Who here has tried both Blizzak WS90 *and* performance or "continental European" winter tires?

[Johnny248]

Been asking around in various forums and reading tire tests. So far, I'm getting the impression that Blizzak WS90 is unique in its class – not necessarily "better," but different – and wanted to check that with people who've had experience with it.

Again, this is the impression I'm getting so far – not my own experience – and I'm posting here to see if better-informed people agree.

TireRack's test of the WS90 is the only objective test I've seen (can't see the CR results in detail). But the results line up with subjective reviews I've read: the WS90 seems to outperform its peers in almost every objective measure of traction/grip. Weirdly, it seems to do better on all surfaces at the same time, avoiding the usual tradeoffs between snow/ice and wet/dry.

I've also had multiple people bring up these tires even when they seem to understand that my usage points more toward a "continental European" or performance winter type tire.

It's almost like the WS90 is a have-it-all winter tire: it does "Nordic" tire things on snow/ice, but it's almost like a "continental European" tire on wet/dry.

Caveats:

- At ~half tread depth, the tread compound changes and winter performance drops sharply
- Mediocre handling behavior vs. best-in-class
- Slight lack of refinement vs. best-in-class
- Short-ish overall tread life
- Even faster wear in warm conditions than other winter tires

Is that about right? What do you all think?

I have experience with them all. To make things simple, the Blizzak and X-Ice tires are basically the same for snow traction. The ws90 is a little bit better on ice. The WS90 are a little bit louder on dry/wet roads. If you go to something like an Alpin, you are giving up winter performance for dry performance. Honestly, just about any winter tire is going to be much better than the best all season. Pick one that is going to have the best price with rebates etc at the time, and just enjoy them. You don't purchase winter tires for racing your street car.

 

[MurkyAsparagus]

I have a friend with WS90s on his NC Miata. He absolutely loves the tires. They are smooth, quiet, and incredibly grippy in freezing temperatures. He kept them on an extra two weeks after messing up one of his summer tires and surprisingly preferred them. His summers are General G-Max AS07s. He likes to throw the car around, no matter the conditions and couldn’t get the backend of the car to slide with the WS90s. Well, how it’s 2.5L swapped with cams and headers, so anything is possible .

 

[JoelB]

We have WS90's for my wife's car. They are great in all aspects except sound. They are DRAMATCALLY louder than both the Vikingcontact 7's I had on my car and the X-Ice's I use now. They hum at a large range of speeds.

I will replace them with something else because of this.

 

[JoelB]

I should have noted for our cars the tires have a high amount of sidewall. I don't know how much this affects road noise but seemed worth noting. 185/65-r15

I'm also not hating on the tires, they have performed well. But the Michelins have performed very similarly with All Season levels of road noise.

 

[edyvw]

I should have noted for our cars the tires have a high amount of sidewall. I don't know how much this affects road noise but seemed worth noting. 185/65-r15

They are on rougher side (well, like all Bridgestone tires). Less wall will make it even more noisy.
However, WS90 is first Bridgestone Blizzak that I got impressed with. Previous ones were good, but far from what people made out of them. I drove on dozens snow tires in my lifetime, and if there is one manufacturer that can make truly impressive snow tires, it is Continental.
WS90 is still tire that has 50% of compound that is more all season one, while others utilize 100% of winter compound. Thinking is that most people vhange snow tires at 5 or 6/32. But, very often you hit 5-6/32 at the almost end of season and buying new tires is big deal at that point. Anyway, most important factor in snow performance is braking and handling and they dramatically fall over the cliff once multi cell compound is worn out.
I personally buy them bcs. convenience of Costco. If Costco offered Continental, I wouldn’t give second thought to any other tire.

 

[JoelB]

They are on rougher side (well, like all Bridgestone tires). Less wall will make it even more noisy.
However, WS90 is first Bridgestone Blizzak that I got impressed with. Previous ones were good, but far from what people made out of them. I drove on dozens snow tires in my lifetime, and if there is one manufacturer that can make truly impressive snow tires, it is Continental.
WS90 is still tire that has 50% of compound that is more all season one, while others utilize 100% of winter compound. Thinking is that most people vhange snow tires at 5 or 6/32. But, very often you hit 5-6/32 at the almost end of season and buying new tires is big deal at that point. Anyway, most important factor in snow performance is braking and handling and they dramatically fall over the cliff once multi cell compound is worn out.
I personally buy them bcs. convenience of Costco. If Costco offered Continental, I wouldn’t give second thought to any other tire.

For us the tread life is kind of irrelevant. My wife puts like 2500 miles on a season and I won't run them more than 4 seasons. I believe snow tires are more affected by age due to soft compound (might be kooky, I have no proof) so I like a new set every 3-4 years. But that would be a big factor for many people.

The Michelin X-ice is supposed to have pretty excellent tread life from what I've read.

 

[edyvw]

For us the tread life is kind of irrelevant. My wife puts like 2500 miles on a season and I won't run them more than 4 seasons. I believe snow tires are more affected by age due to soft compound (might be kooky, I have no proof) so I like a new set every 3-4 years. But that would be a big factor for many people.

The Michelin X-ice is supposed to have pretty excellent tread life from what I've read.

That stands. I have them on my wife’s car which makes at most 2,000mls in a winter, so they will age out before they hit 6/32.
On my BMW things are different. I ski 1-2 times a week and drive really aggressively. 2 maybe 2 1/2 seasons at most per set.

 

[DirtyGary]

I have a friend with WS90s on his NC Miata. He absolutely loves the tires. They are smooth, quiet, and incredibly grippy in freezing temperatures. He kept them on an extra two weeks after messing up one of his summer tires and surprisingly preferred them. His summers are General G-Max AS07s. He likes to throw the car around, no matter the conditions and couldn’t get the backend of the car to slide with the WS90s. Well, how it’s 2.5L swapped with cams and headers, so anything is possible .

Ws90s on my BRZ turn it into the easiest drift car imaginable... And the best part is, they make zero tread squeal so I'm out there drifting around the neighborhood and nobody hears it.

After 2000 miles of winter driving, my rears were 3/32nds lower than the fronts.

 

[Marcozi]

I run Vredstein W rated (168 mph) snows on my bimmer. Got them from TR mounted on Enkei alloys. Performance is great in both dry and wet conditions. I haven’t tried them in snow.