Tire Review: Bridgestone Blizzak LM-25

I purchased the Blizzak knowing both the positive and negative comments that I've come across reading reviews on Tirerack.com's user survey. These were mounted on my 2003 Honda Accord sedan on 18x8 TSW Vortex wheels. I had the opportunity to experience these tires on dry, wet, snowy, and icy conditions but for the most part I encountered dry roads due to the lighter-then-usual winter in Michigan. Thank goodness for that because I was shocked how poorly the LM-25s performed in the snow.

The rest of the review follows below

Last year I had the opportunity to ride on Yokohama iG20 that were stellar in the snow. Granted, the Yokohamas are a passenger winter tire, as opposed the LM-25 a high-performance winter, but the difference was staggering. Where the Yokohamas had a hard time breaking tracking around corners even with the e-brake engaged, the Bridgestones had a hard time remaining in control even in normal maneuvers.

Fortunately, we had a mild winter and most of the time spent driving was on dry or wet roads. In these conditions the Bridgestones performed very well. Going through roundabouts in dry and wet conditions, the tires provided plenty of traction with very little squirm from the sidewall and proved to be pretty quiet. The Yokohamas on the other hand felt like they were folding over on themselves and were very noisy while doing so.

Even after about 10,000 miles, three of the tires show 10/32" tread and one 9/32" tread. Very good in my book, I would expect these tires to last close to 40k miles. The noise, initially is just slightly louder then my high-performance all-season Toyo Proxes4 but nothing that my passengers noticed.

Overall, if you experience a mild winter with an occasional light dusting of snow and require winter tires, I would recommend this tire due to it's ability to still provide good cornering grip. But if you live in an area that gets constant snow, the performance trade-off is too great.