Tires Toyo or Firestone

I used to commute from Ithaca to Syracuse daily in a mk5 GLI. I had studded Firestone Winterforces on steel wheels. That car was an absolute beast in the snow and regularly outperformed 4x4’s.

When it's time to replace the tires on my Mazda CX-5 I will put 3 Peak tires on it, but I intend to drive on the factory Toyo A36 tires until they are worn down and need replacing.

I have a 2014 with 19” rims but I love the AT3s (255/60/19). They look great. They fill out the wheel arches just right and look like the right tire for the kind of vehicle it is. I’ve got 16k miles on them and they have a lot of thread left, still look practically new. I don’t notice any freeway or road noise.

I’ve had absolutely zero issues running Toyo ATIIs year round and I know plenty of people who haven’t had issues with Duratracs or KO3s either.

Western Canadian skier here. I run Studded Toyos on my outback every winter, it’s amazing!

The Toyo snow tires on my car have been awesome. I kinda used them all season because the grip was just too fun. Somehow have lasted nearly 30k miles with a third of the tread left too, and I drive my WRX spirited on curvy roads a lot.

Snow tires make a car with decent grip in the snow into great grip in the snow. Especially in the slushy slop.

The only downside with the Toyos for me is slightly worse handling on highways...they like to wander. But everywhere else they're better, esp off-road. Never hear them slipping on anything. Quiet vs Pirellis. Same or maybe slightly better efficiency than Pirellis too, if you get SL rather than LT. It'll be a little worse with the LT.

I went through first winter in Toronto with the stock Toyos since I got the car right before winter and it handled snow like a piece of cake and I didn’t feel like I would ever get stuck. You’d have to replace them early anyway, they don’t last much.

I would almost never recommend firehawks. They wear like shit

Anyways, I mounted the tires in my wheels and right away on the tire balancer two they wobbled bad. I balanced them but they’re shit tires. The vibrate, have a very “hollow” pop type noise when hitting bumps, and overall a bit squirrelly on the road.