I decided to try a square winter setup on my 2012 Turbo S.

The last 5 years I've been running Michelin Pilot Alpin. Great winter tire that feels like a summer tire (No spongy effect). But the last few years our Canadian winters have been made even worse with rain mixed in. Resulting in icy conditions almost all winter.

Unfortunately they don't make studded tires in 285 sizes. So I purchased an additional two 19" turbo front wheels and put them on the back.

I ended up with Nokian Hakkapeliitta 10 EV tires in 255/45/19 all around. I thought the front wheels in the back might look tucked in but it's not bad at all. I'll post pictures later.

Super happy with the setup. The traction improvement in acceleration is noticeable on snow / ice. Stopping distances, as expected, has tremendously decreased. Where the Michelin would just slide on ice these things just dig in and stop.

 

Pics



What the roads look like:

 

Interesting setup. I will have to buy complete 19" winter setup for new '23 Panamera 4. Starting clean what would you recommend. Trying to figure out where you are from vegetation. Looks like "the East"

 

Is your car PPF'd? If not how bad is the winter on your paint rock chip wise?

 

The studded tires are superior for icy conditions but they have less stopping power than conventional snow tires on wet roads, based on my experience with studded tires, 20 years ago. Have they solved this problem?

 

The new tire compounds many manufacturers are now using has significantly improved modern snow tires. The Michelin X-Ice use walnut shells/oil in their compound which keeps the winter/snow rating for the life of the tires. In relatively sharp contrast, Blizzak's are only snow tires for their first year; after that they are rated as all-season tires due to the rapid deterioration of the compound. I used to drive studded snows exclusively for my extreme winter use cases, but no more!

 

Yes I'm eastern Canada.

If you want studded tires your only option is 20" for a Panamera 4. I would personally buy 4 front wheels and run 275/40/20 all around.

 

It is not. The front bumper has suffered quite a bit. I painted it when I bought the car in 2017 and 3 years in was due for a re-paint.

The rest has faired quite well, hood, roof etc.. My biggest mistake was removing the half moon plastic covering the rear doors. They were there for a reason I guess... The side rocker panels look sand blasted and need PPF for sure.

Now I'm stuck with painting the doors and bumpers. Which begs the question, do I just paint the whole thing.

 

Wet conditions is not really a concern for me. I'm not sure.

I know the compounds have improved quite a bit just in the last 5 years. For example noise is probably 50% of what it was in 2016.

 

Decided to upgrade my summer setup with these. will post pics in late April: