Snow tire help

[Greg Smith]

The General uses the old Gislaved Nordfrost 3 tread mold.  As a dealer for Gislaveds, I have asked all the people that  I can what the rubber chemisrty is.  I know that in the Continental/General group there is a history of tread molds being shared.  The old Nordfrost 2 got made into a Semperit ice Grip. The Semperit did not seem to work as well as the Gislaved nordfrost  2 did; which kind of leaves the rubber chemisrty. It would be my guess that there is not a sharing of the chemisrty formulas between different brands within the same company. To this point I have not treid the General version in a timed event or when really pushing them.  I have driven a few customer cars with them on and they responded ok.  I didn't want to push a customer car like i do my own. My insights from selling the Nordfrost 3 over 4 years ago were that they had pretty decent lateral grip, fairly quiet on dry roads, good tread life and acceptable snow function.  I
 really push my tires, over 30 years of ice trials have exposed me to lots of different conditions.
It seems kind of odd that teh Continenal/General group would willlingly sell the Generals at teh price point that they are; if they had the same rubber chemisrty that the old Gislaveds did. They would canabilze their current Gislaved sales with that tactic.For 25 years I was a Nokian Hak believer.  Since they moved to the hak 4 and RSi and the current Hak 5 abd Hak R models; I can't justify selling  those tires at the price point they are at and the winter function that they seemed to have lost.I really like the current Gislaved nordfrost 5 tires.Greg GalinskyG & G Service
--- On Sun, 10/18/09, Danton J.A. Cardoso <djacardoso at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Danton J.A. Cardoso <djacardoso at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Snow tire help
To: "LL - NY" <larrycleung at gmail.com>
Cc: "Quattro" <quattro at audifans.com>
Date: Sunday, October 18, 2009, 9:08 PM

I use Yokohama Ice Guard's on my A4 Avant.... great tire, had them on
for one season in Western NY, and we had a typical winter.  Now, I am
in Northeastern, MO, and they have held up well, although the snow
here isn't as much as WNY.  They are a bit noisy, on the dry, but what
do you expect from a snow tire.  They are on 15" steelies, far cry
from my 17" Borbets.

On Sun, Oct 18, 2009 at 8:44 PM, LL - NY <larrycleung at gmail.com> wrote:
> I was all set to go for the Hakka R's until I priced them out. Couldn't
> swing them.
>
> I've been through the rounds on the General Altimax Artics, that they
> *may*be Nordfrost 3 clones (they certainly
> *look* the part, but I couldn't get confirmation) or not, and then I read
> the reviews on both TireRack (not one single complaint in the 11 pages of
> reviews I read) and Consumers Report and concluded that they are probably a
> safe bet. There were was also a meager $25 rebate on them at TireRack,
> although that expired right after I purchased them.And at half the price of
> the Hakka R's, and at better than $60 less than the Xi's.  I did get
> convinced possibly against my better judgement (based upon Kneale's
> argument) by my local friend to go for the studs, from what I've seen in the
> reviews, that'll make them unstoppable. Not sure I needed that, particularly
> with the amount of highway travel I do. Nonetheless, I live in serious snow
> country (like Kneale, and Bob Myers and all of the Coloradans). Mounting
> them up on the Saabaru tomorrow, so no on the road experience yet. If they
> work on the Saabaru, they'll be awesome on the the UrS, which overall has
> proven a much more stable winter beast.
>
> On Sun, Oct 18, 2009 at 7:22 PM, Ben Kwan <1.8tquattro at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> I'm looking for a new set of snows and I've narrowed it down to two based
>> on
>> reading the archives.
>>
>> General Altimax Arctic (Nordforst 3 Clone?)
>>  or
>> Michelin X-Ice Xi2
>>
>> The General's are going to be the cheaper of the 2 but Michelin is offering
>> a $70 rebate on the Xi2's.  The difference in price is going to be about
>> $60
>> after I get the rebate money back.
>>
>> How's the treadwear on the Xi2's for those of you that purchased last
>> season?  I've read that the tread depth isn't as deep as other snows but
>> they are still an excellent performing tire.
>>
>> Which one would you choose if you were in my shoes?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Ben
>>
>> Current:
>> 01 A4 1.8tq
>> 99 Honda Accord V6
>>
>> Past:
>> 90 100
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-- 
Danton J.A. Cardoso
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