Looking for winter tires

[cjbg]

I've been told that the 18" wheels and kumho tires (225/40 front & 265/35 rear) will make my car virtually undriveable during the coming winter months here in Seattle, WA... mainly due to possible snowy/slushy days. So on that note I thought I'd be pro-active and got myself a set of 17x8 e430 sport wheels the other day and hope to get some winter rated tires in 235/45/17 shortly.

I plan to keep the winter wheels on atleast through march/april and am looking for tire recommendations (please keep in mind this will be my first winter in "harsh" conditions... we don't usually get this white flakey stuff in the SF Bay Area!) Here are a couple that I've been reading about:

Nokian Hakkapeliitta RSi
http://www.nokiantire.com/en/tire_hakkarsi.aspx?season=winter

Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Dunlop&tireModel=SP+Winter+Sport+3D

Dunlop SP Winter Sport M3
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Dunlop&tireModel=Winter+Sport+M3

Yokohama AVS Winter
http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/findTireProductCategoryDetailBrnd.do?rcz=98055&rc=WASINT&yr=2001&tpc=YOKSH3&tp=Passenger%2FPerformance&vid=006254&tc=YOKSH3

Thanks!

[Espresso]

Best thing to do is ask around the local "mom & pop" garages. They are the most likely to be unbiased about the tires.

But in no real order. Some good ones are...

Green Diamond Inari & Icelander
Nokian RSI
Vredestein SnowTrac
Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50
Toyo Observe

Are you allowed studded tires?
Here is a good FAQ
http://www.snowtire.info/forum/kb.php?mode=cat&cat=1


;)
http://www.greendiamondtire.com/