If someone is looking for an all-season tire with snow performance that
rivals that of some snow tires, Nokian makes one.
Here's a review of them in "canadian driver":
http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/hl/nokian.htm

My girlfriend has them on her volvo, and I'm very impressed with
them.    They're called Nokian WR.

-Wes

The Bus Depot wrote:
>> I think it needs to be said that a all-season tires
>> are  neather a good performace tire OR a good
>> snow tire but a compromise of both.
>>
>
>
> I would concur with part of that statement. An all-season tire is almost
> never as good in snow as a dedicated snow tire. It will get you by in a
> pinch, but if you are in a snowy region there is nothing like a set of real
> snow tires, at the very least on the drive wheels. I put Vredestein snows on
> my own Westy in the winter (and we sell them in the winter). But in cases
> where an unexpected late autumn or early spring snow squall has caught me by
> surprise, the Hankooks certainly acquitted themselves a whole lot better
> than a summer tire would have, and got me home.
>
> Also, there are large variations in the snow performance of "all season"
> tires. The "all season" designation is policed by the U.S. tire industry
> itself, and needless to say, as with any self-policed standards, they go
> pretty easy on themselves. Some tire manufacturers even sell the identical
> tire as a "summer" tire in Germany (where the standards are stricter) and as
> "all season" in the U.S. The Hankooks are pretty good as far as all-season
> tires go, but some other "all season" rated tires are hardly better than a
> summer tire in snow.  (The Bridgestone RD603's come to mind; lousy in snow,
> IMO, although a good dry-road tire.)  Of course the Yoko's and Conti's don't
> claim to be all-season at all.
>
> As for an all-season tire necessarily being worse than a summer tire on dry
> roads, that can depend on the tire. The Hankooks and Michelins, while
> all-season, will hold their own performance-wise to most Vanagon rated
> summer tires even on dry roads, as many list members can attest to.
>
>
>> Further more the life of the tire can
>> be out lived in a specific application.
>>
>
> Theoretically this is true, of course, if you hardly drive your van and the
> sidewalls start to dryrot before the tread wears out. But I would suspect
> that most list members drive their Vanagons more than that.
>
> - Ron Salmon
>   The Bus Depot, Inc.
>   www.busdepot.com
>   (215)  234-VWVW
>
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