Found good winter tires to buy
 

So with the Subaru temporarily parked, I have to handle what's coming, snow-wise with the C63.
I have Continental DWS in the front, they're still in good shape, but DWS could not find traction even with 1 inch of snow in the rears.
So I upgraded to a set of Billzaks for the rears, which the car ate in 1 season (they were only 80% thread depth when I got them). The inner edge is really low.

So I wanted to let you guys know that I found a great deal on Nokian Hakkapeliitta 7.
I ordered them, $118/ea for the rear, stock size.
They should be good to keep me going.
Hakkapeliitta 7 held the land speed record on ice. I think that now the 8 series hold it.

you really shouldn't put snow tires on just 2 wheels. you need them on the front to steer and brake as well. but good find on the tires

I know about having to have matching.
And yes, my plan was to eventually update the fronts to Blizzak's as well.
Turns out that the Blizzaks wear a lot faster than the DWS.
I bought the Blizzaks at 80% thread with the front DWS having 80% of thread since new (had those since new and 1 season) when the blizzak's went into the rear.

And when I started to drive, at the beginning I was very careful with this combo, but towards the end of the season, I saw that traction control and ABS were taking care of business with no problem, so I stopped being worried about having winters in the rear only.
In NYC we only really have snow couple times a year and then the average traffic speed is 5-20 MPH. Speed limit is 25 MPH. The parkways don't do much better, as everyone freaks out.
And in rain, the DWS is slightly better than the Blizzak, but the traction control keeps everything in line.

The Hakka 7s are an amazing tire. A few years old but FANTASTIC.

As stated a set of Hakka 7 on the rear and the DWS on the front will create some serious potential for understeer.

We have Hakka R3s on the E63s and Hakka R2s on the Subaru STi. Both are amazing tires as well, but I would have preferred a set of Hakka 7/8 studded if we did not have a finished garage floor.

I don't know that much about studs, but seems like some tires are factory studded and some are stud-able and you bring them to a tractionizer shop who studs them.
These seem to have the stud locating spots.
I wonder how aftermarket studs from a tractionizer compare with factory studs.

The Nokian Studded tires seem to me to be quieter than other brands that are studded. I can only speak for Nokians that are studded from Nokian.

i didn't even know studed tires were a thing till I saw them. so can you drive studded tires high speed? highway?

You can definitely drive on the highway with studded tires.

Do they grab and shoot out pebbles?, I think this was the justification for the big mudflaps rally style in the Subaru world.

And faced with dry pavement, how long till the studs wear down of break away? Can you drive a whole season?

The studs don't grab sand/pebbles any more than a regular set of winter tires.

However, winter tires definitely through more sand/pebbles than summer tires due to their HUGE number of sipes.

I had a set of Hakka 4 studded tires for 3 seasons and the studs showed minimal wear despite probably being driven on dry roads in the winter.

FWIW the Nokian studs stay in place very well. I didn't lose any studs over the 4 years.

I've had a lot of success running Alpin PA4s but I'm in SW Pennsylvania, and other than a few days we haven't had that rough a winter so far. Drove across state through a light blizzard about a month ago at highway speeds with no trouble, for what that's worth.

is there a night and day difference with stud tires? do stud tires essentially make the c63 driveable in the snow?

really curious about the studded tires now.

what is more effective an all wheel drive car with all season tires or a rwd car with studded winter tires?

coming from a bmw x drive..

Well, you should know x-drive is the worst AWD system, so that's one

Also anyone will say winter rwd > all season awd

Thats more or less debateable but you can watch YouTube videos

Weight has a lot to do with it as well.
Something heavy with a decent amount pressing and studded tires may be better than AWD but not in all snow conditions.
Slush, fresh snow, packed snow, ice + snow are very different.
Kinda how the DOT highway plough trucks are loaded with weight and have chains but traction is only in the rear, one or two axles.

And a small review:
Initially it seemed these are more noisy than the Blizzaks and that dry and slightly wet traction is quite inferior.
But then I decided to do a burnout.
Now it's much better ..
The top layer may have been too new/glazed.

A GOOD studded winter tire such a Nokian Hakka 7/8 etc will be FANTASTIC on ice, and excellent in all other winter conditions.

A studded tire such as the General Arctic Altimax is not in the same league as a Nokian studded tire.

The North American market is JUST coming around to considering winter tires for winter conditions, that they are not pushing any of the high end winter tires that are studded. They spent years dispelling 'studded winter tires' as being inferior, and their testing methodology supports this. Tirerack tests what they sell, and consistently show the studded Arctic Altimax to be inferior to the best 'grip' winter tires such as the Blizzak/X-Ice3 etc. But if they tested the high end studded tires, the results would be different.

However, if you RARELY drive in icy/hard packed snow covered roads than studded tires are of less value.



FWIW I drove my c63 with winter tires for 2 winters and had ZERO issues. The C63 is very well balanced and handles very nicely with smooth steering input on snow covered roads.

Obviously an AWD vehicle with winter tires will outperform (accelerate / corner) a RWD winter vehicle with winter tires, but they will both stop in a similar distance.

AWD systems are very different. I prefer the AWD system in my Subaru STi versus our E63s. The Subaru handles quite neutral but you can induce oversteer if you want. The E63 tends to oversteer as it appears to be definitely biased towards the rear.

Can you provide some links to the winter tire deals? studded