ordered blizzack ws-80's

[Rand]

Well I put my $$$ with bridgestone again..

After a great experience with the ws-70's on my previous 2011 forester.

I tirerack'ed up a set of ws-80s in 225/60r17 for the 2015 forester on steel wheels.

I tried shopping dtd but they only had yokohama ig-51v in my size.. and while I'm sure that's a good tire.

The price was only 50$ cheaper than tirerack.
If they had some kind of triple rebate deal I would have probably jumped on those.. at nearly the same price.. Tirerack won my business.

I paid a premium of aprox 15$ per tire to get blizzack ws-80's over other winter tires conti ewc, yoko ig-51v

I expect them to last me 3-5 seasons.

They were quite pricy at 900$.. at least they included the roadforce mount and balance (95$ locally)
The 135$ shipping charge was kind of over the top.. but I'm not driving 550miles to save 75$


final notes: I did consider some alternative sizes such as 215/60r17 235/60r17 but they were all T rated vs H rated for the size I ordered.

It may seem expensive but any kind of accident in the winter would surely cost more.

I also sold my previous set for about half the cost of these.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Glad you made the choice to use snow tires on a Subaru. That's going to be an unstoppable combination I think!

I wanted to buy a set of WS-70s for the Focus. Ultimately, I decided to hold out another year on the Firestone Winterfarce.

 

[Bandito440]

I've bought Blizzak's before, and they're my favorite only second to Nokian Hakkapeliittas. Snow tires with your Forester's better manual transmission-AWD system should make for great winter driving.

 

[tdpark]

you will both be unstoppable and stoppable- ha

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted By: Miller88
Glad you made the choice to use snow tires on a Subaru. That's going to be an unstoppable combination I think!

I wanted to buy a set of WS-70s for the Focus. Ultimately, I decided to hold out another year on the Firestone Winterfarce.


Winterforce are about the worst tire around nowadays.. but still a decent winter tire

I would be hugely tempted to order up a set of altimax arctics for 170$ shipped to your door from dtd.
dtd page

75x4=300-40= 260+tax -100 MIR(s)= 177$ for 4 to your door.


Originally Posted By: Bandito440
I've bought Blizzak's before, and they're my favorite only second to Nokian Hakkapeliittas. Snow tires with your Forester's better manual transmission-AWD system should make for great winter driving.


Its debatable which is better nowadays with xmode and the even more sophisticated awd system that has additional sensor inputs.

I do like the manual system. both are highly capable.


Originally Posted By: tdpark
you will both be unstoppable and stoppable- ha


Yep, that's the idea. also the factory tires are absolutely dreadful in the winter.. I plan on running them april-mid nov, ws-80's nov-april.

Would love to ditch the oem tires as well for something worthy.. but its not in the $$$$ cards this year.. maybe next year... I do like their mpg though...32+ mpg on highway, forester is rated 22-29

 

[geeman789]

WHAAAAAT...! Winter tires on an AWD ... Do you really feel that turning and stopping are THAT important...?

I know I do...!

TOYO Winter GSI-5's on the Impreza for the last 2 winters... STOP , TURN AND GO... extremely well...!

And Nokians R's on the Honda van, FWD and GOOD tires works well too...!

 

[SubLGT]

Originally Posted By: Rand
………….After a great experience with the ws-70's on my previous 2011 forester…….


How many miles did it take to consume the multi-cell layer on your WS70s?

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted By: SubLGT
Originally Posted By: Rand
………….After a great experience with the ws-70's on my previous 2011 forester…….


How many miles did it take to consume the multi-cell layer on your WS70s?


How long did it? N/A

How long would it? Estimated?
about 28000-35000 miles

I had ~~8000-10000 miles on them and they were still 10-10.5/32

or less than 1/3 the way through the multicell layer starting at 12/32 and running to 6/32

I don't drive hard on winter tires.. maybe some slightly fast interstate ramps..
They are also only on the car while its cold out
mid-end of nov to april.

I'll probably put these on mid-end october so they can break in before its full on winter out.

And also to check their balance within the 30day window.

Typical drive is 1mile to work uphill.

There are longer drives 2-4x a week as well.

 

[Rand]

Ordered tires yesterday at 2pm, they arrived today.

Not impressed so far.. all 4 wheels have extensive paint damage

sent pics into tirerack.. guess I'll see what happens.

each wheel has 7-8 scrapes on it.

Will need repainted.

NOT from ups.. they were packed in cardboard with Styrofoam sheets inside

The tires themselves look great.. mmm beefy.

 

[Mr_Joe]

Sorry about your wheel scuffs, great tires though. I just bought two Blizzacks for the new truck, GMC Sierra 4x4. I bough two matching 'take-off' wheels from an eBay seller. I don't put them on until I see snow in the forecast, often later Nov.

 

[CharBaby]

Yeah, I see what you mean!
I'd certainly contact them as you did and send them some photo's of the scratches on all 4 wheels. Maybe they'll reimburse you $OME MONEY'$

Then, just brush touch them with some BlACK Paint and call it a day!

 

[supton]

Is that from mounting damage?

 

[Lapham3]

It does look as tho from mounting the tires. You'd think they would have just taken a minute and touched them up before shipping-silly not to Dan Mpls. Mn.

 

[IndyIan]

The OP might want to repaint the whole wheel anyways. I've found the difference between factory wheel paint and steel and Chinese wheel paint and steel is quite significant. The aftermarket wheels rust much worse in my experience, to the point where I'd rather get wheels from the wreckers.

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
The OP might want to repaint the whole wheel anyways. I've found the difference between factory wheel paint and steel and Chinese wheel paint and steel is quite significant. The aftermarket wheels rust much worse in my experience, to the point where I'd rather get wheels from the wreckers.


This is quite true, but I didnt pay 947$-50mir to have to repaint them.

Also my previous set did not rust except around lug nuts and hub centering section.

 

[geeman789]

Originally Posted By: Rand
Ordered tires yesterday at 2pm, they arrived today.

Not impressed so far.. all 4 wheels have extensive paint damage

sent pics into tirerack.. guess I'll see what happens.

each wheel has 7-8 scrapes on it.

Will need repainted.

NOT from ups.. they were packed in cardboard with Styrofoam sheets inside

The tires themselves look great.. mmm beefy.

HATE THAT...!

I had the same issue with a local tire shop, mounting winters on steelies. They chewed them up nicely, and when I complained, they said ... they are steelies, who cares... they will be under hub caps anyways. I said I don't use hubcaps and these are now going to rust ASAP... got nothing out of them... except two stripped lug nuts discovered later...

They did repair that problem, only after I loudly asked how the tire shop breaking my car was somehow my fault, in front of about 5 other customers...

And, yes, I told 20 people to NEVER go there...!

 

[Rand]

Well, I'd have to give tirerack an "A" for their resolution to the issue, a "B-" for communication as I had to call them back twice.

They offered me a significant credit that makes it worth my time to either touch-up or repaint them.

They also offered to ship me replacements.

The massive hassle of shipping these back is probably worse than repainting so I'm glad I dont have to do that.

 

[geeman789]

Originally Posted By: Rand
Well, I'd have to give tirerack an "A" for their resolution to the issue, a "B-" for communication as I had to call them back twice.

They offered me a significant credit that makes it worth my time to either touch-up or repaint them.

They also offered to ship me replacements.

The massive hassle of shipping these back is probably worse than repainting so I'm glad I dont have to do that.


How hard would it be for TIRERACK to add a quality control step BEFORE shipping. One guy mounts and balances, then a DIFFERENT guy does a visual check... All good, off they go... scuffed, scratched, gouged... no go. No complaints ....

 

[Rand]

yep they put Styrofoam sheets and cardboard around the mounted wheel unit and strapped them.

they probably just felt I wouldn't complain.

 

[Throckmorton]

Fwiw, here's an introductory test (done at Bridestone's proving grounds and at Bridgestone's expense) comparing the new Blizzak WS80 to the X-Ice Xi3:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=191

It looks pretty good. Of course the comparison tests may have been cherry picked to show off the Blizzak's strengths.