[Scorcher000]

General Altimax is par with Barum Polaris 2 in 3rd place for quality $
Semperit Sport Grip is par with ContiWinter Contact TS800 in roughly 2nd for quality $$
Continental Extreme Winter Contact is the top dog $$$$

There are others in between.
And they are all under the Continental Rubber Group and are all a great tire no matter what choice you choose. But that goes for most other companies too. People choose what name & price they like best.

But I mean for a 205/55R16 Barum Polaris 2 for $90 installed and balanced and a 205/55R16 Semperit Sport Grip for $115 installed and balanced is pretty dam good price for what you get for a quality winter tire, even though its not on the top of the list.

Softer the rubber the more it wears out. I personally get the harder rubber for deep snow then the millions of sypes and a super sticky tread meant for ice. That way I have winters for more than a season or 2.

[SVT-WGN]

Ya know, it makes sense. Different strokes for different folks.

I use Michelin (über many sipes), soft rubber here in Saskatchewan. Our climate is cold and dry, very cold (when the temperature drops below -20°C, salt just does not "melt the ice") and with Alberta clippers we end up with glare ice on our highways (precipitation falls as rain and freezes on contact with the ground.)

It is to the credit of my tire dealer who first offered me the X-Ice for the year with the "can't lose offer" of giving me the tires I wanted, a set of studded winters if I was not convinced after the season of driving on the Michelins. (He won, I never switched back to studs, and yes they are that good, for me, out here.)

My last set of X-Ice lasted four winters and just under 100,000 kilometres (we have put over 200,000 kilometres on the car in four years. Summer tires are Plus One sized Michelin HydroEdge and have four summers, plus 2011 wear on them.)

But as I said in the first line, if I lived where the temperature rarely drops below -20°C, and where you get a metre of snow in one week, my choice might be for harder rubber, with deeper treads.

[NefCanuck]

That's the thing, there is no "one tire" even for winter driving because conditions can vary so much.

Hell, the minute they invent tires that can reconfigure themselves based on the conditions I'll mortgage my right lung for a set

NefCanuck

[2009SEL]

Yup, me too - have them on the Taurus and (just a week
ago) on the Focus - take a look.

I am particularly interested in GFXJ...'s opinion of the pic.

2009...

http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad35/...1294003709