Tires OEM Mazda or FEDERAL

I got a Mazda 2 with good winter tires , I'm in Calgary. It costs me almost nothing on gas, and I finish the week with way more money in my pocket. in my 40 years of life I've learned a FWD car with decent rubber will handle winter good as any suv.

I commuted 100 miles a day in my CX5 in snowy Maine. I had a 6speed manual transmission and snow tires and never had a problem.

I also swapped the stock tires for A/T tires, mostly for the looks, but they actually helped in sand and rough surfaces.

I ended up opting for Federal 595RS-RR their cheaper and i like how they perform

I'm running 255/35R18 Federal 595RS-Pro and like them alot. Pretty affordable and nice level of grip.

Federals will be really noisy after a few thousand miles. Almost like your wheel bearings don’t exist anymore. Had rs-rr and 615k+. 615k+ is better. Both are way off pace but great budget tires. 615k+ is actually a pretty good tire for hpde.

The next set of Federal 595 RS-Pro lasted 30k and looked like OP tires.

Chinese snow tires are hit or miss. I had a set of federals for a short while that handled snow great for what they were.

In size 225/40 (r18), their thread width is comparable to other makers ~205. Well, does it matter? Yes, in the sense that when you install them onto an 8.5 wide rim, you'll notice that you're stretching the fit, and the sweating starts. Installing a tire alone with a basic tire machine is no longer possible.

I got federals once because bills were coming all at once. Worst tires i ever had, so noisy, rough on the road and just didn’t feel great. Snow they were actually great surprisingly.