By Alex Nunez on November 3, 2009 in
We're particularly proud of our annual report on snow tires, because in order to bring you the most complete, up-to-date information, our background research needs to go beyond the reviews offered by English-language publications. This presents an interesting problem that we don't need to deal with on other reports: a language barrier.
You see, the best snow-and-ice tire testing takes place in Scandinavia, rather than in North America. As such, in addition to resources like ConsumerReports.org and TireRack.com, we look to five Swedish magazines -- Teknikens Varld, Motorforaren, Auto Motor & Sport, Aftonbladet and Vi Bilagare -- and one Norwegian publication, Motor, for their comprehensive winter tire tests, which evaluate a wide range of studded and studless rubber in the harsh conditions they were made to conquer. Additionally, the Scandinavians put their snow-tire-shod test cars through the famous "moose test," which simulates an evasive maneuver to avoid an errant moose or elk in the roadway under icy conditions.
We'd be unable to provide a report nearly as comprehensive as this if not for the assistance of Henrik Nordström of Scandinavian Translation Service. Henrik converts the Scandinavian articles to English for us, providing a much richer pool of reviews from which to make our picks for the best-reviewed winter tires overall. If you're in the market for new winter rubber for your car, truck, or SUV, make sure you check out our latest snow tires report update before you head to the tire store.
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