While winter tires are often referred to as snow tires, they’re actually usable in a variety of inclement conditions. Having the ability to navigate through fresh powder is definitely important, but extreme winter rubber also needs to handle ice, along with cold and rainy conditions. This leaves tire manufacturers with a tough goldilocks zone to aim for, needing to maximize adhesion in the dry, wet, snow, and ice. We've sifted through the data and the myriad options out there to determine the best winter tires for your rig.
Take a look below at quick info on the best stud-less winter tires, then scroll down for buying advice and in-depth reviews of these models.
What to Consider
The best thing you can do for yourself when buying a set of tires is buying from a premium brand. According to Jonathan Benson—the independent tire tester behind Tyre Reviews—and his comprehensive testing, you really do get what you pay for. Sure, there are smaller brands that are producing some pretty good stuff, but larger manufacturers can generally spend more money on research and development, making their products a net improvement. The ingredients that produce superior performance are also inherently more expensive.
While winter tires will offer great performance in the snow, it’s important to note that there’s much more that goes into the equation for tire manufacturers. As the tire industry generally likes to complicate things, the term “winter tire” actually splits into three different categories: regular, extreme winter, and studded. While you will most likely have all-season tires fitted to your vehicle, the industry recommendation is to switch to winter-specific tires when temperatures drop below 45 degrees Fahrenheit. For the purposes of this review, we chose to focus on stud-less “extreme winter” tires, which are most at home in snow and ice.
Tire manufacturers are very tight-lipped about what goes into the rubber compound of winter-specific tires. But the goal is to maintain pliability in colder conditions, since, as temperatures start to plummet, so can the elasticity of the rubber in your tires. Along with that special compound, a dedicated winter tire will have a very specific tread pattern featuring tons of sipes—narrow grooves within the tread that increase the number of biting edges. (For a deeper dive, we explain sipes and other winter-tire technology at length in our article on Toyo’s Open Country A/T III all-terrain tire.)
Having said that, it’s also really important to analyze your situation, as these stud-less winter tires generally perform at their best in extreme conditions—which vary wildly depending on where you’re located. As a native Texan, I’m generally accustomed to mild winters where I can count the number of snow and ice storms I’ve experienced on one hand. However, here at Popular Mechanics HQ in eastern Pennsylvania, we experience much colder temperatures that hover just above or below freezing.
How We Selected
As the Autos Editor for Popular Mechanics, I’ve logged countless hours behind the wheel of many different vehicles in varying climates. I couldn’t rely on my experience alone to determine the best stud-less snow tires though, so I pored over data that Benson’s collected through his testing. Thanks to him and Tyre Reviews, we could directly compare testing metrics like braking performance, traction, and handling in conditions that range across wet, dry, snowy, and icy. The data sets also included noise comparisons, so you can gauge how much louder (or not) a set of winter tires will be.
For the evaluations that you see above each product, note that all of these tests were conducted by Jonathan Benson himself. Braking tests involved going from about 50 miles per hour to a stop, excluding ice braking—which goes from roughly 31 mph to 0. The noise was evaluated subjectively, with a score of ten being the quietest and zero being the loudest. Along with troves of data I sifted through, I looked at hundreds of reviews on Amazon, Walmart, Tire Rack, and Tyre Reviews to account for the real-world impressions of many drivers.
Continental Viking Contact 7
Dry braking: 104.3 feet | Wet braking: 110.9 feet | Snow braking: 167.7 feet | Ice braking (50-0 kph): 150.9 feet | Noise: 10/10
Pros
- Class-leading traction and handling in ice
- Best snow handling
Cons
- Poor dry-braking performance
Continental’s Viking Contact 7 beat the rest of the field in just about every performance test—sometimes nearly outperforming studded tires. Setting you back $528 for a set of four 225/65R17-section tires, these are objectively the best choice when it comes to an extreme winter option. While they start to give out when it comes to dry braking and wet handling, they ace nearly every other category, including noise level. And according to Tire Rack’s rating system (mostly based on a customer survey), these are in the 99th percentile when it comes to stud-less ice and snow tires.
Goodyear Ultra Grip Winter
Dry braking: 104.3 feet | Wet braking: 109.9 feet | Snow braking: 169 feet| Ice braking (50-0 kph): 152.6 feet | Noise: 9/10
Pros
- Not far behind Continental and Michelin in ice performance
Cons
- Extremely poor dry performance
Goodyear’s Ultra Grip winter tire excels in snow traction and handling. It also outperformed more expensive rubber in wet braking and noise level. While Goodyear's Ultra Grip winter tire certainly lives up to its name in the snow, it’s important to note that we couldn’t find this tire in a size that matches the others on the list—making these marginally less expensive than someone with an average-sized car should expect to pay for them.
Michelin X-Ice Snow
Dry braking: 103.3 feet | Wet braking: 118.4 feet | Snow braking: 171.6 feet | Ice braking (50-0 kph): 145.7 feet | Noise: 9/10
According to Tyre Reviews and Tire Rack, Michelin’s X-Ice tire excels in snow and ice. As such, a set of these will be great for motorists in the northernmost bits of the U.S. and up into Canada, along with other areas around the world that experience regular snowfall and freezing temperatures. Having said that, it really pays the price when it comes to dry and wet performance, where it plummets dangerously close to the bottom of the list. Along with the Continental Viking Contact 7, this is the only other tire on our list that lands in the 99th percentile of Tire Rack’s rating system for other stud-less winter tires.
Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3
Dry braking: 103.7 feet | Wet braking: 106 feet | Snow braking: 167.3 feet | Ice braking (50-0 kph): 162.4 feet | Noise: 9/10
Pros
- Class-leading wet braking performance
Cons
- Poor dry performance
While Nokian’s Hakkapeliitta R3 tire impressed in Tyre Reviews’s Wet Braking evaluation, it maintained a strong level of performance in all other categories. Sure, the Finnish brand doesn’t have the same reach as big industry hitters like Continental, Goodyear, and Michelin, but it’s been in the game since day one, creating the first dedicated winter tire for heavy-duty trucks. Nearly every other tire on the list has an Achilles heel that sets it back, but the Hakkapeliitta R3 maintains relatively acceptable levels of performance in the snow, ice, and rain. Its biggest shortfalls are wet handling and dry braking, where it sits in the middle of the pack.
Hankook i*cept iZ2
Dry braking: 103.3 feet | Wet braking: 112.9 feet | Snow braking: 171.6 feet | Ice braking (50-0 kph): 169.6 feet | Noise: 9/10
Pros
- Low rolling resistance
- Low noise level
Cons
- Poor ice performance
Among the most affordable tire on the list, Hankook’s i*cept iZ2 winter rubber actually performed reasonably well in Tyre Reviews’s independent testing. While it didn’t ace any of the categories, the best attributes were low rolling resistance and excellent snow traction. With middle-of-the-pack performance in dry, wet, and snowy conditions, this will be an ideal fit for areas where the temperature generally hovers right above or below freezing—very similar to what we experience here in eastern Pennsylvania.
Matt Crisara is a native Austinite who has an unbridled passion for cars and motorsports, both foreign and domestic. He was previously a contributing writer for Motor1 following internships at Circuit Of The Americas F1 Track and Speed City, an Austin radio broadcaster focused on the world of motor racing. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona School of Journalism, where he raced mountain bikes with the University Club Team. When he isn’t working, he enjoys sim-racing, FPV drones, and the great outdoors.
