Best Tires for the Saab Automobile 9 5 2.0t BioPower Estate (180bhp)

Excellent grip when new on dry and wet on street and track. Still very good at end of life at 15000km. Changed to these from Turanza T005 and the difference in grip, handling and feedback was monumental. They were also much more comfortble and quiet untill in their 3rd summer when they became louder inside the vehicle. Would have liked to get to end of this summer but I had several track days with them already and the last leg of 2000km spirited driving on mountains took the rubber out of them. Seems like the wear accelerates towards end of life and they become more noisy. Unfortunately I also had too much pressure for 1000-2000km or so in mid life which contributed to excess wear. The set costed me 375€ so I think it was excellent value for the driving enjoyment. Would be a waste to use these on a daily commuter as they would just wear more than non UHP's.

I had regular studs Superb grip on packed snow and ~1 cm of snow on top of the packed snow. Grip on ice is great also tested on lake ice track. One can have fun throwing the car around on ice and tires feel good especially while braking. I felt confident with them on slippery surfaces. When there is around 4-5 cm of snow these tires are too wide and lose contact with hard surface on higher speeds. For those days I wish i had narrower tires but it is not "the tires fault". Dry and Wer grip is pretty good but unstudded tires could be better for those conditions. Atleast these tires are not able to handle 360Nm of torque (not stock) as well as my previous (old) unstudded tires. When it gets above freezing these tires feel quite soft under a heavy car. Below freezing the feedback and response is ok for 16" winter tires. Noisy tires there is no going around that even in fairly quiet car but it does not bother me. Combined with 55 profile the ride is smooth and comfortable. They also take the worst out of poorly maintained winter roads. Overall great tires for narrow and windy roads with changing conditions. For warm, dry and wet conditions these tires are overkill and can not really shine in what they are best at even though they are not bad. Go for narrower tire if possible in case you get a lot of soft snow but driving carefully solves that problem too.