Snow Tire Review

Best snow-tire reviews come from Sweden

We enlisted the help of a Swedish translator to prepare our report on snow tires because the best snow and ice tire testing takes place in Scandinavia rather than in the United States. In Sweden, where snow tires are required by law in winter, three publications -- Teknikens Värld, Motorföraren and Auto Motor & Sport -- put winter tires through their paces on some of the northernmost test tracks in the world. We found other helpful reviews in the German publication Auto Zeitung and in Motor, a Norwegian auto club magazine. These thorough reviews reveal how dozens of studded, non-studded and performance winter tires manage in a variety of tests, including the "moose test" -- which evaluates how well snow tires handle a swerve on an icy road, as if to avoid an unexpected moose that wanders into the driver's path.

Consumer Reports magazine also tests winter tires, and due to its focus on the North American market (where many locations ban studded tires), editors concentrate on studless rubber. Twenty-six tires are tested in Consumer Reports' latest review, but its write-ups are not as detailed as the Scandinavian reviews. A Canadian nonprofit association, the Automobile Protection Association, performs unbiased tests as well. The APA greatly expanded its winter-tire reviews this year, rating 71 studded and non-studded tires for cars, SUVs and minivans.

Traditionally, winter tires spiked with metal studs have offered a more tenacious grip on ice and snow than the studless versions. Last year, a top Scandinavian review source found -- to its surprise -- that the best new studless tires managed to outperform most studded tires.

The newest test results show the opposite, however. "This year things look different," writes Hasse Britth in Sweden's Motorföraren magazine. "All of the studded tires had shorter braking distances than the best studless tire on a prepared ice surface."

Still, not all studded tires are created equally. European tests regularly uncover cheap, off-brand winter tires -- usually from China or Taiwan -- that fail miserably, sometimes to the point of being dangerous. Kingstar, Nankang, Federal and Goodride are some of the brand names that come up in this context.

One studdable tire available in the U.S., the Cooper Discoverer M+S (*Est. $115), is downgraded by the Canadian Automobile Protection Association "because of the numerous safety recalls related to Cooper tires." In a U.S. test, the Cooper Discoverer M+S (minus its studs) places dead last after braking poorly on every road surface -- icy, wet and dry.

Another studdable tire, the Firestone Winterforce M+S (*Est. $65) does just as badly in the same test -- without its studs. But with its studs installed, the Winterforce gets good reviews from consumers, who report excellent braking performance on wet, dry and icy roads. The APA also approves of the Winterforce, calling it a durable, economical tire that grips very well in deep snow. However, when experts at Tire Rack tested the Winterforce head-to-head against three studless tires on an ice rink, they found that the studless tires all accelerated faster and cornered better on the slick surface than the studded Winterforce.

Unless otherwise stated, pricing estimates in this report are for 195/65-15 tires, such as those appropriate for a 2008 Honda Civic. (Read more on tire sizing in our What to Look For section.)