First impressions of Pirelli Sottozero 215VR45-18 winter tire

[slissner]

Because northern Virginia where I live has many more cold, dry days than snowy days, I chose the Pirelli Sottozero 215VR-18 tire for my 2007 spec.B. My understanding is that this tire performs well on cold, dry roads by giving up some performance in snow and on ice. For me that's an acceptable compromise, even if this winter is colder and snowier than the past decade or so as one meteorologist has forecast.

After 50 or so miles of driving on dry roads with an outside temperature of less than 45 degrees Fahrenheit or seven degrees Celsius, I think that the roadholding is satisfyingly high. These new tires do seem to make for a slightly rougher ride than the Bridgestone RE-050A summer tires in the same size. The Pirellis also seem to generate more noise. After a few hundred miles, I'll be able to make a better judgment, especially after my region endures its first snowfall of the season.

For the last three winters I've driven an Audi allroad 4.2 and a 2006 spec.B on Nokian WR tires and have been pleased with their performance. I switched to Pirelli Sottozero, one of two tires that I could find in size 215/45-18. The other tire is the discontinued, though still in some inventories, Bridgestone LM-22.

[Scooter]

Excellent - thanks for the review! Keep us informed as the season progresses. I've been looking at these myself; they sound like what I'm looking for. As with any tire, you should definitely give them a few hundred miles to break them in before forming any conlusive judgements.

I've run Pirelli PZero Nero M+S's the past two winters here in Detroit, and I've been extremely pleased with them overall, for an A/S tire. But they are wearing down now and I'm thinking for my next set I'd like to take just one small incremental step towards a true winter tire, and have been considering the Sottozero's, Dunlop WinterSport 3D's (both new tires this season), and the highly acclaimed Nokian WR's. Basically I'm looking for something just slightly better in the snow than the Nero's, but still great in the just dry/wet conditions that make up about 95% of winter here.