Tires Firestone or PHANTOM

The original Winter Force tires are streets ahead of the Winter Force 2.

I like the set of firestone winterforce I just put on our XC70 this year so far. Took them out on snow/ice a few times so far and they feel like I would expect any dedicated winter tire to feel. What took me by surprise is how they drive in the dry... perfectly reasonable handling/braking and reasonable road noise for a winter tire. These actually handle and brake better in the dry than bridgestone weatherpeaks.

Another solid budget pick is the Firehawk Indy 500 (basically a baby Pilot Sport but cheaper). I ran them on my old Mk7 and they were awesome for daily + fun drives.

Indy500 - probably my favorite all around tire. Good looking tread, great dry grip, SUPERB wet grip, and also very quiet & comfortable

Firehawk Indy 500. They've been great and also really good grip in winter/rainy weather. I have about 26k miles on them with plenty of tread still. And they're cheap.

I\u2019ve had decent luck with the all weather Firestone Destination At/2 and I had some nokians before that that were really good but treads wore a bit faster.

I\u2019ve got Firestone weathergrip from the previous owner of my Outback wilderness and they have been great in the snow for our commute in Lake Ontario snow belt.

Some tires are made in China and some possibly(?) better ones are made Vietnam, while made in Korea tires usually aren't bad, but may not last as long as expensive tires. For safety, I wouldn't go too cheap on tires. Many cheap tires have rather poor traction when new and become unsafe with only a few miles of wear on them. The Chinese tires often are made of very hard rubber, which might wear well, but has poor traction. There may be some in between tires made in the Philippines, but I'd avoid them. Kumho is a Korean tire company with majority Chinese ownership by a Chinese tire company. They make Phantom tires, likely in China, but even in Korea, they would be the low end. Hankook tires are "better" Korean tires. Not the best, but seem safer. I'd check tire reviews on the Internet.

They're Chinese junk. They sorta work, but have 20% less traction and 50% less lifetime.

Personally I stay away from the Firestone stuff. Hard compounds that aquaplane easily and still have worse rolling resistance than the premium tyres.