It’s time for me to shop for some new snow tires. My current ones are Hankooks and I don’t like them much at all. They must freeze at a warmer temperature than other tires I have had. I notice a real big difference around 15 below which is not at all an uncommon temperature here.
Any recommendations out there on brands to seek out, ones to avoid? I’m not afraid to pay for a good tire but if a cheaper one offers similar performance to a top-notch one at less price all the better. 
I love my Nokians. True all season so you dont have to change them out. Amazing grip on snow and ice even in -40c. Cant say enough good things about them. My son drove my car in the snow with them on once and went out and bought them. That good. Wish I had stock in the company…
My Blizzaks were nice. My SO’s car has Pirellis and they seem to be doing a decent job. I have all seasons on my car now (Bridgestones) and they suck compared to my dedicated snows. I wanted to save some cash and not have to change tires, but I may regret it. They had good ratings on Tire Rack so I thought they’d be OK.
Wife has Blizzaks. I have Dunlops. We both like our choices.
Thanks all. It’s nice to have some opinions as I start searching. I’m buying them for next season so I have some time to mull my options unlike most years. I’ve never heard of nokians before, I’ll definitely check them out too.
I have Hankook Icebears for my Mazda3 that are fine at -15C, but no experience at -15F. Certainly not at -40(any temp scale I can think of)
I used Blizzaks for ice racing, have driven on a hockey rink with them and, IME, they are even better than studs for ice. I have them on all of my cars, and will use them always. I heart Blizzaks. 
Oops, I’m in Celsius, didn’t notice that missing when I proofread the OP. I think I was too busy trying to hunt for a degree symbol on my phone. It gets as low as -30 here. Maybe I just have the wrong line of Hankook, I’ll look more closely at their website for specs. This particular set was bought because that’s what the garage had in stock three years ago when I went for an inspection and my old snow tires didn’t pass. I want to be more careful this time.
Tirerack (www.tirerack.com) has an excellent section on tire differences (summer, all-season, snow…). They also test and rate tires. I believe last months “Car and Driver” magazine had some additional comparisons.
I’ve just put the Nokian Hakkapeliborkborkbork R’s on my car, and am finding them to be very good.
The Nokian Hakkapalitas are very, very well reguarded where I live. My Wife runs them.
I have had them and have liked them. My current tire is a BFG AT. I thought that the bigger lugs may do better in deep snow (I am the first one home and need to get close to my plow truck). I have had the Nokians before (on another SUV) and suspect I will go back to them.
My plow truck runs chains and deep lugged tires on all 4, so ‘snow’ tires aren’t really a consideration there.
I just this morning received an early Christmas present from Santa! Which was the go-ahead to get four new Continental Contitrac tires for my 12 year old SUV. Don’t know how they do in the snow yet, but anything is better than what I had.
I had Blizzaks on my Chrysler and liked them a lot. I had Goodyear Wranglers on my Jeeps, which were very sticky on ice and snow.
definitely Blizzaks–worth every penny
It’s worth mentioning that should you get Blizzaks, make sure you get them off the car when the weather turns to spring. You can leave them on the car, but they’re only going to last you two winters if you do.
I have a problem with dealing with real deap snow and then ice.
I can handle the ice.
So I tend to go with deep lug tires so I can get home. I get home before my wife and plow the road and driveway. (I have a plow truck that I keep at home).
We run snow tires year round here. On the one hand, I want serious off road tires (for deep snow). On the other, I want a good snow tire (for roads).
I used to run studded mud terrains on my CJ. That worked pretty well but they where real noisy (of course). Not something that you do a 3000 mile road trip on.
I may look at the Blizzacks. I just worry about the off road and deep snow performance. I really don’t care about price at this point.
Blizzaks are heavily siped for snow and work pretty well. As I mentioned, I had Goodyear Wranglers on my Jeep TJs, which worked very well in snow, and can be left on the vehicle year round.
I’ve been doing that so I’m good there. I’ve just been lazy about shopping around the past few times. Generally I can get 3 winters out of my tires which is comparable with everyone I know here.
The first set I ever bought were Arctic Alpins, the first time I tested them on an icy hill I stopped so fast I almost hurt myself. Those were great tires but they wore out fast. I bought another set but they changed something; they weren’t quite as aggressive on ice. They were still good in snow though.
I lived in a cold climate a long time ago, and studded snow tires are definitely the way to go. Some people had them on all 4 tires which gave the best traction and control and prevented the front end from sliding
Hubby swears by our Blizzaks. Those and the all wheel drive on the Subaru means we can get up our hill with its semi-steep grade when no one else can without having a couple of spin-outs.