4 LM 22s from tirerack: 705 dollars
4 Stock acura rims plus mounting: 1324 dollars
Having the snow traction of a snow plow: PRICELESS

Here's the low down. Excellent snow and ice traction, a little noisier similar dry performance. Conclusion: If you live in the snow belt, and you can stomach the expense, you can not go wrong with this set up!
:worship:

 

vtechbrain, thanks for the info. Although I don't need them in my city, I do like to have them while go skiiing. I start wondering if I should bring my 04TL to the mountains without good carrying sack for it... Also, it may risk my car to be scratched by reckless tourists..

Got some photos for us?? They should be the very useful shoes for snowcapped areas...

 

Vetchbrain, I always believed in 4 snows even with front drive. I thought that I could get away with All Seasons, but the EL42's are so crappy in the snow that in the last snow storm, I opted for my better half's rear driver with 4 dunlop wintersport M3's and was very happy I left the TL home.

Thanks for the update on the snow tire issue, have fun!

 

I would say I told you so, but that wouldn't be nice.

The only problem with the LM22s is how slow everybody around you seems to drive when the weather gets bad. :p

 

I took them on a long dry drive this morning and found their dry road characteristics to be exemplary and not very different from the turanzas. I haven't done any handling challenges but their high speed stability >100mph is excellent. Before I took off to work I brought them to factory inflation 35F/32R, now they are as quiet as the turanzas too! They were underinflated, 28psi, when I mounted them and tested them last night. Still very pleased.

 

I remembered you ever recommend 39/35 before... is it not good for your winter shoes?

 

Here is a review for the Blizzaks

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....=Blizzak+LM-22

and for the tires which i think are better.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....inter+Sport+M3

 

I wanted the Dunlop M3s, but they are sold out at tirerack for the season. They should be very close to the LM22 in performance, but they are rated a little bit higher in the survey.

 

Haven't tried it yet they seem to be doing fine at the regular pressure. The Turanzas did improve significantly at the "high speed" pressure though.

 

Ordered from tirerack 4 LM22s (235-17) mounted on 4 ASA JS1 alloys +20 lug nuts, balanced, delivered to my door, $1202.

 

vtechbrain,

A quick question. What kind of a snowy condition did you test the LM-22s in? I was curious since other sources I read indicate that they may be good in "urban snowy" conditions, i.e., mostly clear roads with occasional snow rather than instances where you have a lot of uncleared roads, etc. (since you are in WI, I imagine you would be seeing more of the latter...) Have you driven anything with the WS-50s in snow and, if so, how would you rate the LM-22s versus them?

 

I haven't driven the 50's. The 22 have done very nicely on the 4 inches that we have on our non cleared roads. No, it will not make driving on deep snow or ice the same as on a dry road, but you're essentially guaranteed not to get stuck in all except the worse conditions. Again, I would not recommend the 50 on this car since from reviews it is my impression that they would affect handling significantly. Putting Q rated tires on this car is a very bad idea unless you live in an area that is snow covered most of the winter thus making any dry traction and performance unnecessary. Also, it is my impression that these will last longer than the 50 since they dont have the multi cell compound on the surface layer which gives the 50 its stellar ice traction. Any way once the snow is gone I will switch them immediately maximize the life of this quite expensive tire!