In a message dated 12/16/04 4:02:03 PM, vanagon@busdepot.com writes:

<< > Were the Hakkapelliitta's included in that tire test?

Unfortunately no, which is a shame because I have heard it's a very good
snow tire and would have been curious as to how it held up. The comparion
was between Michelin, Continental, Toyo, Dunlop, Semperit, and Uniroyal as I
recall. >>

Too bad.  I have not used Vredestein snow tires for nearly 20 years.  I
stopped using them only whenever Vredestein apparently pulled the plug on the US
market.  From a recollection which has 20 years of fuzziness growing on it, I
would have to speculate that the Vredestein's perform close to the
Hakkapelliita's.  Perhaps, the choice comes down to whichever arcane name strikes your
fancy.  Hey, how could either a Swedish or a Finnish winter tire be all that bad?

I'm currently running my own comparison between the two marques -- sorta.  I
have sets of each in the 185R14 size with summer tread patterns mounted to two
Identical cars; well, they are different colors, but that is the only
difference.  God willing, I'll report any egregious difference between the two which
I discover.

George