I also went to the Dunlop Wintersport M3's and I would highly recommend them for anyone doing a decent amount of driving in poor conditions. I didn't like the stock Michelins at all that were on my wife's Mazda6 wagon. I probably drive a good 3,000 miles in snowy conditions each winter. (A man's gotta ski.)

(With the agressive tread of a snow tire, you can work the wheel back and forth to chew up any snow packed into the wheelwell.)

 

My 2.3 Auto ran extremely well in the snow. It was a small plow. Island 6, what part of ohio are you from. I am from Toledo. The 6 handles the snow we had very well!

 

Mazda Guy...I'm from Westlake, just west of Cleveland (about 20 minutes). Gotta love lake effect snow over here...it sucks! But we usually get the edge of it, not the feet and feet that the east side sees!

 

Bah I get lake Erie's lake effect crap too![:'(]

 

erie snow is often unpredictable, i know... been there quite a few times being that i live in PA as well. i use the stock tires for winter and haven't had real problems. when going up a hill, i turn the traction control system off so that you can spin a little tire to make it up the hill. if you don't turn the system off, then you will end up coming to a dead halt on a hill because it doesn't allow you to spin tires at all (feels like you have lost all power when TCS kicks in).

as mentioned before, you have to obviously take starts slowly to get started being that it is a FWD vehicle, and turning isn't horrendous. you always have to be cautious when driving in snow. overall, the stock tires aren't horrible, they get the job done decently. but there is a tire that i am looking into (Nokian WR tires) that are supposed to be amazing in the snow! i've gone through 4 inches of snow (up and down big hills with windy roads to and from work for 15 miles a few times in PA and haven't had a huge problem at all).