e-man

Thanks passnu2. Good point about posting in the Chicago forum. I'm 44 years old, and have been driving RWD cars all my life. From 87-93, I drove an 87 Mustang GT. From 93-99, a 93 300zx. From 99-02, a 3-series BMW. From 03-12, a 98/99 GS400. And from March 2012 to today, an 06 GS430. From 03-12, I had a dedicated set of winter performance tires (Dunlop Wintersport 3D), and they were fantastic in the snow. In fact, my GS400 with those tires would out handle most front wheel drive cars with all-seasons in the snow. The 17s I ran in the summer months had Bridgestone Turanza LS-Zs, the predecessor to the Serenity and Serenity Plus. They were fantastic tires for the summer -- super quiet, soft, comfy, etc., even in 45 series.

With my 06, I don't have a dedicated set of snow rims, and frankly, I was getting tired of doing the dance every 6 months to take off the summers and put on the winters and vice-versa. I purchased the 06 as a CPO with Michelin Pilot Sport A/S plus. They are great, great handling tires, and if I wanted to keep the same level of performance, I would probably buy another set. The truth is that I just don't care about cornering, hard acceleration off the line, etc. I just want to cruise comfortably.

I realize that the Serenity Plus won't be as good in the snow as the DWS. The real question, though, is how much worse will they be. Let's face it. We get 3-5 days around here where the snow is bad, but for most other days, it's pretty manageable. As long as I know that for those 3-5 bad days, I can still drive around and not get stuck, that's really all I care about. 294 is plowed and salted quickly, as are most of the surface roads I drive on. As long as the Serenities are not a disaster in the snow, I'm thinking I should be fine. The problem is that because they are a fairly new tire, it's pretty hard to find someone who has experience driving on them in the snow.

Thanks for everyone's input. I really appreciate it.

e

KJSmitty

I grew up and learned to drive in snowy Montana - 26 years worth. For many a winter I drove a Datsun 2WD pickup and a 500hp firebird. Snow tires - what's that....

Much has to do with the driver. Then again, driving in a small town of 30,000 was different than hanging with traffic in the big cities etc. Once I moved, the hot rods went in the garage and an AWD SUV was the daily driver in winter. But here in Dallas a guy can get away with max perf summer tires all year round if a little lucky/careful.

I'm seriously considering the Serenity's. Will check them out locally after the holidays.

Cheers

passnu2

iTrader: (33)

your welcome

You can be the official tester for Chicago and let us know Curious to see how you like the newer GS in the snow compared to your 2gen. IMO the newer GS isn't as good.

Thornhawk

I had the OEM Dunlops on my AWD IS250 and they were terrible. No traction and very loud. I did some research and decided to go with the Bridgestone Turanza Serenity. On my way to the tire dealer still using the Dunlops I took a decibel reading while driving 60mph on I-81 and I-7 here in Virgnia. The reading was 61dB on I-81 and 58dB on I-7. After I put the Turanza Serenity's on the IS my readings were 56dB on I-81 and on I-54dB on I-7. This seems like not much difference, but just a few decibels made a huge difference. My ride was already pretty quiet and the new tires made it even more quiet. We also had three inches of snow recently and the tires had no issue going through the snow and wet weather. My opinion...get the Bridgestone Turanza Serenity tire!!