Looks like Pirelli have started their winter rebates! I'm glad I waited...
"Purchase a set of qualifying Pirelli Winter Tires from participating dealers (other than GM Dealers) between November 8th, 2019 and December 15th, 2019 and be eligible to receive a $70 Prepaid Mastercard® Card via mail-in rebate. Not valid with any other offer.
Mail-in rebate form must be postmarked by January 14th, 2020. You may print a copy of your mail-in rebate form here. Please see our Terms and Conditions below for full mail-in rebate details, including a list of eligible Pirelli tires."
That brings the Sottozero 3 (Tesla OE) with noise cancelling down to $976 after rebate. That's now about the same price (within a few bucks) as the Nokian R3s and within about $100 of the xIce 3.
I guess I'm now leaning toward the Sottozero 3s since they had pretty good wet performance and ice performance, have the noise cancelling, and are Tesla spec tires (so hopefully feel pretty good in the dry). I just can't find really good review numbers on the Nokian R3s when it comes to stopping distance on glaze ice, snow, and wet/dry. I know there's one site floating around that have some numbers, but they don't say what car they use and they don't compare it to the xIce, WSxx, or the Sottozero so it's really hard to compare performance... and honestly in that one review the Nokian numbers didn't look fantastic so I kinda of question that review anyway...
It's not a perfect Apples to Apples because the cars are a little different... the xIce 3 was tested with a
2014 BMW F30 328i Sedan and the Sottozero 3 was tested with a
2012 BMW F30 328i Sedan.
Stopping distance - 12mph to 0 on glare ice
xIce 3 - 30.3 feet (12% shorter)
Sotto - 34.3 feet
Stopping distance - 20mph to 0 on snow
xIce 3 - 66.7 feet (7.5% shorter)
Sotto - 71.9 feet
Stopping distance - 50mph to 0 at 30 to 40F temps
Dry
xIce 3 - 93.2 feet
Sotto - 85.6 feet (8.5% shorter)
Wet
xIce 3 - 131.4 feet
Sotto - 106.9 feet (20.5% shorter)
Maybe I'll get the chains from Tesla's online store and toss them in the trunk just in case I cross some mountains and am worried about getting stuck. I've never used chains before, but previously I had an AWD drive that I wasn't too worried about (with snow tires) and the FWD Chevy Volt was just a 3 year lease that I knew I wouldn't be doing much traveling with...