18" winter tires (staggered=225/40+255/35 R18) - which?

[pavproch]

My Zet became my daily lately, inheritting from my previous, now gone, company 3er e90 its 18" winter wheels (the same design - OZ Ultraleggera - but one size smaller - 18", while at summer I do drive 19"), actually wearing quite worn Pirellis Sottozero.

Which WINTER tires (225/40R18+255/35R18) would you recommend to try 2027-onwards?

(Unforunatelly I live in the mountains, so must prefer VERY GOOD traction on fresh snow to get home anytime = 150m short, but very steep (12deg) incline in front of my house.... RWD, LSD, but chainless, of course.)

Quick summary of my non-AI googling (2026 winter tires tests): Either expensive Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 (fresh snow grip rated at 91%) or cheaper Nexen WinGuard Sport2 (supposedly/even gripping 97% in snow). I guess this will become very acute latest by (coming) mid-winter, so I will have to decide before then.

 

[sars]

So it depends where you live, in the UK, excepting the far north of Scotland, we don't get much call for full on winter tyres, we run both our cars on all season tyres, the Volvo is on Continental allseason contacts, all year round, whilst my beloved M40i is shod with Michelin CrossClimate 3 Sports from November until April, which are a truly excellent tyre for a sports car in our climate.

If you need full winters, go have a look at tirereviews, it is an excellent source for test data, beware though that also leads you to spending more

 

[pavproch]

Thanks for reply, as I wrote, due our "ordinary/typical" winter conditions (there is once/twice or some years more often up to half a meter of fresh/powder snow overnight) I must switch each November to "real" winter tires despite the cons they are bringing (noise, lesser grip, soft rubber etc), while during the summer I love to push my Zet to/over redline and limits, thus must wear truly "sporty" summer tires, so all-seasons are real no-go for me.
Those findings mentioned above (Mich PA4 or Nex WG Sport2) are based mainly on reviews published either by ADAC or tyrereviews.

 

[CuppaTea]

Which WINTER tires

Many car users south of Birmingham run summer tyres all year round. There are odd times when this choice is poor, but most of the time we don't notice. Which is surprising considering there's less than 2° of latitude difference between Birmingham and Moscow.

The Scottish posters will likely be the best source of information.