Hello, all and sorry for resurfacing the often-discussed subject.

Here's my dilema. I live in Boston area and we don't get that much snow (compared to you snow-country folks out there). But when we do I find my Volvo with stock Michelins totally inadequate. This came as a surprise to me since I've lived in New Englnd for over 20 years and have been driving here for as long. I've had all sorts of junk-boxes and some decent cars (a rear-wheel drive '72 BMW Bavaria was actually one of the best-handling cars, even in snow). I always ran all-season tires and never had problems driving in inclement weather. When I bought my first and only Volvo S70 I thought I was making my winter driving even easier. Surprise! S70 with those 195/60/15 Michelin MXV4 (or something like that) stock tires sliped and slid all over the place. So much so that I ruined one of my alloys sliding inot the curb one mildly snowy day. Bummer! I thought Volvo is a northern snow country car! Anyway, this year I don't feel like exepriencing this kind of grief, so I am considering a set of snow wheels (tire+rim). My dealer wants $718+tax for a set of Gislaved Nord Frost II mounted, balanced, hubcapped and installed on my car. I can get a set of Michelin Pilot-Alpin snows (H-rated) with steel wheels and hubcaps mounted and balanced for roughly $590 from tirerack. So, my question is what is the better tire for me, who drives rather fast most of the time and who lives in the region of the country that only gets occasional, but sometimes quite severe snow (i.e. we may get walloped 3-4 times a year on average, but the rest of the time it's rather dry). I don't feel like driving a bad-handling car (in dry conditions) most of the time just for those 3-4 times when it gets bad enough that winter tires are required. Again, I've been driving on all-seasons here in NE for the past 20 years, so I do have inclement weather driving experience. Seems like the Pilot Alpins are closer to the all-season with some snow capabilities (less than that of the Gislaved?) and they seem like they would be good on dry surface, which is pretty much the default stae of roads here.

Please share with me your widom about this as this is really the first time in my life I am faced with this decision, thanks to a swedish "snow tank (not)". I love the car, but just expected it to be better in snow.