Trying to wrap this order up and see a lot of conflicting reviews about tread wear too soon and poor drive ability.

What have you decided on and why?

Note Nokians are hard to get around here (Ohio) but read go reviews on those...

Thx

 

I'm going to get the x2's. They do a bit better in reviews and then there's the warranty.

 

Or the Blizzak WS80? Gets even better review.

Some x3 reviews say the feel gives them zero confidence in inclement weather! Not what I want to hear about a snow tire.

 

Have the Blizzak DMV-1 on 2011 MDX and they get very good traction on snow and ice. I downsized to a 17" wheel from the standard 18" as recommended by Tire Rack. I had the Michelin Xice 2 on a 96 camry station wagon and they were OK, but can't compare because 2wd vs AWD. I think the Michelin probably do handle better. The DMV-1 seem a little squishy on dry pavement.

 

Spoke to local installer and he recommended staying with All Seasons instead of a dedicated snow tire.

Anyway, went with TireRack and decided to try the 17" Blizzak WS80. Will provide feedback after get them on and some experience with them.

Thanks for the input.

 

Good article in the current car and driver on snow tires, with nokian and xi3 coming out on top. Blizzak ws80s were 13 or 14 points off.

 

Michelin (US) promo starting 11/16. $70 MasterCard rewards card rebate of some sort.

 

Hang on, the installer said to stay with All Seasons??

I have xi3 on my TSX Wagon. They are good in snow and ice, and in dry clear pavement, handle almost like an all season. I think most agree it doesn't handle slush as well as Blizzaks tho.

 

Too many "do not buy" and "worse than all-season" reviews on TireRack put me off the Michelins.

I'll post my experience with the WS80's after I put some miles on them. I'm sure they'll serve me well and if not switch to something else after they wear. With my mileage rate they will probably only last 2-3 seasons.

Don't forget to click thru Fatwallet to get an additional 3% off at TireRack. I use Fatwallet for all my online buying and have saved several hundreds of dollars. Very user friendly site.

 

Great steer on Fat Wallet. Just ordered winter tire/wheel combo. $70 gift card coming as well as ~ $40 to my PayPal account for ordering through FW. No brainer!

 

Just put some Michelin x-ice x3's on my 16 RDX Friday and sent in for this rebate. I wanted the bridgestones blizzaks but no one had them in stock and I got a decent deal on michelins mainly because after the Jensen tire guy said he had the blizzaks in I showed up to hear that there was a mistake and it would be a few weeks and they tried calling me. Long story short been dealing with this store several years so I bought the michelins and got free road hazard (no big deal) but also free mounting next year of my summer tires. I'm ready for winter!

 

Would have gone for the 3's but only 2's available for 17 inch wheels. My guess is that any quality winter tire is way better than not.

 

Blizzaks readily available at TR. What kept you from going there?

 

Dealt with them before and was not a good experience

 

Never heard that one. What went wrong?

 

Both the Blizzak DM-V1 and Michelin X-Ice are fantastic tires in my opinion. I had the Blizzak on my old Rav 4 and made that vehicle a tank! We have the Michelin on our Accent and again, what a difference these made.

If an installer says a 4 season is better than a winter tire, I would laugh out loud and walk away....THat is Absurd! I am not saying you NEED a winter tire but to claim that a 4 season is better than a winter tire is dangerous....unless you compare a phenomenal 4 season to a horribly cheap winter tire

 

There's a reason why an installer only makes $12/hr. Because he's dumb as fuck.

If you live in an area that gets cold and snowy, get winter tires. There is NO all season that can compare with a dedicated winter tire. True story. All seasons shouldn't even be used below 44F. Even less so, below 32F.

 

I think he is being overpaid.

 

Bingo. Anyone would be hard pressed to see any difference between ANY of the high rated snow tires when mounted on an RDX.


I disagree with your last sentence though. The least expensive winter tire on TireRack is far better than the best A/S tire when it gets cold and snowy.

 

Agreed. I picked the tires myself. The installer will only install.

 

 

I had the Blizzaks last winter, they were too rough. Bought a set of Latitude XICE and love them.

 

Just had my 2's installed two days ago. The ride is very comparable to OEM ride so far. 10 inches of snow coming tomorrow so will be a test. On a side note, everything from Tire Rack and could not have gone smoother.

 

Both are good. I went with the Michelins. There is no Xice 3 for SUV's. that's for cars

 

The xi3 is in fact for what Michelin refers to as family vans and small crossovers..so it s for the RDX. I purchased mine off tire rack 3 yrs ago.

 

My 2016 RDX is a week old. To-day I have the 17" DM-V2 installed with new wheels and TPMS. They ride Ok and reasonably quiet on the short trip home.

I had the Blizzak DMZ before. They were the best snow/ice tires. The only issue with them was durability. They only lasted 40km in 5 seasons.

I could have got the xi2 for $120 more. But I was told that the DM-V2 is a new release with much improved tread life. The owner of the tire store uses the same tire convinced me to keep Blizzak another try.

 

I have the XI2 on my 14 RDX. I had it since last year so it survived only one winter. It wasn't as good as the Primacy I had on my TSX before. I experienced more sliding when turning than before. Overall, it seems to be doing the job but I gotta see how it goes this year.

And if you have XI2, make sure you put in the right pressure. It feels bouncy when I had it in higher pressure. I guess that's why it got 8 for handling but 10 for the one I had before.

 

Finally got to test out my x3's today. Can't believe I went without snow tires on any vehicle. I'm impressed!

 

Yes, once you've had snow tires on a car you'll never go back to A/S tires in the winter.

 

7 inches of fresh snow means nothing to these X3's. I can't beleive I never though of getting snow tires in the past. Now I will never be without. This RDX AWD with X3 tires is unstoppable and very impressive!

 

The X2 didn't feel the same. I guess the X3 has improved a lot?

BTW, did you get X3 at OEM size or different size?

 

OEM. I know some went with smaller size but I didn't

 

Just to throw some sand into the gears of progress on this Michelin v. Bridgestone thread...

I just got back from my maiden voyage in my '15 RDX AWD with a set of 235-65R17 Nokian Nordman 5 tires - an they are by far the best snow traction tires I've run. And while I mostly run NOkians, I have run both xIce v1 and v2 variants, and Bridgestone Blizzak WS70's, and have driven for 43 years in NH winters. These non-studded tires dig into the snow and ice we had here in NH this week in a way I hadn't expected. These are Nokian's "budget" tires, having been replaced by the Hakka 8's and the Hakka R and R2 variants. In a former life they were Hakka 5's, but rebranded with the same old molds made from the same rubber. These were priced at my dealer lower than any other tire and (IMHO) blow all the others away. I've spent the last 2-3 weeks on dry roads and wet roads and they did real well, but it wasn't till yesterday that I could really tell how they did. And I'm shocked - in a very, very good way.

andy

 

The OEM size is 235/60R18, i can't find this size on tirerack 3 for Xi3. did you get it at the same size?

 

Don't have access to my vehicle right now as I'm on duty at fire station but almost positive they are R17's which I was thinking was the size of the original tires but again can't check right now

 

Xi3 was available in OEM from tire rack a few yrs back, running them now.

 

Michelin currently offers two snow tires in the X-Ice line - the X-Ice XI3 tires in passenger/minivan size, and the Latitude X-Ice XI2 tires in truck/SUV sizes. This is their current line. It's unclear whether they did make the XI3 variant in SUV sizes previously, but as of today, they don't.

But I may have an explanation for this, based on my Nokian experience. The Nokian equivalent is the Hakka R2 for the X-Ice line w/Michelin. NOkian offers the R2 in both car sizes and SUV sizes (delineated by R2 SUV on their web site). When I went to get my winter tires, I actually wanted to go the Hakka R2 SUV in 17" size, but the dealer said he wouldn't sell them to me because they were wearing out very fast (whereas the passenger sizes weren't sharing the same behavior). He said Nokian was evaluating whether the updated design worked long-term on heavier vehicles like SUV's.

This may be why Michelin went back to their previous Latitude XI2 line, which was a different design tread-wise than the XI3. The Latitude XI2's have been around for many years and held up well, and while not having the fancier tread design that the XI3's have, certainly not a bad tire at all.

Just an observation and possible explanation...

andy