I've had these tires for a couple weeks now (about 1000 miles) and I am very happy with them. These tires are about as good in cold and wet conditions as my previous Yokohama S.Drives were in hot and dry conditions (both because the Vredesteins are that good and because the Yokohamas were that bad). The primary reason I chose this tire was because I wanted a winter tire that had the same fitment/sizes as my previous summer tires: 215/40-17 up front and 265/35-18 in the rear. The more common Blizzak options come close, as show on [MENTION=28830]jwmelvin[/MENTION] 's chart but once I learned there were winter tires in the [exact] size I already had, I went out to look for them.
As suggested elsewhere on the forum, the Vredesteins were available from Vulcan Tire (they are imported from the Netherlands so there can be some wait time for orders to come through). Vredestein advertises that their tires are excellent in wet conditions, even when cold, and that they are extremely stylish because they got input from Giugaro. I guess it is a cool-looking tread:
I can however vouch for how great these are in the increasingly crappy conditions in Washington DC. I've had these tires on two different sets of wheels now and on both sets they were smooth and quiet. As mentioned, they grip well in both rain and slush (still no snow collection to test it on) and they make me feel really confident even when I'm driving on wet roads at speeds I'd usually reserve for dry conditions. I'll update this post later in the season as I put more miles on them. In the meantime:
As suggested elsewhere on the forum, the Vredesteins were available from Vulcan Tire (they are imported from the Netherlands so there can be some wait time for orders to come through). Vredestein advertises that their tires are excellent in wet conditions, even when cold, and that they are extremely stylish because they got input from Giugaro. I guess it is a cool-looking tread:
I can however vouch for how great these are in the increasingly crappy conditions in Washington DC. I've had these tires on two different sets of wheels now and on both sets they were smooth and quiet. As mentioned, they grip well in both rain and slush (still no snow collection to test it on) and they make me feel really confident even when I'm driving on wet roads at speeds I'd usually reserve for dry conditions. I'll update this post later in the season as I put more miles on them. In the meantime: