That's the trouble with tires. They last a long time. If you have a bad experience with a brand you tend to stay away from them even though tire designs constantly evolve.

Not likely to try Bridgestones since I've never liked any of them. Personal taste maybe.

For me with a performance car actual winter grip is secondary to other characteristics. I learned to drive in winter on summer bias ply tires. Then I got bias ply winters. Then I got summer radials and thought I had reached the ultimate! Later, I tried the early studless continentals and thought they were amazing until hakkapelittas came along...and so on.

Continental ExtremeContact are the best all around studless winter tire at the moment. Pirelli handle bare road like a summer tire. Brilliant.

 

The Continental ExtremeWinter Contact and the Michelin X-Ice2 do not seem to be available in 245 40 R19. The Hakka R is however. I was just cross shopping to check price differences.

 

Any opinions between Pirelli Sottozero Serie II and Serie II Run Flat?

I'm thinking of just going with the Sottozero Serie II because I can't find a reason to pay a couple hundred dollars more for the Run Flats since I'm planning to only use them for one winter...

 

Run flat tires are awful. They ride harder, grip less well and are a product looking for a problem to solve. They generally cannot be repaired if punctured. The range when punctured is pretty much useless in some places near where I live. Etc etc. There is no reason ever to buy any run flat tire.

That is my answer anyway.

 

Had them on my BMW 335i. Terrible. Noisy as hell as well.

I don't agree with your anti Bridgestone snows stance though. I have had 2 rounds of them and found them to be terrific and well priced. Perhaps if I tried the other brands I would have a different opinion but they have worked well for me.

BTW, here is an interesting comparison testing video on summer vs all season vs snows on ice.

 

Read any BMW forum and search for run flats and cwood's comments will be repeated tenfold. I'd stay away from them.

 

sorry to dig up an old thread but I had a related question.

after I purchased my XFR, I realized that it had Pirelli Sottozero tires on it. The tire shop told me these were winter tires and i should replace them....so I ordered some Continental DWS06 tires.

after doing some research I realized that the sottozero tires are high performance winter tires.....so then what would be the reason i SHOULDNT use them as all year round?

one of the reasons is that the tire was manufactured in 2009 and its 2016 now....so im assuming thats not safe.

 

Put your Kevlar on...

The reason would be the same one I gave when I responded to your post about sizes and your selection of all season tires. Do you really need to ask why you shouldn't use winter tires all year round on a 510 hp performance sedan? Summer tires are for summer, winter tires are for winter (or more correctly, cold weather), and all season tires are for people who like to compromise for mediocrity.

Maybe I should stop making assumptions, but I would have thought that the person who buys an XFR would have a greater than average interest in cars, which in turn would translate into a greater than average interest in how cars handle, which in turn would mean they care about putting the correct tires on their cars. By all means, go ahead and drive on Sottozeros or DWS06's all year round - just don't expect to experience the true potential of the car or be assured of maximum safety and traction in each season.

 

haha, ok i totally deserved this one....im making myself look bad. sometimes i ask dumb questions just for clarification. i really am educated, i promise!

i understand the differences between the different tires....and how summer tires dont grip in cold weather and such. the reason i was asking my question was because i noticed that the winter tire was high performance...seemed ironic to me because the last set of snow tires i had, had a maximum speed of 80mph

 

As Jagular said in the above posts, the Sottozero really is a great tire on bare roads, for a winter tire. I can't think of too many places where snow or ice remain on major roads throughout the winter; the reality is that even in cold, snowy climates where the roads are properly cleared, they will be bare more often than covered, so the benefits of this tire's road manners outweigh its mildly compromised abilities on snow and ice. I use them on mine and I'm in rural Canada.