I thought I was going to buy the Nokian Rotivaas for the winter, but their price shot up to $148/each everywhere - before taxes, shipping, mounting and balancing. I don't have $800 to drop on winter tires for this car with over 100,000 miles on it.

So instead I went with a true Walmart special - the Cooper Discoverer All Terrain 106T Light Truck tire for $108 each, a total of $459 with tax. Free shipping, and my mounting and balancing was $90 at my tire guy. I paid an extra $15 for new shiny lug nuts.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Cooper-Di...Tire/262556592

These Discoverer A/Ts are apparently a special tire only available through Walmart. They look to have basically the same deep, aggressive and deeply-siped treads as the more expensive Discoverer AT/3s. They are marked M+S for "Mud and Snow" on the sidewalls and I cannot possibly imagine they will do worse in the snow than my Pirelli Scorpion Verdes, which were pushing 50,000 miles and into the wear bars, but were never super-duper in the snow anyway.

I had them mounted and first impressions in 100 miles:

1) The steering is excellent. Sharp turn-in, no slop, no perceptible sidewall flex at sane velocities. I liked the Pirellis during high-speed and emergency maneuvering - just when you thought they would start to push, they dug in. I don't think these tires are the same ultimate skidpad tires as the Pirellis, but at the velocities I travel now in my car, they feel great.

2) They are QUIET at all speeds. Quieter than the Pirellis by a considerable amount. There is almost ZERO road noise or rumbling. I play the stereo a couple clicks of volume lower. At 50 MPH, switching from Fan Level Two to Fan Level Three is *audible.* The car feels more luxurious and the interior is a quieter, saner, more comfortable space. Tire noise really makes a difference in your calmness and sangfroid, and I do a lot of mid-distance (~200 mile) highway, with longer stints too (1550 miles max in 24 hours.)

3) The impact harshness, especially over small imperfections like road cracks and fills, is considerably diminished compared to the Pirellis. You just traverse them without hearing or feeling them.

A much more civilized ride. And as far as I can tell, no negative mileage impact.

As the snow and rain come, I'll have a traction update. But for $108 - at least so far - these are some darn good tires.

ALSO: After 101,101.1 miles, I decided to have the front sway bar links replaced. They've been doing the "clickety clack" routine over small bumps, manhole covers, the edges of driveways, etc., for about 2500 miles now, which slowly drives you crazy. I bought a pair of MOOGs from Rock Auto for like $14 each, greaseable and wholesale closeout. Wow! what a diffference.


The front end of the car is so tight and silent now that even the tiniest thing rattling around in the interior is audible.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...t=7580&jsn=930

Readier for winter! I'll have a traction update on the Coopers when we get our next snow.

 

Did the same Moog sway bar link replacement a few months ago, day/night difference. The rattles drove me crazy, inexpensive fix and an easy job thanks to the video's that are posted
Glad you got new rubber all around good to be safe out there