MICHELIN X-Ice Xi3 Winter Car Tire for SUVs, Crossovers, and Passenger Cars - 235/50R18/XL 101H

For decades I have been an exclusively Michelin buyer & driver. Whenever I bought others I hated them, except for  Continental ExtremeContact DWS All-Season-235/50R18 97Z  (front) tires, which were great, but had to be replaced after only 45,000 miles. When I began to look into buying tires for an AWD Cadillac STS, I was very surprised by the research I did and the reviews that I read. So, I took a chance, based on others recommendations. These tires have been excellent on wet and dry ground. They turn great! At low or high speeds, it is such a pleasure to make turns. They make the car feel as if it was made for making turns! It is a great feeling! If I could fault them in any way, it would be that they are a bit noisy on badly paved roads--not too bad though! They are fun to drive on and handle well in almost every way. They hardly ever hydroplane--it takes torrential downpour to happen, or an unavoidable incredibly large puddle to appear, before this occurs. I'll have to wait and see how they measure up in snow and the traction they have on ice. I am looking forward to the snow, but not too soon!

I swapped my summer tires out for these winter Michelin's on my '15 Mustang GT once the low's started consistently falling below freezing temps outside. I immediately noticed the cornering and steering response wasn't as good as summer tires, but that's to be expected. It's not nearly as bad as other winter tires I've used on past vehicles.We've had many snowfalls of 1-3" at a time, but never any deep snow. I can say that these perform admirably in light snow whether you're on a hill or not. I can start from a stop and just drive straight up the hill. These tires only slide when I want them to, like when I give them more gas pedal than necessary, or when I turn off traction control (which is often) to have fun while driving around. Winter tires give a huge peace of mind feeling while driving. Most other traffic is running all-season tires and they are scared of slight downward hills, while I maintain the speed limit and drive around all of them. There's no worrying about stopping with these, as they stop almost as if it's dry out while using low to moderate braking pressure. ABS only kicks in when using heavy braking, and the tires still stop you quickly when that occurs.The only time that I didn't feel safe out while driving this winter was when we had a lot of ice recently. The entire road was covered in about 1/4" of ice. I don't care what kind of tire you are using, but trying to get up a hill in the ice just isn't going to work. If you have AWD and these winter tires you might be able to get up some icy hills, but any FWD or RWD is going to have to avoid hills that are covered in ice. On a flat surface these work fine at accelerating slowly and getting you to where you need to go, even on ice.I drove from Omaha, NE to Panama City, FL for Christmas, and I was glad I had these on for that drive. I drove through the St. Louis area in heavy snowfall with a solid 2" of snow on the interstate surface for about two hours, and I was passing up everyone. I was able to maintain the speed limit while other's felt insecure about their tires.These winter tires definitely fulfilled their purpose, which was to turn my summer vehicle into a year-round daily driver. These Michelin's certainly don't disappoint!