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Hello there.
First time poster but a grateful reader of recent weeks. My wife and I are pretty much decided on ordering a 9-5 Aero wagon over the coming weeks.
I've got some questions about tire and wheel choices that I'd really like some help on. I am definitely decided on buying a winter set of tires/wheels and having a separate set for the summer. We live in Switzerland and our winters here mean rain and wind, temperatures generally above freezing, and perhaps one snowfall a year that is gone within a few days. As soon as we head up to the mountains for skiing, the situation changes of course, and we find ourselves on snowy mountain roads (albeit well kept roads that tend to be cleared very quickly). I'd say we spend about 4-5 weekends up in the mountains at this time, although that might change.
I am a 'safety first' driver and do not push a car cornering, nor do I tend to cruise on the highway at over 140 km/h (I think that's around 80 mph or so). My main concern with selection of either summer tires or winter tires is safety, which for me would seem to come down to grip on wet and dry surfaces and stopping distance.
I've searched this board for everything I could find on tires and seem at this point to be moving towards 16" wheels for the winter, with a somewhat narrower profile, and 17" wheels for the summer.
The tire makes that seem to receive a fair amount of good comment from other 9-5 posters for winter are:
Bridgestone Blizzaks
Dunlop Winter Sport
Nokians (question for me here is whether given my relative lack of snow I'd want Nokians...certainly the Hakka Q's wouldn't seem appropriate, and I wonder if the WR's might even be a bit too 'snow' oriented...)
Goodyear UltraGrip 5's
Pirelli 210 WinterSports
For summer I've seen good things about the Dunlop SP 9000 Z's.
I'd really appreciate some feedback, people. Seems like most of the 'winter' tire discussions focus on cruel North American winters with lots of snow and as I've said I only have that on weekends in the mountains, so I'd like some advice relative to my situation here.
Thanks for any and all comments,
Dave
posted by 158.232.29...
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