F
3) About 15 days out of the 3 months we get snow. it's never colder than -5C or 23F
4) We get alot of rain
5) There is a nice skiing resort and I want to drive there too.

So I want some tires which I could use in such winter conditions (not so very cold and mostly rain than snow)

However when the snow starts suddenly, I don't want to get stuck on the roads and I wanna drive freely on any snow.

Also my wheels should be good enought to take me to a skiing resort just two hours away and I don't wanna have any problems climbing on the road to the mountain.

And when there is no snow, I want to be able to use them in dry weather or rain.

Any suggestiosn guys ?

BTW . At the moment I have 215 65 16 Michelin 4x4 syncrone tires on.

Regards

[JRL]

Most any decent all weather tire should do.
Unfortunately you have (from what I've read, no personal experience with them) one of the worst.
You sound like a North Easter, (we have the same weather) and in all my prior XC's I've had a variety (of tires), I never got stuck.
In fact I have a 200', 20 degree driveway and ALL of the tires made it up the driveway (in my AWD XC's or course) with 6" of snow on it!
So do a little research, check out www.tirerack.com (http://www.tirerack.com) and buy what you want in your price range.
Oou opinions are like a a-ho***, we all have one!
You're going to be using them, spend a little comparison time on that site and I'm sure you will come up with the right tire for you.
You can also call them, give them your budget, they're more than happy to give you tire options
(you sure it's a 2.5? As far as I know XC's are 2.4 in 2001)

[doublecheese]

Hi again

Thanks for the reply, since I live in Europe , I can only use tirerack as a reference,

My local dealer offered me the following tires.

Michelin Latitude Alpin HP
Nokian WR SUV
Goodyear Wrangler HP AW
Goodyear Ultra Grip
Pirelli Snowsport

So I don't know what to choose , I need help from you guys choosing, it can be one of these or another one according to your experience.

2001 - 2.5 or 2.4 , I'm not sure about it as I bought it second hand for my wife. Anybody have a 2001 XC70 European version bought in Europe ? Maybe there can be some differences on engine types between European and US models ?

[JRL]

These are all dedicated snows not to really be run in summer.
That's not what you just asked for here so you better ASK your tire people the SAME question you asked us as they are giving you (all) snows for a choice

[doublecheese]

Oh I see

These guys would do anything to sell what ever they have in their stock I guess, I think the best should be that I make alot of research and goto my local tire shop and ask them the specific tire that I will choose......

[Jorge-789995]

These are all dedicated snows not to really be run in summer.

The WR is not considered a dedicated snow. It's more of an all season tire. It can be driven in the summer as well. I have a set (not the SUV size) and they are working well for similar conditions as you describe. We probably have more snow and colder temps, but we do have a lot of wet cool rainy weather all winter long. I'm happy with their performance in the rain and on dry roads. We had about 12" of snow recently, and the WR's were positively boring-- which is what you want in a winter tire I suppose.

[tgrumaj]

I have been running them year round since last Nov. and they are great. Good on dry, wet and snow. They are the only year round tire I know with a "snow tire" rating. While not as good as true snow tires like the Blizzaks I used to have on my 240 they have worked great for me with the XC. We've made several trips up into the Green moutains of VT. during heavy snow storms and they were solid. During the summer they are great tires for dry and rainy weather and are quiet. Don't know what they cost in Turkey but they are pretty expensive in the US... their only big downside in my opinion.

[fireplug]

Hey All !!
First thing I did when I go my XC70 (just traded in for XC90) was take off the Pirelli's and sell them. They are not the best in snow & ice. I replaced them with Goodyear Assurance TripleTreads. To me, alittle more $$ but well worth it. Was night & day for handling and great in wet, snow & ice conditions.

Just my 2 cents... :-)

Tommy J.
__________________

[volvoshad]

Agree with JRL that pretty much no matter what you are driving on in an XC, you won't get stuck in the snow. However, I do have personal experience with the Michelin Synchrone "all-season" tires (on an XC90), and they provided the absolute worst experience in terms of control (steering, braking) in the snow that I have ever experienced in an AWD. Also, they were worn out after less than 20k (miles), and I think they actually cost more than the Nokians, too. Doesn't sound like you have enough winter weather to necessarily justify dedicated snows, but if you want to be serious about winter driving, consider another all-season with better winter performance. Might be just about any tire, come to think of it. :rolleyes: Tirerack.com is great for research.

[Willy]

Perhaps you could take a look at the german ADAC site, they test tyres almost every year,
perhaps not exactly the size you want, but the tests will give you a good feeling of what to avoid :)
For winter tyres, Goodyears, Continental, Pirelli and Michelin usually come out on top.
It is a matter of opinion (and debate), but I consider even the best all season to be inferior to
most dedicated winter tyres. I believe the ADAC has done tests in that direction as well.
Look at www.adac.de under tests, reifen etc. As one may expect, the tests are very thorough.
They have lsied all qualities of the tested tyres (noise, behavior on dry and wet roads, mileage, etc)
so you can even choose the better one for you based on use.
Only possible drawback on the ADAC tests is possibly the language :o
Willy

[doublecheese]

Thanks Guys

I actually viewed the ADAC.de site last night since I can also speak German. I checked their 2006 - 2005 and 2004 test results.

However none of the tests were done with the size I'm after . 215x65x16.

So this morning, I went to Michelin, Goodyear, Nokian and Pirelli shops around. I started checking out all the available tires they can offer.

When I went to Nokian shop, I saw another XC70 buying a new set of Nokian WR SUV's . We started chatting with the guy, He told me these were his second set and he was very satisfied with the performance of the wheels at snow , he also told me that the WR's are very very quiet and his gas mileage cost dropped down about 3-4%. He also said that he has been driving these tires at summer time and he didn't notice anything bad .

The guy also told me that he had towed another car that was stuck last year and the snow was like 6" (15cm).

So unless this guy was lying into my face, I was happy with what I heard and and I just bought 4 Nokian WR SUV's, can't wait for the snow now :) :) :)

P.S. The price per wheel was around US$ 200, I know it's rather expensive compared to USA , but everything is expenive here :(
The Nokians were like US$ 35 more expensive than the Goodyears or the Michelins. So they are kind of more expensive compared to other brands

[SYS]

I like WR's. They're great for just about all road conditions -- dry, wet, snow -- so an ideal set to have for all year round. The only time I felt that WR's are inferior to dedicated winter tires was on hard, icy road. There are some folks who say ice is ice and no tires will help. That's true if you're doing 50+ mph. But in real life people tend to drive at around 10-20 mph when the road is icy. In a situation like this, there IS a big difference between dedicated winter tires and the rest. If you don't deal with icy conditions on frequent basis, I'd say you made a great decision.

[tgrumaj]

As far as ice...a couple years ago on my 240 I had Blizzak Snows and was on black ice driving home...actually sliding home...as even with dedicated snows it was like driving on wet glass. At one point it was so slick I slid directly sideways as the road had a slant toward the curb and was stopped by the curb when the side of the tires hit!!! So bad ice is bad ice....dedicated snows may help a bit but the only real answer is drive slow and keep a big amount of space between you and anything else on the road or....don't drive at all if you don't have to.

When you've got a thousand or two on the tires and some snow experience let us know how you find the handling, grip and ride noise.

[Dino]

I just bought Michelin MXV4 tires for my 2003 XC70. So far, they seem to be quite nice. I've always liked these tires, having had two sets on my Saab 9000. I also bought Alpines mounted on separate rims when I plan to do some serious driving in snow. I'm leaving on about a 3500 mile trip that takes me through OR and Northern CA to So CA. Later, we head to Aspen. Because most of the driving is on dry road, I'm leaving the MXV4s on. Last year, we went through a rather nasty blizzard in western CO with the well worn Pirrellis. We never had any problems. I don't anticipate any on this trip even though I'm sure to be driving in snow, especially when headed to the slopes in Aspen.

I can let you know how it went when I return in three weeks. If I tell you I now own a 2007 XC70, you'll know it didn't go so well. :)

[Dino]

Oh! I forgot to mention. The MXV4 does not come in the exact size to replace the original equipment. I forget the size - the tire is a bit smaller, but the 1% difference is not going to matter. I also bought the H rated tire. I'm not into sharp cornering at high speed, so the stiffer side walls of the V rated tire was not worth the extra cost and shorter life. The H rated worked quite well on my Saab and it was a bit more demanding than is the XC.

[doublecheese]

Here is my first impressions with my new set of Nokian WR SUV tyres.

First of all compared to my Michelin Scynrones they are very quiet on asphalt roads and highways.


Secondly, my XC70 feels like its riding much smoother, feels as if the XC is Brand new.

Thirdly, I drove into a shopping mall covered parking lot, and I could hear the tires making some skidding noises as they feel much softer than the Michelin Syncrone's.

Although we re in the middle of December the weather is like 11C (50F) here so I couldn't test their performance at snow yet :(

Maybe I will drive to the mountains around if it won't snow in a couple of weeks .

[NikosXC70]

You should not be disappointed with the Nokian tires. I have used Nokian Tires for many years now (where called Nokia back then) on my Audi's and Volvo's and have been very pleased.

My wife is running Gislavid tires on the XC and liked them too, they are better on icy roads compared to Nokian but for snow covered roads Nokians are better. I can't group all of the different models in one category but in general Nokians are good in the white stuff!!!

Cheers,

[JRL]

First of all compared to my Michelin Scynrones they are very quiet on asphalt roads and highways.


Secondly, my XC70 feels like its riding much smoother, feels as if the XC is Brand new.

.

THIS IS ALMOST ALWAYS THE CASE WITH ALL CARS USING NEW TIRES