I just scored an extra set of Mazda CX-5 17" rims for dedicated winter tire use. Now I'm starting the gradual search for the best dedicated winter tire for this vehicle. It seems like Blizzak WS80's and Hokian Hakka R2's are the leading contenders. Anyone have any insight into which one does best on an AWD CX-5. Or is there an even better alternative?
"Better" is so subjective it's not even funny. But I would encourage you not to make the same mistake I made for many years (until I bought my first set of winter tires for my AWD CX-5). In hindsight it was an obvious mistake but one that somehow I couldn't recognize I was making all those years. What was that mistake?
I actually thought I should make my winter buying decision based upon which tire had the most traction on the slippery stuff. I reasoned I was buying dedicated winter tires to handle the slippery stuff and nothing else mattered. I wanted the baddest ass snow and ice traction I could find, bare, wet traction and handling be damned. Tire life? Who cares, I would discard them when they got to half-tread (which often happened shockingly fast). And their snow/ice performance would often degrade quite a bit before they reached half-tread. What I failed to consider was that ANY decent full-on winter tire was going to get me where I was going with a good margin of safety. I didn't realize that the winter tire with the
worst snow and ice traction was going to be so far ahead of the
best all season radial that they can't even be compared in the same sentence.
Never mind that they felt squirmy on bare/wet pavement. Never mind that they had less margin of safety on bare/wet pavement. Who cares if they made a racket at speeds as low as 40 mph or cost a lot of money and wore out far too soon. I thought none of that mattered because I had the baddest ass snow and ice traction I could find. But it did bother me that a lot of people were driving very slowly because all they had were all-season radials. And I never did enter a winter rally race to take advantage of all that snow/ice traction.
Shortly after I bought my AWD CX-5 I ordered some lighter wheels with a set of Goodyear IceGrip WRT in the OEM 17" size. I knew they didn't have the type of heavily populated, small open block and heavily siped tread pattern that I had found to work so well previously but they were well siped and looked strangely sporty. I figured they would probably be less squirmy on the bare and wet and, while I've never been one to let tire prices influence my purchase decision, I can say the ~$109/tire made it easy to take a chance on them. And I'm very glad I did. I don't think I will ever go back to the squirmy style winter treads again. These things rock, especially on bare and wet pavement. And they don't give up much in the slippery stuff either - you know- the stuff that everyone else is going 30 mph on anyways. But if I have an icy, curvy open road ahead of me, I can still rip it up without slipping and sliding around. Plus, they give more warning before they let go. I feel like they are easier to drive on the edge of traction than I'm accustomed to, more predictable, less all or nothing. I think it's because they are less squirmy and therefor they give more steering feedback, even on the ice. This is probably why I find them so easy to drive consistently near the limit. Granted, their ultimate traction on both snow and ice is subjectively maybe 10-15% less than I'm accustomed to getting with the squirmy style winter tires but I don't miss that little bit at all considering they are 25% better everywhere else and they absolutely rock in the rain.
With only about 12,000 miles on them, time will tell how much longevity they have and how their grip holds up past half life but, based on what I see, I'm optimistic.
Conditions:
- Lots of rain
- Ice, frost
- Some wet heavy snow but I have no intention of venturing out in heavy snow but sometimes we get surprised and need to make it home.
TIA
Yep, sounds perfect for Mt. Hood conditions. And I assume at least an occasional trip into the big city of Portland? These work good in the city.