What's new in 2009 winter wear?
Winter tires have become so specialized that it becomes necessary to figure out what your needs are, then find the tire to match.
Do you drive a truck or a car? Are you a city and rural driver? Do you experience a lot of bare pavement? Ice? Deep snow? Mix of any two of the foregoing? Or all three?
There are tires to meet all those challenges.
Here's what's new on the market this year for "winter" tires in reverse alphabetical order:
Toyo
Toyo has seen the lack of serious winter tires for the plumbers and electrician's vans of this world and stepped into the fray with the WLT1. This is a Light Truck tire with a 10-ply load rating. It features a wider footprint with deeper tread and an increased sipe count for better grip in watery conditions.
While this is a heavy-duty truck tire, it is not a brute. It features some niceties for good ride and handling such as high-stiffness casing for good handling performance and a spiral-wound cap ply for good high-speed driving stability and to ensure precise tire uniformity and increased strength.
Pirelli
This season Pirelli expands its winter super-high performance line with an upgrade of the Sottozero family by evolving it into the Serie II. This tire family now has the world's only W-rated (270 km/h) winter tire. Obviously, Sotto Zero is intended for the faster cars of this world.
The tire comes in two tread patterns and two compounds depending on size. The 270 model has softer winter rubber on the outside half of the tire and harder, stiffer inner part for quicker straight ahead motoring.
Both the 270, 210 and 240 tires have a rectangular mini brickwork block pattern that changes as the tire is stressed. Under load generated by dry lateral grip, these blocks close and act as one big block. Under vertical load, they can move vertically to grab road irregularities.
All of the tires use a new exclusive polymer compound, which has been engineered to work better sooner. The rubber achieves maximum performance also at "higher" winter temperatures (just below 7C): this makes Sottozero Serie II the perfect tire for fall and winter seasons.
All of the tires are made with 100 per cent aromatic oil-free compounds: Pirelli continues in its efforts to respect the environment by introducing a product with no high aromatic oils.
Nokian
Nokian has updated two of its tires for this winter season, the Nokian WRG2 and the Hakkapeliitta R.
Nokian is a very environmentally conscious company. It was the first to use canola oil instead of crude in making its tires. Mixing the raw natural rubber with canola oil and silica produces a very sticky tire. It now claims to use no harmful oils or toxic materials in any of its tires anymore.
Nokian's WR model was the first "all-weather" tire available in a broad range of sizes. My interpretation of all-weather means a snowflake-rated, severe-service tire, meaning it can be left on the vehicle all year long.
In other words, it's a true "all-season" tire. But that name is so sullied by poor earlier products, I cannot bring myself to use it.
The new WRG2 comes in a sedan and an SUV version. The tread pattern was revised to give the tire more angled tread blocks and more sipes to get slush out from under the tire faster. Overall winter grip has increased in all conditions. Fuel economy will be better with this tire, as rolling resistance has been improved.
The Hakkapeliitta R, a true winter-only tire, has a more streamlined v-shaped tread pattern. It has a patented sipe pattern on its outter edges to pump water out from under the tread face for better grip. It is the closest in grip to a fully studded tire as one can get.
The R also has the same lowered rolling resistance and canola oil construction, so you help the environment with either tire. The R is also available for SUVs.
Michelin
The big market for CUVs has demanded another line of tires to fit these down-sized SUV's. The new Michelin Latitude Alpin is the result. It has a different set of sipe angles than the rest of the Latitude (SUV) line. Michelin has worked hard on making the large and small SUVs brake and turn better.
The sipes run in two distinct directions, creating a virtual grid of slashes in every direction. So now there's improved ice grip under side loads and braking. With this many sipes, the carcass of the tire has a few trick features Michelin calls "comfort control technology." This promises a smoother, lower-vibration ride and also less noise. So although at first glance, the Latitude Alpin looks like a vibrating bed waiting for a quarter, it promises a smooth ride.
It is available in seven sizes aimed at the CUV market, with rim diameters from 16 to 20 inches, and aspect ratios of 70 down to 40. Three of the sizes use the new Green-X fuel-saving technology.
The rest of the Michelin line has added sizes to existing products. The Alpin line gets 21 new sizes spread over every car from sedans to sports cars. The hugely popular X-Ice Xi2 gets four new sizes.
Michelin says it now has "a solution to every winter tire size in Canada." And I'll buy that statement.
Hankook
The Hankook Optimo joins a very small, exclusive group of tires, the "all-weather" segment. These tires have earned the Rubber Association of Canada and federal Transport Canada pictograph on the sidewall showing they are qualified for "severe service" use.
And they have the bonus of being able to be driven in the summer. This is what all-season tires were meant to do but failed miserably at.
So the Optimo 4S joins the Yokohama W.Drive, the Nokian WRG2, the Goodyear Fortera TripleTred in this tiny all-weather club.
Before we even get to performance, it is good to know this tire has been available in Europe for some time. In Germany, it won a "Blue Angel" award from that government's version of the EPA for "high fuel efficiency, low rolling noise, with very limited sacrifice on braking, handling and mileage (tread life) performance. In fact, it's rolling resistance numbers are closer to a summer tire than a winter tire.
In a German auto magazine test, the Optimo came in second place in a test of all-season tires. The test included summer winter, wet and dry tests.
The Hankook is an asymmetric design. The inner side of the tire has winter tread, the outer part has a summer pattern. The inner edges have more sipes for ice, though the outside edge carries these as well.
The rubber compounding uses some unusual polymers. These link themselves better into long chains for better flexibility without increased wear rates.
Hankook uses what they call "fuzzy mixing technology" to disperse silica throughout the compound at the nano technology level. This fuzzy mixing is said to increase fuel efficiency of the tires by 5 per cent and increase braking ability by 10 per cent of rubber mixed by traditional methods.
The Hankook Optimo 4S is available in rim sizes from 14 to 17 inches, aspect ratios from 65 down to 45. There are 29 sizes.
Goodyear
The Wrangler DuraTrac light-truck tire is Goodyear's newest product for winter use. It is sized for work trucks and vans. It has very large aggressive tread blocks, which should see it through the worst of weather even with the truck lightly loaded.
Wrangler DuraTrac fits the most popular "working trucks" on the road, offering 26 popular sizes covering 89 per cent of this target segment.
Fitments include all of the best-selling light- and full-size trucks today in ½-ton, ¾-ton and one-ton applications.
Continental
The ExtremeWinterContact has been developed based on Continental's innovative winter tire technology. It is engineered to dramatically improve ice and snow traction.
The tire also delivers noticeable improvements in wet performance, excellent fuel efficiency, extended wear, ride comfort; and considerable improvements in dry performance.
Continental's newest tire features elevated lateral grooves, which result in a stiffer pattern for improved dry handling; and inclined longitudinal grooves for greater driving force, which brings excellent traction and braking on snow.
Continental is backing it with a very strong warranty: a 30-day customer satisfaction ride guarantee, a manufacturer's workmanship limited warranty for 72 months – with free replacement up to 12 months – and road hazard coverage for 12 months.
The ExtremeWinterContact will be available in 52 sizes from 13-inch to 17-inch wheel diameters. For the first time ever, Continental Tire will include LT sizes in a winter tire line.
Bridgestone
This season, two new tires are being added to the Bridgestone Blizzak line: the Blizzak DM-V1 and LM-60. These tires are suited for vehicles ranging from light trucks and SUVs to sports cars and sedans.
"Last winter was brutal for many parts of the United States and Canada," said John Baratta, president, replacement tire sales, U.S. and Canada consumer tire sales division. "Preparation is key and when winter conditions are severe, snow and ice tires are a must.By expanding the Bridgestone Blizzak tire line with these new products, we're making it possible for more drivers to equip their vehicles with a dedicated winter tire."
The Blizzak DM-V1 will be available in 46 R-speed-rated sizes ranging from 15 to 22 inches and aspect ratios of 75 to 45 series. The DM-V1 features Bridgestone's proprietary Nano-Pro-Tech rubber compound and multi-cell technology to disperse surface water and improve grip.
A directional tread pattern and 3D sipes enhance dry performance, and continuous lug design and Center Multi-Z tread grooves increase traction in the snow and ice.
The LM series of Blizzaks start at H-speed rated winter boots. They were designed in response to unique road conditions in the United States and Canada. Because they are high speed rated, they do not have Bridgestone's multi-cell compound rubber.
Available in 34 H-speed rated sizes from 17 to 20 inches in the 60-35 series range, the LM-60 consolidates existing Blizzaks into one H-rated tire line.
BFGoodrich This is the first update of a great mom-and-pop tire, the BFG Winter Slalom KSI. The letters KSI indicate "key ice and snow." Where the previous tire was very heavily deep-snow skewed, the new one takes note of consumer worries about ice and adds sipes by the truckload. According to BFG there are 49 metres of sipes in the typical tire. So ice, watch out.
The tire also has micro pores, which expose as the tire wears. These pores keep the grip levels up as sipes wear away. Additionally, there is better lateral grooving for better slush removal.
And though the price has not moved upmarket, the quality of the tire has, thanks to parent Michelin. It features such Michelin upgrades as chamfered tread block edges (reduces the wear rate), an optimized mould profile (minimizes the stress in a tire's footprint for longer tread life), a belt package that better maximizes the contact patch over a broader speed range (more grip) and a better balanced rubber compound ( for traction when very cold without giving up warmer temperature traction).
This latest BFG offering comes in 36 sizes from 14- to 17-inch diameters in aspect ratios from 75 down to 50.
Woman's win over Honda opens door to mileage claim free-for-all
Video: Chevrolet Sonic a small car with a big car price
