Given
78%
while driving a
Hyundai ix35
(215/70 R16)
on
a combination of roads
for 12,000
average miles
The winter tires for this car are so sublime. Wow I wouldn't think that a purest winter tire would drive this way. Criminal how there are no reviews on here. This is a tire for SUVs and alike so I can only imagine Blizzak LM005 or WS90. It is definitely something I'd recommend to a BMW X5 or Mercedes GLE.
- Dry and Wet handling: it gripped onto the road quite well. In the cold wheelspin wasn't easily provoked so the bite force is pretty powerful and sticks to the road. I don't get why they have a lower wet grip rating, they performed marginally worse than WinterContact TS860 on my Audi and its wet traction was rated much higher but dry grip is comparable. I'd say unlike TS860 they overheat way too easily once it gets as warm as 10 C. Still this is a competent tire that works all round well and doesn't fear the cold at all making driving on cold damp roads a breeze. When pushing them they feel close to high performance tires but still needs more grip to get to that level, doesn't change the fact it is superior to its competition. I say this because the car starts wandering out into a slight understeer and you may not feel it at times but I don't know what is to blame, the tire or the profile of the tire.
- Snow and Ice handling; blows my mind away how it eats the snow casually. Superior to the tires on my Audi, it goes and goes and goes even more. Does not fear deep snow, does not fear light snow either. Had to give it a 9/10 in snow though because sometimes it struggles with slush on the road for some reason which confuses me why. It just doesn't fear anything but slush. I like that it is neutral handling as well. Even in dry and wet they feel just the same as in snow - neutral balanced handling with only a marginal hint of understeer at the limit. My gripe is with ice. These tires are sensitive to pressures so if they get too low you may be stuck on ice. Once pumped up it goes like a champ, brakes hard even on ice. I should also highlight braking because they offer so much feel and feedback on braking it's great. I consider brakes on ix35 to be almost dangerously underbraked but these tires feel like I adeded 4 pistons instantly, it's that good. No wonder Bridgestone wins these tests with their winter tires each year.
- Feedback: rating it from a winter tire perspective it is great. It won't leave you behind though sometimes when given a hard cornering the tire doesn't handle load up properly and you have to guess what the front end is doing. But still you feel the bite points, yaw changes, lateral grip and stability efortlessly. I just wish they stopped feeling floaty in snow, truly horrid I must say. You still get feedback but in snow there's a certain floatiness factor to it. At least it doesn't feel like there's lag when giving steering input like with some winter tires.
- Comfort: fairly decent comfort. Rounds up the bumps quite well, sometimes you do not feel like you ran across a small patch on the road. Nothing much I can say because it's like on air suspension though not as comfortable as TS860 as this tire has stiffer sidewall. I can admit that this was the noisiest tire I have experienced but probably it's because of its aggressive tread pattern. On certain surfaces of the roads there is a low pitch hum that may annoy you or it may not.
- Wear: they wear faster than other winter tires which isn't a surprise because of its tread pattern and its compromise of wear for grip. They will probably be done once it reaches 30k kilometers. Slightly worse than my TS860 and somewhat worse than my summer PS4. It's not a drastic grip decrease though like with TS860 when they wear. TS860 felt worse as it was wearing, these tires still feel subjectively the same. I'd ignore the wear rating and just get these, they are so confidence inspiring.
Overall: when I compare TS860 on my car vs this one on this car objectively in cold damp conditions the TS860 is a bit better as it also feels like a summer tire. This tire however feels like a better all rounder, it has comparable grip, it has the same amount of road feedback as TS860 with the difference being DMV2s do not sacrifice feel and do not lag like TS860. Bridgestones as I always say have the best sidewalls, Continentals felt way too soft. Snow grip and ice grip is so much better. I have worn my TS860 tires lasting me nearly 37k kilometers and have been looking for a replacement, for passenger cars the alternative of this tire is Bridgestone Blizzak WS90 and will be considering it on my list although may need to import them as they don't seem to sell in Europe. I highly recommend this tire due to how subjectively they feel, how they grip, how they break and how sporty it can feel.
