Pirelli Winter Sottozero 3 Run Flat 

1 drive 2 hours in snowy, icy, wet, sloppy and they were glued to road --- THAT was their mission ..... I have an upcoming week in mountains with snow and very cold and will know more after that 2000 miles ..... we all know winter tires are for "those times when .... " and so far, on dry they are fine, but on sloppy, snow, wet I was impressed (if only the other idiots would slow down there would not have been any concern on that drive !)

This is my second set (First were series II) and I have to say that the 3's are far better than the 2 series was. That said, I'm a high mileage driver and got 3 seasons out of the first set (roughly Thanksgiving to end of March). around 30-35K mi total?. This tire is much better all around, ride, resistance to hydroplaning, snow traction light and heavy. Choices are very limited in run flats in this size, handling is a little different because I go from the standard stagger with 245/40's in the rear to 225/45's all around with the winter tires, but still comfortable and sure footed in a wide variety of weather conditions and temperatures. With previous set, as temp increased (steady mid 40's & above) seemed wear increased rapidly. Have only had this set on 1 season & took them off early because I had to put new summer all seasons on this year, but would suspect the cold/wet weather compound would wear equally as fast in warmer temperatures.

Some reviewers really dislike this tire, but I can’t say I have any complaints. 36000+ miles and that includes me being too lazy to switch them over and driving on them for the past three summers as well. Didn’t even rotate them front to back to the back set is significantly more worn. Ran them in a winter car control clinic with over 26K miles on them last winter and they did the job - any snow banks hit and spin-outs were the fault of the driver! Wet traction was good as was hydroplaning resistance. These definitely get squirmy on hot days taking fast clover leafs, but what do I expect from a winter tire? Some reviewers have said these bubble easily, but that hasn’t been my experience. Still have tread left, but replacing because I want more tread for this winter and one finally developed a bubble on one of the inner sidewalls. I’ve hit many holes that I could have sworn would kill the sidewall, and didn’t - till recently. Retiring these for some run-flat Blizzaks and hopefully I’ll get serious about a winter/summer rotation again, but I will have no reservations putting the 225/40R17 version of these on my E92.

This is the second set of Sottozeros I've had on the Guilia and they are the best winter tires I've had. I was skeptical of the run flats when I ordered them but after a few weeks of driving they don't perform much differently than the standard sidewall.

Wet traction is good, dry traction is excellent and the traction in snow is phenomenal. Living in the secondary snow belt of NE Ohio, in a town with a lot of hills and suspect road maintenance, the Sottozeros give me the cinfidence and performance to travel safely in any snow event. My only complaint is the road noise on a dry highway, speeds over the posted limits exacerbate the noise.

All in all the Sottozeros are a great option and I'd recommend them to anyone who needs a winter tire to fight the snow.

I have run another major manufacturers winter tires on my Honda S2000 and a previous 370Z (almost 2 decades). There simply is no comparison. Firstly, if no one had told me, I'd never know these were run-flats. Secondly, these tires feel as though they handle as well as the stock summer tires that came with the car. I'm truly serious here. These handle so much better than any previous winter tire I've used, that I almost look forward to driving these again next winter. I have very good tread depth left and based the wear this year, I see no reason why I couldn't get 5 or 6 seasons out of these.

I was happy with my purchase before and decided to buy the same set to replace the one I had bought last time. Road noise level is very low. Great grip and handling in dry conditions and very good in snow and icy conditions.

First, these are 19" runflats replacing OEM 20" non-runflat all seasons so they have a higher sidewall which seems to offset the stiffer character typical of a runflat. Second, I'm rating these not as a pure score but relative to what I expect from dedicated winter/snow tires meaning of course they don't handle as a 9 in the dry compared to a summer performance tire, but in terms of many brands and types of winter tires I've used I rate dry handling as a 9 compared to what I expect. Yes they're fairly numb in terms of steering feel but you expect that that from snow tires. They've never caused any anxiety even when hitting light snow coating the road at full 70mph+ highway speeds and even in deeper snow they never skipped a beat. Yes AWD helps, but they still barely even get traction control lighting up. In dry conditions a 45mph highway corner can easily be still be taken 10-15mph faster. They might give up a bit of extreme ice/snow performance to something like the Blizzaks on my Wrangler, but they're also much better in dry conditions so I'll take that tradeoff all day long for a passenger car.

Overall I'm very pleased with these tires. I've never had performance snow tires as I've always used studless snow tires in the past. However the extremely common "mushiness" in corners with the studless snow tires definitely takes away from the driving experience.

These tires absolutely fix that problem. On cleared roads and in corners these tires feel more like grippy all season tires rather than dedicated snow tires. I live in a more southern portion of the rust belt so our winters here are quite mild snow wise when compared to other states like Wisconsin and Minnesota, thus these tires are a perfect fit for this climate. For those I winters I would recommend studless snow tires despite the draw backs.

As far as specific performances go:

Dry and cleared road handling - 10/10. Excellent. The tires feel much more like all season tires and are significantly more responsive.

Fresh snow/powder handling - 9/10. About 90% of what a studless snow tire would offer traction-wise. My RWD sedan had no issue with 8 inches of freshly fallen snow.

Ice/sleet handling - 8/10. This is the 10% trade off that you experience with this category of winter tire. While I was able to get through some moderately deep slushy pockets (3-4 inches) with momentum + turning off traction control the car simply could not get through deep pockets (6+ inches)of ice/heavy wet snow. However with some light shoveling the car was able to get right through. Rest assured that despite the shortcoming it still offers SIGNIFICANTLY improved ice traction over all season tires.

Noise - 9/10. Slightly noisier than a typical all season yet much quieter than most winter tires.

Comfort - 10/10. No complaints here. Pirelli did a great job in this department.

Treadwear - 7/10. This tire has a VERY soft winter compound. Don't be surprised to see small flecks of rubber on your car's body randomly. However this is typical for winter tires so I rate it as average.

Summary - Outstanding for mild winters.

These run flats came with my 2019
BMW 540xi. They are fabulous! Quiet!!
Excellent handing!!! Great in the Snow that we get here in Toronto. I am amazed how long they last !! I have driven to Miami from Toronto at least 4 times. Going with the flow of traffic which is usually 70 miles per hour.
Looking to replace my SotoZero 3 run flats again. Yes, I am sticking with Run Flats.
Love them !! I have No Interest in changing tires on the Highway in the middle of the night in Winter. 🙏
Thank you 🙏
P. P.

12,500 miles in one season. These tires have been incredibly durable, long-lasting and perform great.

At the end of last season I noticed a screw in one of my tires unfortunately. Not sure how long it had been there since it still had pressure. No big deal.. Now just today while driving 70 mph on the interstate the cars Tire Pressure Monitor told me I had a flat and sure enough. The valve stem came loose and leaked out all the air. Luckily their was a tire shop on the next exit. I'd driven on the flat for about 3 miles at highway speed. No problem. When I got there they were able to just tighten the valve stem and fill the tire. Their was no tire damage at all.

Run flats really are worth it in my opinion. And these tires lasted too. On one set (the front) I have over 20k miles. The rear set lasted about 12-13k miles. Since my car is rear wheel drive and has more torque than your dads diesel truck. I'm happy those numbers.

The performance of these tires is what makes them so well rounded. The traction in snow is great and they handle winter conditions with ease. Even on dry surfaces these snow tires will give you lots of confidence on the road.

Overall, I am pleased with these. This is my second type of performance tire on my 335, the first being Dunlop WinterSport 3D (non-runflat). Compared to the WinterSports, snow and ice traction is improved. I also feel that dry and wet traction is superior to the WinterSports as well. Feedback/steering responsiveness is slightly better than the WinterSports, but that is most likely due to the stiffer sidewall construction on the Sottozeros since they are the Run Flat versions. On the negative side, the ride is stiffer due to the run flat nature of the tire and road noise is noticeable louder (but not terrible) than the WinterSports.

When these wear out I think I'll try the non-runflat version of this tire as it has been really good as a performance Winter tire here in NJ. I've got more confidence when the weather turns bad with these and wear seems to be very good so far (about 5,000 miles and maybe 1/32" of treadwear).