Winter tire recommendations?

[scxtasy]

Its' almost that time of year again, so I thought I'd ask the list for winter/snow/ice tire recommendations. I live in the Pacific Northwest, so nothing too extreme required. FWIW, the tires have to go on 20" rims, so I know that does narrow the field a little. According to TireAndRack .com these tires are:

Michelin Latitude Alpin:

Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1

Pirelli Scorpion Ice & Snow

Pirelli Scorpion Ice & Snow RFT

Anyone hee have experience with these tires? Thanks.

Andrew

[VVG]

Its' almost that time of year again, so I thought I'd ask the list for winter/snow/ice tire recommendations. I live in the Pacific Northwest, so nothing too extreme required. FWIW, the tires have to go on 20" rims, so I know that does narrow the field a little. According to TireAndRack .com these tires are:

Michelin Latitude Alpin:

Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1

Pirelli Scorpion Ice & Snow

Pirelli Scorpion Ice & Snow RFT

Anyone hee have experience with these tires? Thanks.

Andrew

I am using Michelin Latitude Alpin in 275/40/20 on my 09 GTS. Just put them on. Some people go down to the base 255/55/18 size, however, for the 95% of the time that the road is actually relatively free of snow even in winter, I didn't want to sacrifice that much dry road performance for 4-5 months out of the year. I live in the Northeast and winters can be harsh, but you can't go wrong with Michelin. The Latitude Sport is also the stock summer tire on the GTS.

[Jason M]

Pirelli Scorpion Ice and Snow here. Very happy with them last winter and will be putting them on again soon.

[turbodoug]

I installed 255 50 R19 Pirelli Scorpions on my 09 Cayenne Turbo S last year and just re-installed them. I bought used 19" rims from WheelEnhancements.com out of California and they installed the tires for me and shipped them to Calgary. I had them in 5 days!! Awesome! All in it was about $2800 US including the TPMS sensors. Dealer wanted $5700 on sale! Knowing full well that I can't help but touch the occasional curb, I went for the spare winter rims. I can swap them out in my garage in under an hour rather than having to book at the tire shop to have the tires swapped on the rims. When I start the Cayenne up, a message comes up on the dash that says something like "wait a minute, you changed the tires, didn't you?" Then you can select winter tires and the size from a list, hit enter and once you drive around the block, the TPMS works again.

Careful of the rim size. If you have a Turbo or GTS with the big brakes, you need the Porsche 19" or bigger wheels. I find that the narrower tires digs into the snow better.

Oh, and you can only do 149 mph with the winters on, lol!

I have a place in BC with a very steep access road. We are out there regularly during the winter including spending Christmas there. This Cayenne and my Jeep TJ with Nokians are the only vehicles that can make it up the hill, except for the tractor and the odd snowmobile. My buddies Cadillac (curling rock) usually ends up sideways in the trees. Great tires, good handling in the dry as well. Much quieter than the summers.

[firewire01]

I have the Blizzaks on new Cayenne wheels from Tire Rack (thanks to Devon for the post) and they are GREAT. We have lots of snow and ice here in Canada so wither tires are a no brainer. Very happy with the DV-M1's and would recommend them to any Cayenne owner. I have Pirelli Sotto Zero's on my Boxster but with the AWD Cayenne, the Boxster gets to sit out until spring, so have less experience with them on snow and ice, but the little I have tells me they are good as well..

[wvicary]

The Blizzaks are a very good tire but wear very quickly. Be sure to rotate them and have your wheel alignment in spec to get maximum tread life.

[geoff]

I put 19" Michelin Latitude Tour HPs on my Cayenne last winter when the original Contis wore out (after 30+K miles). The Michelins are vastly superior and handle well in the snow (I tested them out last winter at Tahoe). The dealer accidentally put the summer Latitude Sports on without realizing it and the car drove fantastic! Unfortunately, they're like the SUV version of the Pilot Sports and are useless below about 35°F. The Latitude Tour HPs are a great all season tire.

America's Tire web site shows the Latitude Tour HPs as the 19" N rated Michelin rubber now. The Continental ExtremeContact DWS was also highly rated when I was looking at new tires last year, but they weren't N rated