Tires BRIDGESTONE or WEST LAKE

The Blizzak we have are 9 years old, but they are still in a good condition. We drive about 10k km/yr. So I guess the extra price you pay for top brand winter tires is for durability. I know there’s also comfort and noise level difference between good and less-good tires, but again I don’t feel any difference.

I run Blizzaks on my XC70 in the winter, and it's a utter MONSTER in the snow. I've embarrassed 4WD vehicles with good tires on snowy forest roads. I went into the mountains early season last year with just the all-seasons on after a minor snow event (a couple inches, plows had been through) and skidded slightly off a plowed gravel road onto a soft shoulder. Never would have happened with the Blizzaks, I'd just been lazy and hadn't put them on yet - they got put on later that afternoon. I don't notice much of a gas mileage hit that the winter fuel blend doesn't mostly account for anyway.

I highly recommend bridgestone Blizzaks, basically the best of the best. Any modern car with AWD and winter tires will be fine in the snow.

I once drove down birch road on a bad ice day with my blizzaks on, EIGHT cars had slid off into the steep ditches some in chain reactions to others getting stuck or losing traction, even a tow truck was already stuck, but I was able to idle on through with plenty of traction on blizzaks. They are cheaper than a deductible and physical health and safety is priceless. If you can afford them buy them.

I run Blizzaks all winter on 18" wheels. I ended up with those because when I bought the vehicle in Nov 2015 I asked for snow tires, because Alaska. Well, the dealer didn't have any in 20", in fact the whole town was sold out of them. The dealer made us a deal with new wheels and snow tires in 18". It has been handy, my husband swaps them in the driveway and I'm only on my second set of Blizzaks.

I put snow tires on my stock Mitsubishi Evo wheels for a weekend in Tahoe. All season tires didn't work, but wow the Bridgestone Blizzaks were magic even on an AWD 400 hp car

I run Bridgestone Potenzas on my ‘05 987.1.

They have been great.

Tried westlake once, good first couple of months, by the end of the first year the wet grip degraded a fair bit.

Weatherpeak is a horrrifically bad tire in dry and wet conditions. It could not pass the tirerack emergency lane change test and has long braking distances in dry and wet conditions.

Making a left turn into a business parking lot, I heard a pop and the left front dropped and the sound of rubber getting mushed. Not even a bubble before this happened.