Re: Wht do you have for winter tires? (96passatowner)
Speaking not as one who has [yet?] run snow tires on a Passat, but w/ a good working knowledge of principles and winter tires, you won't want to run on the 215/50-15's anyway.
In the snow, narrower tires are better b/c they're less prone to riding/sliding up atop a packed, icy layer. Instead they should concentrate the cars weight on a smaller patch and 'cut' through, or at least give a better coefficient of friction.
If you've ever seen the rally cars running in the snow, it looks like they're on gnarly donut spares.
The B4 can happily handle a 205/55-15, so if you're intent on keeping your aluminum wheels on, this may be the way to go. By nature this size will be better in the snow, give you much wider selection, and save you at least $15/tire.
People here seem surprisingly satisfied w/ the all-weather performance of Dunlop's SP5000 tire (see link below), which comes in both 215/50 and 205/55.
If you're going w/ seperate steel wheels (the ideal), you can play around w/ sizing. The Tire rack is a good source for this and they have a section explaining the "plus one" resizing concept. For snow tires, do the opposite; a "minus one." Maybe even a "minus two" to a 195/60-15. Run it by the Tire rack guys.
Some key notes on snow tires:
- Try for a narrower tire
- I prefer a slightly taller tire for add'l clearance and rim/suspension buffer
- Its common to use a 1" smaller rim to achieve extra sidewall height/buffer
- Steel wheels are nice; cheap/easy to repair if you slide into something
- Your car's handling will change-- for worse in the dry.
- Snow tires will let you embarass those AWD's w/ all-season tires.
I do too many miles in too little snow to be comfortable w/ pure snow tires-- they can be loud and wear so fast its hard to justify the cost. For such conditions I prefer 'winter tires,' as opposed to snow tires. The idea is more of an all-season tire that is biased toward snow handling.
For that, look into a set of Nokians. Either the new NRW (all-season/winter tire) or the Hakkapeliitta Q (long-wearing snow tire) would make an ideal winter tire. Nokians are regarded as a premium tire, favored by rally nuts, w/ performance comparable to tires like Blizzaks, but w/ much longer tread life. People w/ Nokians swear by them like its religion.
Who knows, you may get up that hill this winter and still not make it to the office-- b/c you're out playing! (Its happened to me)
I hope this was helpful-- I should get out of software and into a tire shop where I belong.
http://www.tirerack.com/survey/Surv...e=Dunlop&tireModel=SP+Sport+5000+Asymmetrical
http://www.nokiantires.com
