FredButeau: What are the others (better) choices???
Sorry for the long post, but here goes
I just wanna point out that I do NOT currently own a CX-5 (waiting for the diesel next year in Canada, hopefully) but have a Mazda3.. I read here that the CX-5 has great handling (heck, I tried it briefly and I concur) so the same considerations can be placed on a choice of winter tires..
I'm also a forum/test freak and I did a lot of research on tires in general for my car and my friend's.. What I can say is for the most part, you can tell if a tire will perform well on dry/wet/snow/ice and tell if it's quiet just by looking at the tire's tread pattern.. Here are my thoughts on what makes a tire perform well in various conditions :
Ice
There are three key elements for ice traction : rubber contact, number/size of "sipes" (the little lines in each tread pattern) and softness of rubber. The best ice tires will have big treads with lots of sipes and the rubber will feel very soft to the touch.
Snow
For snow, you don't necessarily need big treads, but the gap in between the treads must be of a certain width to penetrate the snow and evacuate it. Moreover, squarer treads yield more traction because they shovel the snow instead of just pushing it away (think about pushing a cube vs a triangle in deep snow).
Wet
Just like summer tires, longitudinal grooves or lines in a tire's tread pattern are the best at evacuating water and slush. These grooves cut through the water's surface tension minimizing hydroplaning and evacuating the most of it. V-shaped directional tread pattern works too (think about the triangle for the ice traction.. You just want to push the water aside from where the rubber lands).
Dry
Winter tires have soft compounds, so they will feel mushy on dry roads. You can reduce this by having big tread blocks (so the load will be distributed over a larger portion), a directional V-pattern or a harder compound.
Quietness
Again, the same thing applies to a summer tire. The squarer or the harsher the tread pattern, the more noise it will make. Directional patterns and small gaps between treads minimize noise. Sidewall technology can go for a long way here, but this is not a main feature for winter tires, so I'll stick to the basics.
Durability
One word : softness. Think F1. The softer a tire, the quicker it will wear out.
As you can see, having more points in a criteria can come to the detriment of another. This is why tire companies do research : to maximize all these aspects without losing the advantages of the other. They have to find the right balance between tread size, gap between treads, number/size of sipes, rubber softness, durability etc. etc. to find the perfect tire.
Finally, there are three different types of driving conditions that manufacturers take into account : city driving at lower speeds (more icy), country driving at moderate speeds (any kind of weather, changing) and highway driving at high speeds (most of the time dry, if bad conditions, then if falls under prolonged country driving).
Now, on to my suggestions for STUDLESS (based on tires we have in Canada) (within a group, I ranked each tire in parenthesis) :
The best all-out tire for ALL snow conditions is the Nokian Hakkapeliita 7.. Yes it is EXPENSIVE, but for rough snow winters, this is the best way to go. If you look at the tread pattern (
http://www.nokiantyres.com/tyre?id=12091290&group=1.01), you have a lot of rubber contact with micro sipes for ice traction, great deep blocks of tread for snow traction, a directional pattern for water evacuation, heck it's all there. Nokian did their homework and that's what you pay for. ALL the reviews and comparison tests I read rank these #1, and when I change mine, I will drop the extra 250$ to get them.
Next in line you have the Michelin X-Ice Xi2-3, excellent on ice and on dry roads, quiet (you can see how it looks like a summer directional tire). So this will do for city and highway driving, but the snow traction is impaired by the small groove gaps.
The continental ExtremeWinterContact (
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Continental&tireModel=ExtremeWinterContact) seems to have a lot of good points as well, but being an asymetric tire, I tend to say these will not be stable at higher speeds and noisier. However, is has all the elements to be a top contender, except for deep snow traction.
As a third, you may consider all the "line and squares" type of tires (
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Blizzak+WS70). These include the Bridgestone Blizzak WS-70 (1), Pirelli Winter Ice Control (4), Toyo Observe Gsi-5 (2), Dunlop Graspic DS3 (5) and Yokohama IG20 (3). The tread patterns on these tires all look the same. Then have a solid center block of traction with squared patterns on the sides. These work VERY well on ice and average snow, which makes them perfect for city driving. However, they won't perform really well on the highway and they will wear FAST, especially the Bridgestone.
Then you have the older "fish tail" design (
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=General&tireModel=Altimax+Arctic), such as the General Altimax Arctic (4), Hankook i-Pike Winter (5), Gislaved Nord-Frost 5 (2, this is what I currently have and I'm satisfied), Pirelli Winter Carving (3) and GoodYear Ultra Grip Ice WRT (1). Of the bunch, the Goodyear stands out because of the smaller middle design and bigger side treads. These tires are good value for the money and good all rounders, but do not excel in any domain.
Stay away from Chinese or subcompanies (sunny, GT Radial, Uniroyal, Firestone, Kelly, Dean). Maybe a tread pattern will look the same as another tire, but the rubber technology will not cut it compared to bigger companies.
My choice would be :
1. Nokian Hakka 7
2. Nokian Hakka 5 (if you can still find them)
3. Michelin X-Ice Xi2
4. Goodyear Ultragrip Ice WRT
5. Bridgestone Blizzak WS60
6. Toyo GSi5
7. Gislaved Nord-Frost 5
8. General Altimax Arctic (very good price compared to the Pirelli)
Now it all comes down to you driving habits, where you drive and how much you're willing to pay. You don't necessarily need an SUV tire, as long as the size you're looking for is available and has a 102 load rating, at the least. For those who changed their wheels and summer tires, for winter try not to go wider than 225.
If you need specifics on a tire, let me know and I'll be glad to help in any way I can. Happy winter driving!
