At present I use a set of studded Gislaved snows on the rear of my 740 wagon...My son has a 760 sedan which he says slides on the icey (spelling)roads...I would like to get him a set of studded snows for the rear...I have not been able to find the Gislaved studded snows...Anyone have another option or source? I want him to have a safe winter....(any source for used steel rims for the tires you will be suggesting?) Alan

If you want your son to have a safe winter, do both of yourselves a favor and match tires all the way around. Studs in the rear only is a bad idea as the rear and front tires will have completely different handling characteristics and make the car psychotic. Here in Maine, they passed legislation to make it illegal to have studs on only 2 wheels. It's all or nothing!

BTW- I run Hakka 1 studded on my wife's 740 wagon and Hakka Q studless ice on my 850. The 1's are better deep snow tires, and with the studs are really good on ice. The Q's are similar in concept to Artic Alpin, Blizzak, and the like. Lots of little sipes. Good performance on slick (icy surface) but not quite as good as the studded Hakka 1's. As the 850 is a much better snow car, I decided the trade off of loud studs vs. quiet studless was worth it.

I run cheap studded snow tires called "snowtrakkers" on my '91 745,

they do well here in NW Colorado, base elevation 6750'. I believe I paid about $220.00 for set of 4 mounted & balanced.

A lot of the new snows tires do pretty well without studs. They are called hydraphilic which means that the rubber will adhere to the light film of water that forms on top of the ice. Call the Tire Rack or any of the bigger tire mail order places advertised in Road & Track magazine or AutoWeek etc and they will steer you in the right direction. They can sell you tires mounted and balanced and ship them to you ready to go on the car. If you go a different route I have a set of steel wheels and covers that I am through with that I'll sell for 1/2 the cost of new. It depends on where you are as to whether this is worth the shipping cost etc.

I am in Rochester, NY.

Ice is a tough environment. Tell him to slow down. The wagons are generally pretty good in snow etc. It's all related to the nut holding the wheel.............. ;-)

Good luck!

Dave

I just tried the new Michelin Artic Alpin studless on my S**b on some really nasty ice (Rochester, NY) this Friday.

Worked great--I was driving around the Jeeps with their crappy all season OE tires.

I'm running Nokian Hakkepellitta 1 studded on my 745. They're very good, but a bit noisy.

When the Nokians wear out, I think I'll switch to the Michelins on the 745.

By the way, it does cost more, but 4 snow tires give much more predictable handling than 2 on the rear. If you only have studded tires on the rear, it works OK in most snow, but can be really dicey in the wet--the rear wheels really oversteer badly under power!