Winter Tires for Mustang

[cf105arrow]

I have a service credit with Summit Ford so I would like to put that towards purchasing a set of winter tires from my Mustang. The rims are 17's. The P-Zeros that are on them are P235/55 ZR17 98W M+S. The parts guy at Summit said they have some Blizzaks in that size and the speed rating was 99 (not sure on the letter if any). He didn't know if they would be a match to my specific car ('09 mustang GT). Do you think these tires will work (be safe)? Thoughts/comments? I'd like to order these asap so I can get the chromes off and away from the coming salted roads.

[Ponyryd]

Ya, those will work fine, 99 is not a speed rating, the rating would be a letter. Yours are Z rated, at stated in the size, but sometimes there is an additional speed rating above Z, so after your size it may say 99Y, meaning they are actually Y rated. The rating just means how fast you can safely go on the tire, anything with a V or Z should be fine, you can look up the ratings on Google, but really a V I'm pretty sure is rated for 130 mph, Z is higher than that, I think 140, these speeds are in mph mind you, so if you're just driving around here, you have no worries.

[cf105arrow]

Thanks. I wasn't planning on racing around on winters so I guess It will work. I thought the speed rating also took into consideration weight of the vehicle as well. Not true?


Ya, those will work fine, 99 is not a speed rating, the rating would be a letter. Yours are Z rated, at stated in the size, but sometimes there is an additional speed rating above Z, so after your size it may say 99Y, meaning they are actually Y rated. The rating just means how fast you can safely go on the tire, anything with a V or Z should be fine, you can look up the ratings on Google, but really a V I'm pretty sure is rated for 130 mph, Z is higher than that, I think 140, these speeds are in mph mind you, so if you're just driving around here, you have no worries.

[Scrape]

99 is the load rating. You should be fine. Here is a reference

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=35

[Stephen06GT]

Hi Matt. The Blizzaks are a good choice, but also consider the Hankook Ipikes (I've been running them on Ol Paint for the last 4 years and they have been phenomenal, and they probably a little less money). Others to consider, General Arctic Altimax, Gislaved Nordfrosts, and arguably the best of them all, Nokian Hakkapeliitta.

[Ponyryd]

^Ya, 99 is the load rating, not really important unless you're talking about smaller tires. Blizzaks are a great choice, as stated iPikes are great as well, but the Bridgestones were one of my top choices when buying snows for my wife is year. Go get em, last year our region ran out of snows early.....

[cf105arrow]

Thanks guys. Going with the Blizzaks from Summit. It's the best winter tire that they have for my car. I have service rewards that will cover the installation costs and I can knock off another couple hundred bucks with my TD Drivers rewards visa points. In the end the tires will cost me about $800. I'm sure I'm going to notice a huge difference over my 7 year old all season Pirelli's that I have been using in previous winters. Thanks again for your input.
Cheers!

[Stephen06GT]

^^night and day difference. You'll be kicking yourself for not doing it sooner.

[Monera3v]

1st year I had some DunLop graspic ds-2 awesome tires
2nd year blizzak ws60 amazing tires
3rd year switch over to the new stang , with winterforce... horrible tires.
This year, purchase some Hankook Ipike and they look very promising !

[cf105arrow]

My impressions of the ws80 Blizzaks.
They're ok. Grip is awesome compared to what I had but handling is poor. I feel like I'm driving a land yacht. The steering lags. These are definitely not performance tires and they are not labeled as such but it's a little silly how sloppy the steering feels. Hard acceleration feels weird as well like the rear end is sitting down and feels loose without actually losing traction. I almost feel like going back to the dealer and asking for something else. I suppose as long as I drive like I'm toting Miss Daisy around it'll be fine but who am I kidding that's probably not going to be the case. What do you think? If I don't feel safe with these tires do I have a chance at getting any substitutions, even if I get the service manager to take it for a spin (with me of course)? Or do I just suck this one up like buying crappy fruit from the grocery store?

[Screw]

The snows are def a different feeling , we put our 17" snows fairly new Hercules they're mehh but when shiat hits the fan they'll be better than than not having them .

[fast Ed]

That's the difference between regular winter tires, which that version of the Blizzaks are, and performance winter tires. Take a look at the various offerings on Tire Rack or a similar site for winter tires in your size, and you will see what's available. To me, it appears that the only performance winter tire intended for car applications in that size are the Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D, and the updated version 4D.

Performance winter tires typically will not offer quite the same pure ice and snow traction as a regular winter tire, but the construction of the tire is such that it behaves more like an all-season performance tire on the dry and wet pavement days, so that you don't lose the handling performance of the vehicle. From what you are describing of your impressions about driving the vehicle now, performance winters are likely what would make you satisfied. I always ran performance winters on my T-Bird Super Coupe when it was still a daily driver, and the car was still very fun to drive through the winter months.


cheers
Ed

[flexsilver]

Been awhile since we talked - I've been using the Goodyear Ultra Grip GW3s ( on my second set for my '05 GT ) and they perform well. It's almost hard to tell I have snows on as there isn't any sloppiness, etc. They are amazing in wet/rainy conditions are were ok last year in the snow. Kevin

[cf105arrow]

Been awhile since we talked - I've been using the Goodyear Ultra Grip GW3s ( on my second set for my '05 GT ) and they perform well. It's almost hard to tell I have snows on as there isn't any sloppiness, etc. They are amazing in wet/rainy conditions are were ok last year in the snow. Kevin

I'll try and remember these for the next time I have to buy winters. Cheers.

[shakin]

I'm using DM-V1 Blizzaks and I think they are great (this will be their 3rd Winter). They only come with an R rating (170kph), but that's enough for the Flex.
I need good grip as the Flex is rated at 365hp and 350lb ft of torque. It's my Winter car.
I did go down 2 inches in rim size and up in aspect ratio for a more narrow tire, but they work great in the rain, ice and snow. On dry roads they do squish a bit and are a bit noisy but you can stiffen them up by increasing the air pressure.
But they definitely don't drive like Summer tires.
In the past I've also used the Nokian Hakkapeliitta, and they were fantastic, but they are a little on the expensive side now.
YMMV