Tires SUMITOMO or VITOUR
My Sumitomo Ice Edges have been doing phenomenal for a more budget snow tire this winter
Best snow and ice tire I\u2019ve used have been Sumitomo Ice Edge. They are studdable and they are way cheaper than the major brands. I\u2019ve got them on my 01 Jetta and 04 L300. I\u2019ve had Blizzaks but they are pricey and the Firestone Wnterforces were meh.
I just got some Sumitomos replaced with about 40,000 mi on them which probably still had 20 to go and were still gripping great but just a little bit noisy. They are the parents company of Falken. They are a great brand as far as longevity and grip. I'm currently using Laufenn which are a sub brand of Hankook which cost me under $90 a corner and I am so pleased that I'm considering putting them on my second car. This mid-tier brand has been just as if not more pleasant in the realm of noise and on center road feel at speed than Michelin Defenders I had just a month ago on a car we sold. My Laufenns will probably have only half of the tread life of the Michelins I used to have, but at only half the price and the feel on the road is identical but I'm sure the performance is a little bit less. We do have close to bottom tier on a car that is new to us which is a Douglas brand and it'll be good for the next year but it is an unpleasant tire. It's loud and doesn't feel like it tracks well. But it does grip well enough to push the replacement date out a year since they were manufactured this year.
We have Vitour Galaxy tires on our car. They are affordable and work very good. We have a 1979 230 and the stock size there would be 175SR14. The closest I could find with white stripes was the Vitour tires in 185/80-14. They are a little bit taller than the stock size and fill out the wheel opening a little bit more, but I like how it looks and drives.
I just put the conti viking contacts back on the s5 last week, and I need to get some winter tires for the sq5, I think I'm going with the sumitomo ice edge as we had them with the old a4 and they went through anything. I'll probably put them back on the s5 next year. We're in NH and go up north all lot for riding, plus we get decent snow and they're great for the $. Then it's wheel shopping for the sq5 for next year! It's so nice and easy to swap out winter/ summer wheels and tires.
I got around well with Summos in the winter on my Mazda 2
They look better than my Vitours I bought in may... 90 minutes of track day time and 7 asphalt autocross events.
I came across the Vitour Galaxy R1s — they’re V-rated, which is cool, but I’m not sure if they’re DOT approved. From what I can tell, they’re made by a South African brand (possibly China-owned) and seem to be geared toward drift/race use.
Just wondering if anyone’s actually run these? How’s the grip and overall quality? I’m aiming for a tire that can handle daily driving and still be fun in the corners without dropping $500+ on Avons CR6ZZ
Vitours are terrible cold and don't work well if your car doesn't generate enough heat.
Do not recommend unless you can get a lot of heat into them. even on warm days they would need some time to get grip. If you're in Alaska I could see them not working well for like 8 months out of the year, and they're really expensive too.
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