Tires Hankook or BRIDGESTONE

I had the WS-50 on my Miata (came with it) and they were fanfukintastic in snow and ice but lasted about 20,000 miles total before turning into slippy dangerous banana peels while still showing 6/32 remaining.

Last winter I made the switch from studded Pirelli Winter Carvings to studless Bridgestone Blizzak WS60s... I was extremely impressed with them. Worked great in the white stuff.

I have the Hankook iPikes on my Prius and am very happy with them. I've run Michelin Arctic Alpins, Cooper Weathermasters (twice), Firestone Winterforce, Gislaved, and Nokian Haka2's. Each had very minor pros and cons but honestly I didn't find much of a real difference between any of them including the Hakka's which cost twice what the others costs.

I have the potenza pole position tires on my jetta and I will be getting a new set of the potenza tires come spring they handle wear and ride great for my jetta.

I loved the 960's I had on my mkV GTI. I thought they were a great replacement for the RE050's that came stock on the car. I thought the grip on the dry was very similar between the two, but the 960's were better when the weather got bad--as well as lasting longer.

FWIW, my WRX came with a set of the Bridgestones when I bought it. I had zero problems running year-round, and we get some snow here.

I've experienced the Bridgestones on my Volvo for nearly two years, and am fairly impressed with their performance... for an all-season. Dry grip is great and treadwear is respectable.

Other than that I was happy with the tire. Ran it on a '97 Jetta (in NW PA).

I had Kumho and Hankooks. The Kumho, while being the superior dry tire (grip, feel), was terrifying in the rain. The really good think about Hankooks is that they grip well, are predictable, and ride really, really well (had 'em on 245/35/19s and rode way better than my winter set (235/50/17s). But as OP and many others have said, the sidewalls are waaaay too soft. Yeah, you can pump up the pressure by a couple PSI, but by doing that you're reducing the longevity of the tire (wears out center way more quickly).

My first snow tire purchase was a set of Blizzak WS-50s and I just couldn't deal with the squirmy feel for the amount of true snow/ice driving I encounter in a season.