I just want to add my 0.02$ on this, I recently bought my first Nokian tires every to put on our new Explorer and I can honestly say in the 3000km's we've driven in the last month that they are hands down the best winter tires I've ever experienced. Time will tell how much performance will be lost as they wear down and how long they will last but to date, color me very impressed. Mine are studded and the ice performance is outstanding fwiw.
I bought a set of these in stock 255/40/19 size for my 5.0 on Christmas Eve, and am coming up on the 2,000 mile mark. I decided to do a little review mainly because in all the glowing reviews out there, I only ever found one bad review and it was a guy running 245s on a Maxima. Truth is, most people don't run snows this wide, so there aren't many (any) reviews out there, let alone on a RWD car, so I figured if nothing else I'd give a data point on a wide set for people for future reference. After all, a lot more cars are coming with big brake kits that can't have pizza cutter snow tires. I know EliteDeltaForce was curious, even if nobody else is. So, impressions for a wide 255 Hakka on a RWD car: 1) Fresh Powdered Snow: Literally unstoppable. I can make 90 degree right hand turns at the end of my street faster than should be possible and the rear doesn't kick out whatsoever. 2) Slush: The tires are designed to avoid slush planing, and this works really well. Haven't slush planed yet. 3) Packed snow: Again, they don't disappoint. They seem to dig right into packed snow with confidence, and this is the stuff I have to deal with most here in the Twin Cities - it will snow, and then get very cold, and we will have pure white packed snow roads for 3-5 days afterwards. Very happy with the performance on this. 4) Sheer Ice: This is the one area they only receive a passing grade, and get a little iffy. I'm talking after freezing rain and when the road literally looks like an ice rink. They are not awful, but this is the one situation where I don't have the confidence inspired by the three cases above. These on ice are like a RWD car on a worn performance all season on snow. Doable with a lot of caution, but not a lot of confidence. Need a long time to stop and need to really feather the brake pedal. 5) Stopping in all of the above situations: They stop so well on snow/slush/packed snow it's almost comical how quick you can step on the brake pedal and they just bite and stop with no drama. Sheer ice, not so much, you'll slide if you do that. Other: 6) Dry road handling: The sidewalls flex a lot to me, but I have Pilot Sport A/S 3s for summer, so that's maybe not entirely fair. I did notice a couple times in the day or two after I had them put on that I actually thought the rear was coming around on a curve and I got that pit of the stomach feeling until I realized it was just the sidewalls flexing on the rears as I pushed through a curve. Now I'm used to how the tires behave, so it's not a big deal. They are a tool to serve a function, that being getting through snow. 7) Noise: They are not super quiet, but they aren't bad. Again, frame of reference is very quiet Michelins. On some road surfaces they just have a noticeable hum at 60+ mph, but then on some other surfaces you almost get that thwomp sound like cupped tires. Note I had a 4 wheel alignment done at Ford immediately after they were put on, so this isn't what's really happening. 8) Looks: They are fairly sporty looking for a snow tire and look right at home on a performance vehicle. They don't seem as knobby as other snow tires when viewed from the side, and the tread pattern from a distance doesn't look like a snow tread pattern, it looks like a cheap performance pattern from some second rate tire company like Cooper, lol. 9) Wear: To be determined, but most people say they wear really well. 10) They are a directional tire, so if you have dedicated snow wheels, they can only be rotated front to back which kind of sucks. But if you're like me and swap tires on factory wheels 2x a year, you can rotate them side to side as well each time they come off, which is nice. Overall: 9/10, I don't think you can do better. Like many other reviews, I agree, the dry handling performance approaches that of a middle grade all season, which isn't too bad considering they pretty much dominate on snow. I have no concerns about starting on a snowy hill in a RWD car with these. I would like to see a little better ice performance, but I don't know how realistic that is for any studless tire. Overall though, you get what you pay for and it shows, even if they are a couple hundred bucks more than other higher end snow tires. Would buy again without hesitation.
I drove to Mammoth from San Francisco last weekend during a snow storm and wanted to report on my Continental DWS06's performance. tl;dr the Golf R Chuck Norris'ed the mountain passes during the snowiest January ever recorded for Mammoth. On parts where the ground was white with snow and salt, my R was glued to the road at 30-35 mph. I drove through several inches of fresh powder to get out my cabin. No problems there. Of course, the plow pushed a mound of snow up to my rear mirror that I shoveled out before backing out of my spot, but that's besides the point. My R dominated a steep hill leading to the resort lodge in 1st and 2nd gear. My sister's front wheel drive with cable chains could not manage the hill and had to turn out halfway up. After shuttling the passengers in my sister's car to the lodge, I noticed two other FWD chained cars were stuck on the hill and blocked passage up to the resort. The only difficulty I faced was convincing chain control that I didn't need chains. He didn't believe my car was AWD with M+S tires that can handle the snow. So after 5 minutes of debate, he relented and asked me to do a traction test where I accelerated rapidly to break the tires loose and immediately brake. He wanted to ensure the car could gain traction right away. Passed with flying colors and he waved me through. I hope I don't have to convince every chain control officer that the R is at home in the snow. The DWS06s deserve a look for anyone who isn't driving in snow full-time. Every time I passed a car putting on chains, I felt the R and DWS06 premium was worth every penny spent. btw, when the chain control guy wanted me to put on chains, he said the snow socks weren't going to cut it. Seeing how well my R did, I'm going to return my ISSE snowsocks.
Pros:glued to road, dominated steep hill, excellent traction, worth every penny
The DWS06 (mine with about 4K miles) were impressive going up and down snow covered back roads with up to a 12% grade. I had to try if I wanted to break traction except for one time when I braked too hard at a downhill stop sign. Hopefully I'll never need the socks but they don't take up much space so I'll leave them in the back for the winter.
I've got 19" Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 tires, which (for all season) are rated very well for snow, and also carry snow socks in case extra traction is required (lowered so any sort of chain is out of the question). I've seen many people say that all seasons are the jack of all trades master of none, but they're certainly going to be worlds better than a summer tire. I understand they're not going to be as amazing as a dedicated snow tire, but for the few trips over the mountains to Tahoe that I'm going to make, they should suffice just fine. I drove into some collected snow off the side of the road last year (intentionally, wanted a picture of the R in the snow :laugh: ) and had no problem what so ever getting out. There were other cars parked there as well, an SUV looked like it was spinning a bit of tire trying to get out, so I felt pretty confident that my tires worked well enough.
Pros:rated well for snow, better than summer tires, no problem getting out of snow
Continental wintercontact si is damn good value for money and outperforms blizzaks. I use them on my rwd car and there great. Definitely recommend them.
Just a quick follow-up on my 4Motion GSW with the Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2s. This is an amazing winter car. I've been driving on bad winter roads for 30 years, and this is the best winter car that I've owned, including my 2005 Subaru Outback. Winter is in full force in Calgary and it feels like I'm driving on dry pavement. So much grip.
