A good choice for smaller SUVs
Written: Dec 31 '08 (Updated Jan 01 '09)
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Pros: Cheap - $370 for 4, balanced and fitted. Great snow performance.
Cons: Not brilliant on black ice, but then you really need studs. Typical tyre manufacturer warranty.
The Bottom Line: If you have snowy winters, get snow tyres. These are as good as any and for four month's annual use, they'll last 3 or 4 years easily.
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| chrisell's Full Review: Winterforce M+S Tire |
I finally caved this year and bought some proper snow tyres. I opted for the Winterforce tyres mostly because my local tyre place had some in in the size I wanted and there was the prospect of 14 days of snowstorms on the way. I've tried Bridgestone Blizzak tyres before and the Winterforce's behave pretty much the same. That is to say, incredible. Combined with the hundreds of siping cuts and grooves, and the 3D tread block design, these tyres really do well on winter roads.
Since fitting them, I've driven on deep and shallow snow, packed and slushy snow and ice, mountain roads and city roads that haven't been plowed, and hard-pack black ice. Around where I live, the plows don't always get out in the snow storms in time to clear the roads. I commute early in the morning so a good overnight snowstorm means I'm the first one on the roads the next day. Also, being 30 minutes from 8 ski areas means a lot of my driving is up and down canyon and mountain roads as well as some motorway driving to get there. The tread pattern on the Winterforce tyres does make them hum quite loudly on dry road, but that's the price you pay for grip in the snow.
Given the soft rubber compound and the aggressive tread design, I'm not expecting these tyres to last much more than 10,000 miles and honestly I think that will be pushing it. Having said that, winter is 3 to 4 months so even if they only last 10,000 miles, that could easily be 3 or 4 seasons. The reason : don't use them if it's not winter. I was fortunate - I'd upgraded the wheels on my vehicle - a Honda Element - so I had the original wheels sitting in my garage doing nothing. It was a no-brainer to put snow tyres on those wheels and then just fit them to the car. When spring comes around, I'll swap the wheels back and the snow tyres will sit in my garage until the following winter.
The only place these tyres disappointed was on black ice but let's be honest - short of studded tyres, nothing is going to help you out on pure ice. In all other conditions, the acceleration, cornering and braking performance is so far above and beyond any 'all season' tyre I've ever used that I wonder why I waited so long to buy snow tyres.
A word about warranties.
Bridgestone's standard warranty on their tyres is 3 years for manufacturing defects or anything "under their control". The list of exclusions, as with any tyre, is pages and pages of small print. Unless you can prove to Bridgestone / Firestone that the problem was theirs, you really don't have a warranty. You could argue all you like but eventually the tyre company will always defer to this clause:
Improper use or operation, including, without limitation: Improper
inflation pressure. Seriously - try to prove in a court of law that you never drove with the tyres at anything other than 'proper inflation pressure'.
This is not unusual though - very few tyre companies offer a warranty worth the paper it's written on. With these being winter tyres, it even states as much on their website:
Transforce, Winter, and “Temporary Use” Spare Tires: There is no free replacement period. (http://www.firestonecompleteautocare.com/catalog/pdf.action?image=pdf&id=4)
So is this a cause for concern? Honestly, no. I've been driving for a couple of decades and not once has a tyre failed on me that could be attributed to manufacturer problems. Potholes, bent rims, nails, shards of metal - all these have damaged tyres in the past, but I've never seen one just fail on it's own. Modern tyre technology is so advanced that a warranty is really not necessary, especially as it's the ultimate consumable item on the car. How do you warranty something which is, by design, going to destroy itself over time?
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 92
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