We purchased a set of 4 Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1s for my wife's 2012 Audi Q5 2.0T in late October. I installed them in the 1st week of November. They are mounted on replica Audi S-Line 17" rims, size 17 x 8 ". The tires are size 235/65-17. Here is a link to the tire information on the Bridgestone site:
http://www.bridgestonetire.com/productdetails/TireSubBrand/Blizzak_DM-V1I held off on writing any kind of review until now because we haven't had much of a winter in these parts. Except for a couple of skiffs of snow around the Christmas holidays, Ottawa has been bereft of the fluffy white stuff as well as the attendant sloppiness of slush, ice, etc. We recently returned from a trip out to the Right Coast, travelling through the northeastern United States. Our route took us through nothern New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick, and finally on into Nova Scotia and the Annapolis Valley. We got socked by snow on our journey eastward, the worst of if being in Vermont in the Green Mountain area where conditions approached white out with heavy crosswinds and 2 to 5 cm of snow built up on the I-89. We also had to deal with partially cleared and centre bare two-lane highways through the twisties as we travelled between Vermont on into New Hampshire. At one point while we were in the Stowe Vermont area, we came up a hill only to see the headlights of a Subaru Outback staring at us from the ditch (right beside a rock face!) that he had maneuvered himself into after a 180. The snow starting letting up as we got into New Hamshire and completely petered out as we got into Maine, but the heavy winds (gusts of over 70 km/h) followed us all the way to our eventual destination. On our way back, the worst conditions were a combination of slushy major roads and hard-packed secondary roads.
What can I say about the tires? Mostly positive.
General Observations/HandlingI find that they make the car a bit more sensitive to crosswinds by virtue of their more flexible sidewalls, but in fairness we haven't had the vehicle very long and can't compare them with any great accuracy with the OEM Continental CrossContact 235/60-18 tires. Plus, 70 km/h crosswinds are going to budge any car. They handle very well, which seems to contradict my statement about crosswind sensitivity, and I have no problem figuring out exactly what they are doing at all times. They are also quiet for winter tires, my sole gripe being that they tend to "sing" with a turbine-like whir on wet tarmac but this is common with heavily siped winter tires. In the dry, they are relatively quiet with just a bit of a low frequency "whush" to them and a bit of a grumbly sound as we slow down to a stop.
Here are some more specific observations:
Lateral GripAs far as lateral grip is concerned, these tires bite very well. I find that they are very resistant to side-stepping when they traverse surfaces with different grip or when they have to mount a snow or ice ridge such as is found when changing lanes on a snow covered highway at speed. They have a fairly square sidewall with multiple biting edges so I'm guessing this is why they track so well. They are also purpose made for SUVs and light trucks, so are reinforced. I think this reduces the squirm that some tires have as the centre tread stays square to the sidewalls giving a more even and predictable steering feel. I tried throwing the vehicle into a couple of turns in some deserted, safe locations, and the tires just hooked up with no drama and way before the electronic stability control stepped in. In fact, I can't remember once where the ESC kicked in while we were flogging through the snow-covered mountain passes.
Straight-Ahead GripImpressive. The traction control only seemed to do its electronic nanny thing when I stabbed the throttle hard. Anything less than an agressive start results in the vehicle simply pulling away without any side-stepping. Of course a lot of the credit goes to the Audi's Quattro AWD system, but that doesn't take away from the fact that these tires are very well matched to our particular vehicle.
BrakingI didn't have to do anything remotely like a panic stop on our trip, but the few times where I had the chance to try out the grip of the tires in a controlled, safe way (like in a deserted parking lot, in the in-laws' driveway, etc.) the car just simply stops without drama and (again) no side-stepping. The ABS only kicked in any significant way when we were driving through slushy parking lots where the slush was the consistency of cake frosting.
Parting ThoughtsThe tires were really nice in the arctic cold air (-21 C) that we were hit with on our return trip through the States. You could tell that they remained flexible on the cold, hard pavement (brrrr!) and I never felt that I was running out of grip on the mostly bare road that we travelled home on. Over all, I am happy with our purchase, and while they were not my first choice (see "Disclaimer" below), they are a good, honest all-around winter tire.
DisclaimerAnyway, as I've said before, I am not a tire engineer and even if I was, my results are highly suspect because it wasn't conducted head-to-head in a controlled environment with other competitors' products. I've never had Bridgestone Blizzaks before, being a bit of Nokian fanboy to be honest. In fact, I wasn't even planning to buy the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1s as they were a substitution for the Continental ExtremeWinterContacts that I had originally ordered from 1010tires but were unfortunately out of stock. That said, I really like these tires and they stack up very well with the Nokian SUVs that we had on our 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe GL AWD. That is the car that our Q5 replaced in our garage. They are similar in weight and size and the OEM tires are even the same on both vehicles. How much of my good experience with the Blizzaks is as a result of the general goodness of the Q5 is up for discussion, too.
YMMV.
