Tires BRIDGESTONE or Nokia

Stable Road Eating Beast on icy WYO highway on new Nokian R3SUVs

Nokian WRG4 are maybe the only serious competitor to the CrossClimate in that “all weather” category. I just put them on my S and they are nice and quiet and they are a low rolling resistance tire.

I like NOKIAN TYRES [HAKKAPELIITTA R3](https://www.kaltire.com/en/tires/hakkapeliitta-r3/302532.html)Size: 235/45R17 97T

Best winter tires I ever had were the Hakkapaletta’s by Nokian.

I’ve had the Bridgestone Ecopias on my previous car 2010 Mazda 3 GT and now my 2019 Jetta. I have found better mileage on these tires than with others. Not great in heavy snow so I put snows on for the winter.

Don’t cheap out on winter tires. Nokian makes great winter tires, only available from Kal Tire. Michelin X-Ice are great too. I’ve also had success with Bridgestone Blizzak but that was a long time ago, not sure how the current models are.

I would recommend some Nokian winter tires, Hakkapeliitta R3 work well on my car.

I considered reskinning the stock 19" Pretorias with winter rubber, but instead will go with a set of factory 18" Pretorias shod in Nokian WR-G4. My motivation was to have zero fitment concerns, slight upgrade in tire protection, keep the current rolling-stock look which I love, try a tread type that is slightly less winter-storm-focused and instead mixed-winter-climate-focused.

Personally, I think a Hakka 1 or Hakka 2 is too agressive a tire for an AWD NJ daily driver unless your commute is only a couple of miles. They'll corner like you have four gum-erasers mounted and at least double your road noise.

I just turned 500 miles on the Bridgestone Potenza RE97AS that came on my SE. While they are far from the worst tire, I can't help but feel that it's a terrible match for the GTI. Even with the traction control, it's struggling to get any kind of grip off the line, and I'm talking like quarter throttle. On a brighter note, they don't squeal much around turns and are relatively quiet.