Tires YOKOHAMA or Firestone

I have ice guard on my car with no issues. Handles pretty damn good when dry cold or hot

Another vote for the Firestone Winterforce tires... Michigan's Upper Peninsula, with LOTS of snow, and I travel the entire area. Most of what we get is snow, minimal ice, and after experimenting with several different brands we go back to the Winterforce every time.

That being said if you're looking for cheap NEW winter tires, Firestone Winterforce tires are fantastic. They're kind of loud, but they work great.

Just replaced the OEM Yokohama Avid S34D with the Pirelli P7. Already can tell that they are far superior. 7 db quieter than the OEM on same section of road. I got 20k miles out of the Yokohama and the inside shoulder of all 4 were through the first layer of rubber.

Put some super grippy Yokohama's on there and problem solved...

I'm running Yokohama S-Drive's in 195/40's for my 9" and the stretch is good.

I replaced the Yokos with 215/65R-16 Yokohama AVID Ascend tires. No complaints with them. It has a very high treadwear, which we need because the Tig is our workhorse vehicle.

On my 2010 S, I quickly replaced the stock Scorpions with Yokohamas in 225/65-16 and it worked great. We have rough roads here, and it really helped.

The Yokohama yk580 we have on my wife's EX are doing really well so far, but we only have a few thousand miles on them. Much quieter than the stock tires, good grip, and they are rated to last quite a while (45k supposedly, but in a GTI would be less).

Those firestones are horrible. The dealer wants to give you them because they are the cheapest option....if you want winter tires without studs, get something better that was designed to not have studs in the first place.