Tire: Ultra Grip Ice+
Category: Light Truck/SUV Studless Ice & Snow
UTQG (treadwear): Not rated
Goodyear has a very solid lineup of winter tires for both passenger vehicles, and trucks/SUVs. This tire in particular slots into into the truck category, but only for a limited size range in the 15" wheel diameter. This tire in particular has an interesting development history. It was originally intended for the Nordic (Northern Europe) market, so it cut it's teeth being tested in some of the coldest temperatures that a passenger tire would experience. This finely tuned development process gave the Ultra Grip Ice+ the ability to maintain grip on snow and ice in the coldest of temperatures. Since these tires are so rugged, it should come as no surprise that they meet the industry standard for severe snow service. Goodyear wants you to know that these tires should only be installed in sets of four.
Such a low volume tire is a hard one for us to review here seeing that we've only run into a few drivers that have run these tires. In fact, one of them ran these tires on their Toyota sedan because he had such a good experience with them on his pickup. Considering the very aggressive tread, I'd be surprised if these tires lasted longer than 40,000 miles, which is about the average for a set of winter tires. It's a little hard to recommend these tires just because there are so many others on the market that are more widely available. So if you get a flat that can't be repaired, it's always good to replace with the same tire. You may not have that luxury with these. With that being said, these tires will grip all day in snow and ice, so you can't go wrong. Just be aware in terms of availability.
