Winter's for my Subaru!?

[Asher]

Hey all

I’m new here and was hoping to get some help!  This will be my first winter with my new 2005 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS and wanted to know what kind of snow tires would best work with an AWD car. I live in Kelowna BC and drive about 15-20min to work and back on highway and city roads.  I am looking at:

X-Ice Xi2 (mixed reviews)
Nitto Winter SN2 ( could not find any reviews)
Arctic Claw( didn’t find much)


Anything else would be helpful!

Thank you

[DKaz]

Guessing by your selections, you just went to Kal Tire. I encourage you to go to your local Subaru dealer, they may have some specials they can hook you up with. The Arctic Claws are pretty decent though, same with the X-Ices.

[Asher]

haha I did. I get a % off their products through my work so I was just looking at them. I will give my parts guy at subaru a call and go from there. Anything else someone can let me know would be great!

[davidy]

I currently have the Arctic Claw TXI (studded) on my RWD truck. They are okay after a season's use last winter. Still got stuck a number of times....had to put on chains. Had 8-10 sand bags in the back end. They were cheap and are considered an entry level winter tire. Lotsa local dealers were selling them last year. They tested fourth of four winter tires in a tire test in Quebec a couple of years ago.

Personally, I think that there are better winter tire choices out there for a few more bucks. Arctic Claws are made by Cooper...not the best tire manufacturer out there. They have had several safety recalls on their tires as per APA's link. http://www.apa.ca/template.asp?DocID=297

Dave

[Andy@1010tires]

Hey all

I’m new here and was hoping to get some help!  This will be my first winter with my new 2005 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS and wanted to know what kind of snow tires would best work with an AWD car. I live in Kelowna BC and drive about 15-20min to work and back on highway and city roads.  I am looking at:

X-Ice Xi2 (mixed reviews)
Nitto Winter SN2 ( could not find any reviews)
Arctic Claw( didn’t find much)


Anything else would be helpful!

Thank you

Are the roads cleared? do you need something for maximum snow traction?

[DKaz]

haha I did. I get a % off their products through my work so I was just looking at them. I will give my parts guy at subaru a call and go from there. Anything else someone can let me know would be great!

They're still quite expensive, they quoted $780 taxes in just for the Arctic Claw TXIs without wheels. I went to my local dealer and they hooked me up with Toyo Observe G-02 Plus on OE steel wheels for $918 taxes in, $144 cheaper than the next cheapest place. Get some quotes from both places and also check out local independent tire dealers like Excel. Also once you get quotes, check out our sponsor at 1010 as well and see what they can hook you up with, if you just need tires and not wheels 1010 has pretty good prices. For a complete tire and wheel package, I'm sure your local Subaru dealer will provide the absolute best price hands down, and if they have packages that aren't quite to your liking, they can usually order in almost any tire for you. My local Mazda dealer beat my local independent shop by about $144, and I thought the independent shop was already inexpensive!