Saab Automobile (245/45 R18)
on a combination of roads
for 5 average miles
Every week I drive about 300 km in central Europe, mostly on highways, but also local roads up and down the hills and a flat city streets.
Those Uniroyals represented a good choice, being well balanced between quality/price and very important wet and thin snow grip that MS + 77 is performing great and above expectations.
For Saab 9-5 NG it is recommended to pump them 2,6 bar, however I find 2,8 bar is an optimum for this tyre/car combination.
Dry grip and dry breaking is somewhat different from summer tires, but not disturbing or alarming even on a warmer asphalt. Once I had to break harder in a situataion (140 km/h down to 60 km/h) on the warm road and that went without an effort and no need for ABS to kick in. On a very wet road it goes through water smooth and there is not a single occurance or an indication of aquaplanning.
Driving in a wintery city conditions where sometimes the temperature goes well below 0 and roads are icy and wet feels safe and a well adopted tyre to such mixed conditions.
It also takes no effort to roll over fresh, thick and wet early morning snow covered streets and driving feels solid without slipping. That said, it also depends on a car's electronic antislip system.
Wear is, to my driving style, a tyre's big surface, car's a weight and power (190+ HP) very reasonable, if not below expected.
Car behaves in winter conditions speeds on a highway almost as good my summer tyres set of Dunlop Sport Maxx RT 2 in a summer. Car appears very stable and quiet at speeds of 130 -160 km/h while up to 160 - 200 km/h one can feel deeper grooves and road noise gets higher, so for short bursts over 160 km/h it is ok, but not too sustainable.
I can see that in a with summer tyres, car consumes an average 7,2 l/100 km while in a winter consumption goes up to 7.6 l/100 km, but a part of that can be contributed to the other factors (cold air, compacted snow, ice, water, wind).
I would warmly recommend them to those who do not want to spend 35% more for the very premium brand, without very clear benefit. For the past 5 winter seasons my set was Dunlop SP WinterSport 4D and there is no noticable difference, except in price.
I hope that MS+ 77 will last as long and be reliable as it was so far.
