Tire: Blizzak LM-50 RFT
Category: Studless Ice & Snow
UTQG (treadwear): Not rated
There are not too many run flat ice and snow tires on the market, but this Bridgestone LM-50 RFT fits the bill quite nicely. This actually happens to be a fairly specialized tire, coming in just one 17" size and originally intended to be fitted to the Toyota Sienna minivan (not that you couldn't run them on other vehicles with the same tire size. As you can imagine, this specialized tire is pretty high tech, offering great winter traction on dry or wet pavement, along with being able to be driven for about 50 miles after a puncture. This tire uses a more robust tire compound along with structural alterations to create this run flat ability. Just the same with all other winter tires, the manufacturer recommends that you only install these tires in sets of four.
This tire gets overall high marks from our reviewers and other drivers. It's decently quite for a winter tire and does well on dry pavement even after the winter season is gone. I've had people report that these will tackle 1 foot of snow in a two wheel drive vehicle without much drama. Impressive. Expect to get roughly the same mileage out of these as you would with most other winter tires. So perhaps 40,000 miles. Could be less though, definitely depends on a ton of factors. The point here, is that you'll get great winter traction out of these and if you don't have room for a spare in your trunk, your options get a little limited!
