Absolutely love my 2007 XK, but I live in Ontario and even a little bit of snow on the road causes this car to be a disaster in terms of starting/stopping. Not really surprised given the HP, wide tires, and that I have the 20" Sentas with standard rubber.

Anyone know of a great snow tire and did it really make a big difference? Any idea of cost?

Thanks.

Steve

 

There's another post here somewhere with the same question. I think you will be pushed to find a low-profiel winter tyre for a 20" rim. You'll probably have to have a set of XK-compatible winter wheels of smaller diameter with higher profile winter tyres.

Actually, buy an old banger for winter, and keep the road salt off the Jag, it'll probably cost less than another set of wheels and tyres.

 

Tire Rack doesn't offer Blizzaks in 20" size. If you have to drive the Jag in the winter, I'd buy an inexpensive set of 19" rims and Blizzaks (which I did for one of my other cars). It makes all the difference in the world for driving on snow and ice.

 

I'm running Brigstone Blizzak LM25 245/45/18's on my 09XKR absolutely love them. Bought a set with wheels and tpms sensors from tirerack for under $1500us. Last winter I used a set of Hankook Icebears 235/50/18's left over from my 05XJR I wasn't as happy in loose snow with them but once it was packed they were pretty good. (I bought a new set because I couldn't deal with the TPMS warning light for another year.) I also ran Dunlop M3's on my 03XJR and was also very happy with the tire in the deep/loose snow and ice. All of the above were V rated and overall handled pretty good in dry but clearly not up to the level of the summer tires. The biggest area that you will notice the difference is in dry braking. I learned this the hard way last month when some idiot ran a stop sign and ran out into my lane of traffic. I ended up lightly broadsiding him and likely wouldn't have made contact if I had my summers on the car. Ended up with a slight crack in my front bumper which came out to being over $10K in repairs.