Well, today we had about 8 inches of snow here in Pittsburgh (my best estimate since my wife said "WOW") . Anyway, it's the first real snow since installing NOKIAN WR "all-season-with-a-winter-bias" (my term, but they should adopt it as their slogan) tires on my 2003 LS430 now with 3000 miles.
The news is good. While the car did not initially go up my steep driveway like a 4X4, once I "trampled down" the snow with my wife's Explorer, the car did climb. I can tell you after owning Mercedes "S" class cars for the prior
12 years that we lived in the house, that NONE of them EVER climbed in this type of weather. I did have to turn off the VSC thingie so the tires could "spin and chug" just a little to get it up, so whoever put the "off" button on that was smart. With the VSC on, the car just sat no matter how hard I mashed on the gas. Once up my steep, deep virgin snow covered driveway, my biggest hurdle, the car rode EXCELLENT in the "regular" snow on the streets. I was totally afraid to drive my 1990 LS400 in snow back then and my "S" Class cars (I had 4 of them during the prior 12 years) as well. Between the tires and VSC (which I left ON after getting up my driveway), this car should serve me well. I live in Pittsburgh and we get nasty winters on steep hills. But I never liked front-wheel drive cars and my wife drive's an Explorer...I did not want TWO AWD vehicles. I think, finally, I have found my cake that I can eat too. Great RWD ride with reasonable snow confidence.It still remains to be seen how long the NOKIAN tires will last. I can't imagine they'll last LESS long than the OEM Dunlop tires that people say (here on the up and down hills) they are only getting 20,000 out of. I'll be happy with 30K out of the Nokians, which I plan to leave on all year. It costs $100 each time to mount/dismount...so for $200/year it doesn't make sense to switch twice-a-year I don't think. And the Nokian ride in dry weather seems the same as the Dunlops, with better rain traction too