Audphile

I found this tire on Tire Rack, Sumitomo HTRA A/S PO2, and it has pretty good ratings for me to use as a winter tire.
We don't get much snow and when we do it's usually only a couple of inches at a time. For $131.36 a tire seems like a bargain.
I know there are better tires for snow but my main concern is the cold which my summer tires will not tolerate.
Anyone have any experience with Sumitomo tires or alternatives that are in the ballpark price wise?

uberwgn

I bought a set of these tires (Sumitomo HTR A/S PO2) two months ago for our '06 Avant. They are inexpensive tires and I don't know how much longer we'll be keeping the car. I selected this tire because it's not made in China. I think the tires I got were made in Thailand. So far, so good on dry and wet pavement. They do have an aggressive and open tread pattern. They balanced up with minimal weight and have a good ride quality on our poor, local roads. Their tracking on the highway isn't great, not as good as other tires I've had on the car. I have not driven in the snow, obviously.

A friend put these tires on his C Class MBz a year ago and said they start to get noisier at 10k miles.

Another tire I'd look at is the Nokian WR G3 "all season" tire. I've got a set of these mounted on winter wheels for this same car. I can't really even comment on the snow performance of this Nokian as we've had minimal snow since I purchased them. They have limited sizes so there may be nothing that fits your car, Audphile. The tread pattern on the Sumitomo appears more aggressive compared to the Nokian, but that may not mean much when the going gets tough - - Nokian has an excellent reputation.

If you're looking to get the Sumitomo mounted on separate wheels for winter use, they'll probably be a reasonable choice for MD. Certainly will be MUCH better than a UHP summer tire.

JRuby2004

I live in Maryland as well. Are you planning on using this A/S tire as a winter tire, and then switching back to your summers?

One thing I am considering doing is just switching to A/S permanently. I originally was reluctant to do this because I thought I'd get better performance from the summers, but based on reviews I'm seeing on Tirerack, the OEM summers are pretty bad (I have the Continentals). I might actually end up getting better summer performance from upgraded all-seasons than OEM summers?

Doc@tirerack

The HTR A/S P02 has been a great value, especially for those who are not driving the car very "enthusiastically".

You can see the results of our most recent test here;

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests...&affiliate=AR8

Audphile

Not sure if I switch back or not. My S5 SB came with Hankook summers which have been ok but seem to be wearing very well. If I pull the trigger on the Sumitomo's I'll make sure to leave them on past winter to see how they perform when it warms up.

Audphile

Doc, do you know if Tirerack will keep increasing the price of the HTRA A/S P02's? I've seen a price increase in the last week or so.