I’ve had Blizzak MZ-02, Conti EWC and Cooper WSC snow tires in the past but this time I’m trying out the Sumitomo Ice Edge without studs. Not many reviews for this tire but the Canadian reviews sold me on them. First day driving them was in rainy weather and they corner okay for a snow tire, handling better that the Blizzak but not as good as the Continental, on par with Coopers. They lack any center or side rib which I knew usually gives lateral stability but wanted to try these anyway. I will need to break them in a bit and they have a lot of mold release on them so they do tend to wander just a little nothing bad but not as direct feeling as any other tire I’ve had on the A3. The new tires will definitely have an impact on my gas mileage more than any of my prior snow tires. My average dropped by 1 mpg which isn’t awful but the others only dropped numbers maybe a half mpg over standard tires. I can see 27 mpg on low rolling resistance Pirelli rubber and other Continental and Sumitomo all seasons have both yielded 25-26 mpg numbers. Might get 24-25 with these. The plus is they accelerate great in sloppy weather and stop well in the wet so I’m expecting awesome deep snow performance. As beefy as they are the Audi now feels a little Jeep CJ-ish . What I’m getting at is has that wandering around bouncing over objects feel which is great on rough roads or over railroad tracks. I will likely post a follow up when I get in some snow. I’ll be abusing these tires for the next 4 months so I’ll get to know them well. And now I get to wrap my old tires in my new budget tire covers. One still needs to be cleaned an stacked.
Gotta love a good eBay find. The wheels bags were under $10. Back to the pros and cons of the tires. The tires were about $115 each, we mounted them at work and I had no install expense so they were a cheaper option. The con is they aren’t a studless snow so they won’t have awesome ice performance but there are often trade-offs between most different tire choices. So far I’m happy and can live with these for at least a few winters.