FiST Winter Tire Dilema

I just bought a set of Conti ECS 02 for my FiST, so I'm all excited about tires and thinking about what I do for next winter. :) 

My current winter tires are 195/55/15 Conti VikinigContact 7s on a dedicated set of alloys that I like the looks of. The tires seem fine-good in snow/ice, but the FiST seems really impacted by tire selection and the dry performance/responsiveness is not very good. Tires seem to wear our tires quickly on this car too, I don't know if I got 6k miles before I was at 4/32nds. We normally get a good amount of snow here (SW Ontario Canada), so I think it's important to have a capable winter tire.

I'm not sure how to improve the dry and possibly wet attributes, with good winter performance with the tires available. For instance, I could go with the OEM 205/40/17 in Blizzak WS-90s, but that's a lot more expensive than something in the 15" size. I'm not sure sidewall reduction would give me much responsiveness in a winter tire? 

I'd probably need to spend $200 to get a set of used 16/17" alloys that I wouldn't like as much as my current set. I'd probably have trouble selling my existing 15" wheels because no one wants 15" 4x108 wheels. :) Maybe I'd get $100, thanks Ford.

I've never tried an All Weather tire, but the General Altimax 365 AW seems like it has very good winter performance and it has 15" sizes that would work, but I'm not sure if the dry performance would be any better than a premium/hardcore winter? 

The Vredestein Quatrac Pro All Weather is available in 205/40/17. It seems like it has better dry characteristics, but it gives up a good amount of winter capability and it isn't cheap.

The Pirelli Winter Sotozero 3 *may* be available in 205/40/17, but I've read performance winter tires wear our quickly and they're expensive to boot.

My insurance also gives a discount for winter tire usage and all weather tires don't qualify. It's not huge, but if the tires last say 4-5 years, that's probably ~$160.

Any thoughts/ideas?

Edit: ...And I misspelled the title, great.

I'm near Ann Arbor, Michigan, so similar climate to London. I used to have 15" Blizzacks on my MINI and 16" Continentals for summer. The "mushiness" of the snows was pretty noticeable. Currently I have 16" Blizzacks and they're a bit better, but still don't have the rigid sidewalls of the Continentals. I would think you'll notice it even more going from 17" tires to 15s. My Continentals are the all-season ones and I could run them most of the winter, but I don't like them if there's any snow accumulation. Even if you go to 17" snows you'll still be able to feel the tread squirm more than on the ECS.

Edit: I bought my current MINI in November and it came on the stock 17" wheels with Michelin Pilot Sport All-Seasons. I didn't leave them on after the snow flew, but they handled decently and were very quiet and smooth in the dry.

I have Kumho Solus HA31s on my Toyobaru in the winter but I don't actually drive in the snow with them, to keep the car away from the salt, so I don't have any experience of what the snow grip is like. I use them more like storage & cold weather tires. The treads are pretty aggressive though. Grip seems decent on the street but definitely has a mushy/squishy feeling and they make rubber boot sounds.

Pretty much the only option if you want better dry weather performance is going to be a performance all season. I had conti dws06+ on my fiesta for a winter and two summers and they were awesome. They're nearly as good as a summer tire in warm and dry and better cold and dry while being wildly better than winter tires dry and only slightly worse in snow. They were noticeably not as good in snow but I also never encountered any conditions where the tires were the limiting factor (ground clearance was still the ultimate limit). The one caveat is that ice is the one place where all seasons still struggle pretty significantly compared to the best winter tires. So if you expect to deal with a lot of ice you're pretty much stuck with true winter tires.

Side note, the first set of winter tires I had on my fiesta were 15" general altimax arctics (the originals) I ran them for I think three winters and sold them with a still kind of useable amount of tread left, they just refused to die. No idea how the current version of that tire compares though. Later I had a set of ws80s and they were basically dead after the first winter. I managed to squeeze two out of them by way of working from home the second winter but if I was still going into the office full time there's no way they would have lasted a second season.

In reply to Snrub :

I'll also ask which area of London you live in. when I lived in the area 25 years ago the snow fall on the north side was way more than the south side. That difference might be a factor in your needs.

I'm running a set of Blizzaks on the stock Fiesta ST rims from November to April here in Colorado.  They work great in the snow, cold temps, and ice.  They do get squirmy going around an exit ramp while decelerating.  At least the 17" rim makes them feel less mushy, but potholes can really hurt.  Also, I only get 3 years from one set. My original tires are worn out, so I'll probably go with the Contis as my other-season tires and try to reduce how long the Blizzaks are used.

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

In reply to Snrub :

I'll also ask which area of London you live in. when I lived in the area 25 years ago the snow fall on the north side was way more than the south side. That difference might be a factor in your needs.

North. ;) 

Anyone have experience with the Nexen Winguard Sport 2? It's a performance winter with a decent price. Consumers reports seems to suggest it's pretty good, but they don't rank its handling or dry aspects ahead of say a Blizzak WS90. It's also available in 205/40/17.