[MCA2011]

Last winter was very mild here in the northeast (southern NY) and my stock Pierelli Nero Zeros were pretty new, so they did fine.

Last night I was driving in the "Nor'easter" with almost 22K on my Pierelli A/S and as I suggested in the title, I was white knuckling it all the way. There was only about 1" of wet snow, but I was spinning up hills, sliding down hils (with the brakes to the floor and ABS chattering away) and fishtailing under any amount of acceleration

I have finally come to the conclusion that all-season tires with any appreciable wear are completely inadequate (nearly useless) in winter conditions.

I am still trying to reach a decision over studless winter tires vs performance winter. My gut is to go for the performance winter tires. Not because I drive a Mustang, but because most of our storms are cleared quickly and we are left with dry pavement or perhaps wet or slop.

If I go for the performance tires, I will get Blizzak LM-60s since they seem to be among the best and are available in stock 235/50-18s

If I get studless snows, I'd probably put Michelin Xi3 at the top of my list

Anyone with any experience with these tires or others on their Mustangs?

 

[spiders101]

Not on my Stang, I have a pickup I drive when the weather is crappy, but I had blizzaks on my GTA and Iroc for the winter, and they actually work extremly well. You do however have to make sure there off before it gets warm again, or you will eat them up FAST because there so soft. Best bet, find a set of stock wheels, even 17"ers, and have them mounted on those. That's what I used to do. 17"ers will save you a couple bucks on the tires too.

My GTA was a 12.5 sec car and I never got stuck with the blizzaks. You do have to still respect the throttle. As you know the ass end thinks nothing of whipping around on us...:kooky:

 

[pmr2000]

Well if anyone needs stock 17" wheels I have them in classified or PM me, I'm in 10305 but have them in the boxes of my new wheels.

 

[93ssp]

automobile magazine just did a test on winter vs. summer p-zeros. i think its still on the stands. i think they use the bliztech tires. check it out.

 

[Conejo172]

I experienced the white nuckle driving you speak of here last year, and vowed to never do it again in the mustang. I have been driving for 25 + years and mostly rear wheel drive cars and if not for experience in driving in the snow I never would have made it home. The reason for the vow, is the other idiots on the road drive too fast for road conditions and not willing to put my car at risk! :nono:

Winter beater FTW

 

[devildog1679]

I use the Michelin X-Ice Xi2 and they are great. Anything under 5” of snow was doable. As a former NY resident I can say that these tires will great for any snow you might get. Just go winter studless for better security, the difference in dry performance is not that great.

 

[MCA2011]

^^ this is one of the points I was wondering - how much of a drop off is there in wet/dry between the LM60 and Michelin. Sounds like not much

I think I'm about to pull the trigger on a set of Xi3 235/50 18s

 

[RusWolf]

I got caught in the snow as well yesterday so i had to drive home from college. Unfortunately i was on Nitto NT555R in the rear and was seriously sliding only on 1 occasion going in the very mild turn with a reasonable speed. Luckily was able to correct my rear end in that turn and come out with no harm...

Overall, Nitto's did A LOT better than i expected. I guess a lot also depends on the style of driving.

will definitely be parking the for the winter in the next few weeks and driving my scion tc until i sell it.
Thinking about ditching stock tires from stock wheels and throwing on a set of winter rubber just in case.

 

[RickAKATed10]

Should I be scared with almost 12K on my PZero A/S tires?

 

[AlbertaEthan]

I'm running Blizzak WS70s for the 3rd winter now and while I loved them for the past 2 winters, I'm not a huge fan now that I've changed my stock gears. They still work fairly well in the snow and ice, but they are TERRIBLE when it's dry out. I'm in a similar situation in that the roads are clear for most of the winter but I still need some form of winter tire for when the storms hit. Once these wear out, I'm likely going to go for a set of high performance winter tires to try and improve dry traction.

 

[honeymonkey]

Should I be scared with almost 12K on my PZero A/S tires?

Haha, yes. I have only about 8k on my PZero A/S and as soon as the temp dropped below 45 deg they don't grip worth a dam on wet pavement. Mine consistently break loose on normal acceleration from a stop on wet pavement when it is cold. After loosing it on a corner last week on dry pavement on a 40 deg day I took that as a sign to put the performance snows on. I chose the Alpen PA3 Michelin as they suited my average driving conditions the best. I was more concerned with wet slushy roads rather than deep snow. Most of my roads get ploughed fairly quickly. You can get an idea from the review below which direction you may want to investigate and things to consider.

 

[Paul78CAN]

Never mistake all season for good in snow, if you drive in snow you need snow rated tires. Living in Canada I get the white stuff and last winter with my V6 was fine, now I have the '13 GT I'm going to drive it for another month I think with my snow tires on and then it's getting stored.

Take it easy even with the snow boots on, it's very easy to get a high HP RW car sideways

 

[MXM]

I drove 24 miles in the snow last night as well in southern Massachusetts where we got 4.5 inches of snow with my Pirelli All Season 275/40/19 with no issues driving normal. And DOT didn't even plow the highways or main roads either.

 

[Lethal302]

I drove in the same weather yesterday on Long Island. I'm running Nitto NT555's and I felt like I had full control. If it started to spin a little the car was very predictable and I felt really comfortable driving it honestly. I'm also in a GT with 3.73's, a tune, and lower control arms on the most agressive straight line setting. IMO those stock pirelli's sucked. I had them last winter and it was ridiculous how much wheel hop I experienced on a cold day with dry roads. Felt like a freakin earthquake in my car and it was stock with 3.31s.

 

[pmr2000]

Differences here may be stick vs auto, it's pretty hard to throw any rear wheel drive stick into 1st in the snow without a little wiggle. I've always tried to start in 2nd when possible.

Ironically enough Consumer Reports has always ranked the Pirello PZero Nero's at the top overall not sure about snow....

 

[MCA2011]

OP here - just ordered the Ice Xi3. Should have them by Tuesday and hopefully in the shop before the weekend

 

[devildog1679]

OP here - just ordered the Ice Xi3. Should have them by Tuesday and hopefully in the shop before the weekend

You won't regret it. Just put my XI2 on last night and dry traction id so much better. Teh Pzeros hate the cold.

 

[OAC_Sparky]

90% of the all-season tires out there are like that guy in the office that's on the payroll and is mediocre at pretty much everything. Not great in the winter and not fantastic in the summer. They're a compromise tire for people that are either (a) two cheap/stubborn/uncaring to run 2 sets of tires or (2) don't drive spirited enough to notice a difference.

Anybody that says that any all season tire beats a good winter tire, drive way ahead of me or way behind me, please.:bigthumbsup