FWIW, we've got frozen rain on the streets today. With my Blizzaks I was easily able to pass and get away from a fishtailing Bronco.

Well, worth the price.

Good luck, nf

 

I'm about 26,000 km, or 16,155 miles. And 18 months old.

 

Got four 205/60R-15 Firestone Winterforce snow tires at $50 each (closeout).
Got four 15 inch MSW alloy rims for $82 each.
Shipping was $89.
Balancing and mounting were free b/c I bought them together at Tirerack.com.
Grand total was $617.

Will try to give a honest review of the snow tires when I get back from vacation after the 10th. I can't wait to put them on and take them for a spin! Looking at things, they should be delivered tomorrow and I'll have my nephew put them in the garage for me.

 

Great deal. Looking forward to pics of them mounted.

nf

 

Keep in mind that snow tires, or almost any and all wintertime specialty tires will be mostly of no help, or absolutely NO help, on ICE or packed snow. For those those conditions the only solution is tire studs or chains.

For those 10 days or so it took for our place to accrue 24 inches of snow my nice and quiet, comfortably riding "summer use only" Bridgestone Turanza tires on my "wannabe" AWD '01 RX300 did perfectly fine....

With all four tire chains installed.

 

You're correct but snow tires will perform better than the Dunlops in wintry conditions. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to be driving the same way (cautiously) in wintry weather.

 

I will respectfully disagree with you, wwest.

We had freezing rain the other day in Omaha and I was easily able to accelerate uphill to pass a fishtailing Bronco. I credit the Blizzaks. I don't want to take away from your enthusiasm for studs and chains (kinky), but don't suggest snow tires will be of no help on ice or packed snow that's simply not the case.

Also, studs and chains are banned in most metropolitan areas. And if you live in a rural area where you will actually need chains, then you might as well leave the HCH home for the day.

Lastly, you don't need to defend your RX300 here for being a wannabe SUV(?). At least not for that reason.

Cheers, nf

 

My wife's constant whining about the HCHII's snow traction (she's still just mad that I pulled her out of a 13mpg Grand Cherokee LOL) finally forced me to get a set of dedicated snows last month. I researched pretty hard. If you google for comparison tests, you'll find that the two top-rated tires are always either the Blizzaks or the Yokohama IceGuards (IG20). Blizzaks seem to be rated slightly better in deep snow.. Yoko's slightly better in ice (ice racers use them in non-studded race classes). I went with the IG20's because they were notably cheaper. I ordered them from Discount Tire Direct and mounted them on the stock rims. They work GREAT! There's something deeply satisfying about out-accelerating a monster 4x4 from a stoplight in your itty bitty Hybrid. The slack-jawed looks alone are worth the cost of the tires!

No matter what tire you get, in deep snow, your Civic will become a plow. Just drop it into "S" and drudge through it. We had a boatload of deep snow events (10-12") in MI over the holiday and the car was never even close to getting stuck.

 

From the underside of the engine compartment plastic shield to floor measures a scant 5" on ours. While that shield is easily deflected up an inch or so, and the front suspension has a lot of travel, we've found it's still pretty easy to get stuck in the deeper stuff (especially if it's the heavy wet variety), regardless of your tires.

I've read in Brazil for one, Honda markets the civics with more ground clearance.