Hi,

I'm choosing snow tires (from tirerack) and I am torn between two choices of tires, on 17's, in size 215/55-17. I narrowed my choices down to two.

One is Dunlop Graspic DS-2, which is a non-performance, but an "all out snow" tire (it seems). This is the part in me that says: "you need the best possible snow traction you can possibly get". I really do want the best snow, slush and ice traction: I love winter driving. Of course, the dry handling is much compromised with this. The "only 55% winter tread" doesn't bother me, as the tire is poor for snow at that point anyway.

The other is Dunlop Winter Sport M3. One of my friends had these installed on a 4000lb Mercedes E-class and he swears by them. I hear a lot of great praise for these tires. Good dry performance and pretty good in snow.

The price differential isn't too great... about $160 for the whole package between DS-2s and the M3s.

I am leaning towards M3s, as it seems that they will definitely be at least "good", if not "great" in the snow.

However, I just read a post that mentioned a TireRack rep saying how the "performance" winter tires (e.g. M3) don't come close to "non-performance" (e.g. DS-2) winter tires when it comes to snow traction. Is that really true? How much of a margin there is between the two kinds?

I had Pirelli SnowSports 210s on my Protege for two winters. They were great the first winter, but then I wore them down and they were so-so in 2nd winter (all worn to 4/32nds by the end of 2nd winter... many miles).

 

I loved the Dunlop M3's on my SVTFocus. They will almost certainly be my choice when I get a set of winter wheels/tires for my 8.

They are not a pure snow tire but work great in places like Chicago where it snows (and the M3s will get you through almost anything just fine) but where the vast majority of winter is spent driving on frozen salty asphalt.

 

I bought the DS-2 based solely on price and the fact I was not going to drive hard on them. They wear fast if you drive a lot on clean roads, and you will notice the performance difference when taking turns. They wear so fast that you can see the rubber dust on your fenders. But for the four months I had them on they performed their job well and the price was right. I expect to get 3-4 winters out of them.

https://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php...9&postcount=49

 

The biggest differences between the Graspic DS-2 and the Winter Sport M3 is that the M3's will give more stability on dry or cleared pavement when there is no snow. The DS-2 will feel very loose and squirmy on dry pavement. Both tires will offer good snow traction, the M3 will offer slightly better ice traction.

As for "I just read a post that mentioned a TireRack rep saying how the "performance" winter tires (e.g. M3) don't come close to "non-performance" (e.g. DS-2) winter tires when it comes to snow traction." This statement is not necessarily true. it would really depend on the specific tires you are referring to.

 

I already ordered the tires, I went with M3s, as per Connor's advice (already received them).

Indeed, M3s seem just like the best darn snow tire (at least that you can buy at tirerack).