winter allmost here i need tires

[2hard2die]

hii i have a 07 cobalt LS and i need some good winter tires for the car since my last winter wasnt that fun with my all season tires any advice wich one are good or maybe any tires that you guys tried using before ./..

[MagicRat]

I have used some off-brand Firestone winter tires on my Mustang.... they had very tall, skinny tread blocks... and they squirmed a lot.
On dry pavement, it woudl feel like I was doing a power-slide around the corner. The tires were not skidding, but the tall trad blocks squirmed so much, their handling was very poor.

Occasionally I drive a Jetta with Pirelli winter tires. They are MUCH better handling on dry pavement... they feel almost like summer tires.

[J-Ri]

Goodyear Ultragrips are by far the best car snow tire I've ever driven on. I just wrote a long paragraph about how great they are, then I accidentally hit the back button. So no stories, but they're darn good tires.

One more thing to consider, if you've got aluminum wheels, you may want to buy a second set of steel wheels for your snow tires. Road salt corrodes aluminum pretty bad, which leads to leaks around the bead. It's hard on the clear coat too. You can also get narrower wheels and have even narrower snow tires, which dig through the snow better.

['97ventureowner]

Originally Posted by J-Ri

One more thing to consider, if you've got aluminum wheels, you may want to buy a second set of steel wheels for your snow tires. Road salt corrodes aluminum pretty bad, which leads to leaks around the bead. It's hard on the clear coat too. You can also get narrower wheels and have even narrower snow tires, which dig through the snow better.

I'd opt for a set of steel wheels altogether and keep the snows permanently installed on them. Constantly mounting and unmounting the tires on the rims season after season isn.t good for the tire, especially the bead area. If you can afford to buy another set of rims just for the snows.
I have used Winterforce winter tires for the past decade or so and have had excellent luck with them. Just bought a new set for the van last month and also bought a set of used steel rims for them .

[J-Ri]

Good point, didn't think of the bead wear.

I got my set of steel wheels from a salvage yard for $20 a piece. I'll assume that you don't have free access to a tire machine... That set of wheels will pay for itself the first time you don't have to pay to mount and balance the tires

I pulled a Saturn SL-2 into the shop that had those Winterforce tires on it... somewhat comparable to the Beretta and Cavalier that I've had Ultragrips on as far as size and weight. They did do better than a lot of tires, but seemed to float over the snow more than Ultragrips do. They did clean out very good in the tapered section of the tread block.