Ordered Mich. X-Ice XI2's from T.R. for wifey's Mini CS. I'll report in a couple months on Yay/Nay.
11-06-2008, 11:59 AM
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Ordered Mich. X-Ice XI2's from T.R. for wifey's Mini CS. I'll report in a couple months on Yay/Nay.
Went back and forth on it - finally talked with a local shop that couldn't get them due to supply issues but he'd gone to a testing/new product thing put on I suppose by Michelin? in Canadialand. Tested a bunch of tires.
Said they were AMAZING tires and he couldn't believe how well they did on packed snow/ice. No comparison to anything he'd tried before. Even studded.
Said they were as good as anything else on deep snow - no noticeable negatives at all.
This said a lot considering he had LOTS of other tires there in the shop to sell me. :-) I mentioned that the Tire Rack had them in the size I needed and he told me based on what I said I wanted in a tire to buy them, no question. He willingly lost a sale even though I mentioned we may like the newest Nokians - he told me again to go home and order the XI 2's. Wow.
I hope they live up to the hype.
Doug.
Said they were AMAZING tires and he couldn't believe how well they did on packed snow/ice. No comparison to anything he'd tried before. Even studded.
Said they were as good as anything else on deep snow - no noticeable negatives at all.
This said a lot considering he had LOTS of other tires there in the shop to sell me. :-) I mentioned that the Tire Rack had them in the size I needed and he told me based on what I said I wanted in a tire to buy them, no question. He willingly lost a sale even though I mentioned we may like the newest Nokians - he told me again to go home and order the XI 2's. Wow.
I hope they live up to the hype.
Doug.
11-06-2008, 01:32 PM
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Agreed, but...
I find tread width to be a bigger factor with slush. I have a set of RSi's that offer exceptional resistance to hydroplaning in the wet (on par with many summer tires), but when it comes to slush, the 235 width requires some care. The car will ride up over the slush quite easily, so I find myself slowing down enough to give the tires a chance to push through the slush. Hopefully he chose a narrow tire.
11-06-2008, 04:40 PM
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We went with 265-30-19's for winter on teh Mini CS.
Should be fine.
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OK, OK I kid ----> 205-55-16's LOL.
She's drives easy as well, and it's 99% around town 45-50 MPH max roads on clear days anyway. The Mini has been fine the last several years on other 205's.
The summers are 235-40-17's Kuhmo "performance all season" and they would be teh suck I'm sure. Wouldn't even DREAM of driving them in snow. LOL.
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OK, OK I kid ----> 205-55-16's LOL.
She's drives easy as well, and it's 99% around town 45-50 MPH max roads on clear days anyway. The Mini has been fine the last several years on other 205's.
The summers are 235-40-17's Kuhmo "performance all season" and they would be teh suck I'm sure. Wouldn't even DREAM of driving them in snow. LOL.
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11-07-2008, 02:47 AM
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TJ: Did you ever notice better fuel economy?
I noticed consistently better mileage my first season with the RSi's...on the order of 8-9%? I attributed it to a possibly smaller tire size than OEM throwing off the trip computer (even though both tires were 235-45-17). Now I'm seeing that Nokian is marketing most of their winter tires as "low rolling resistance" offering better fuel economy. So maybe I'm not losing my mind and there really is a difference??