chad2

I am about to place an order on tire-rack for a winter tire package for my 2010 RX450h AWD, and I am looking for some advice before I make my order. Here are the 18" tire choices I have:

1) Goodyear Ultra Grip Ice WRT (Studless Ice & Snow) @$153each
2) Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1 (Light Truck/SUV Studless Ice & Snow) @$156each
3) Pirelli Scorpion Ice & Snow (Light Truck/SUV Studless Ice & Snow) @$152each

I live in Ottawa, Canada, and we get a fair amount of both Snow and Ice

I am leaning towards #2 because I have used the Blizzaks before (have them on my IS250 AWD) and I like them a lot. Tirerack preferred package chose #3.

What do you think? which ones would you choose?

Also, for wheels, I was initially going with the lowest price modaEB1 (see top pic below), but my concern is the big openings in the wheel, would it be filled with heavy snow and cause steering to shake? (I had this issue with a Nissan Maxima before, but this might not be an issue with the RX?). Tirerack's Preferred choice was the Sports Edition CX model (see second picture), but it is $30per wheel more than the first one. I added a third pic of a third choice that has the least openings to avoid lots of snow from getting stuffed in the wheel, even though it is a hideous looking wheel but again looks is not really a huge factor for me in the winter. So again what do you think about the wheels? should I just go with the lower price and save $120 on the set?

Thanks a lot in advance for your help

zig@tr

The Goodyear is new this year so I don't have much feedback as of yet. The Pirelli is a higher performance winter tire, it's still H speed rated which is pretty high for a winter tire. The Pirelli has an N0 designation on it because it was designed around the Porsche Cayenne, you give up winter traction to have a higher performance tire. In my opinion the best packed snow and ice traction is from the Blizzak DMV1. For the wheels, there is not really one design or another which will be more resistant getting snow packed in the spokes. Other than some vibration on those really deep snow days this is never a big issue. I would suggested just picking the ones you like the looks of best over which would possibly pack less snow in the spokes.

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

Personal opinion, I like the 5 spokes... If there is a chance of getting snow packed in there, it would probably be less with the bigger spokes (and easier to clean out)...

I agree with Zig - the Bridgestones have always been impressive snow tires and are meant for as harsh of conditions as possible...

chad2

Thanks for the replies and advice guys

I went ahead with the Blizzaks on the 5-spoke wheels.