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Owners' choice:
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Owners' choice:
I’ve decided skip Winter tires for my Golf Sportwagen this year and just go with Nokian WR G4 All weather tires to replace the stock all seasons. My reasoning is I got another car ( VW Routan) with dedicated Winter tires and on the bad days I have the choice to either drive the other car with Winter tires or even better work from home whenever school is cancelled due to snow. Given my circumstances, the All weather Nokians for the GSW make a lot of sense.
We have had winter specific tires on vehicles from 4x4 big pickups to the VW rabbits. Have use Michelin X-ice, Blizzaks, Winterforce studded and Nokian Hakka's, both studded and unstudded. Would not go through a winter without the Nokians. Last winter the big 4x4 truck ran Nokian Rotiiva's and they worked but not as well as winter specific tires. Wife's Ford Escape - Nokian Hakka's non-studded. A great ride. Good traction and road feel, snow and ice as well as base clear pavement.
I have run Nokian R2SUV full winter and am now on Nokian WRG3. I used to have mounted and dedicated winter tires, but the Nokian All Weather (not all season) are a great solution (they invented snow tires in the 30's and pioneered All Weathers). The Nokian R2's are better than the Blizzaks, Michelin Pilot Alpin and Michelin X-Ice in snow/ice. The Nokian WRG3 are approximately equivalent, but without the spongy (and no braking from Blizzaks) on dry pavement. The Pilot Alpin and Nokian WRG3 are actually fun to drive.
I’m planning on giving All Weather tires a try myself. I will be going with Nokian WR G4 in the 195 65 15 91H size for my base model GSW S. All Weather tires are definitely a step up from all season tires in the Winter.
RS4's are going to be your best bet. I haven't bought track tires since RS3 >>> RS4, but the RS3's are an amazing tire for the money. Best thing about Hankook RS's is that they maintain decent grip through lots of heat cycles meaning you can run em to the cords.
Nice, I look forward to reading your impressions. I've been trying to find some decent reviews as well. I have bought many sets of Nokian tires since I discovered them 15 years ago. WR and Z line for the cars and I've bought several sets of Rotiiva AT (Plus) for trucks I've owned and I've been very happy with them.
I used to buy Nokian. I would say they offer slightly better ice traction over the Michelins. However they typically cost half more, and last half as long
I ended up getting nokain **all weather** tires last October for winter in thunder Bay. I never once was worried about getting stuck or slipping even in the coldest of nights/mornings. They worked amazingly
The V12s were fine in the wet on my GTI, but pretty iffy on the M3. Some of that may have also been related to the way I drove either car and each car's respective power. The M3 basically spun the rear tires in the wet on anything but Michelin Pilot Super Sports (which were absolutely phenomenal in the dry & wet).
I have the Ventus V12s on my SLK in the Bay Area too. Very similar tire. They absolutely suck at displacing water. I can legit lose the back end in heavy rain at medium speeds. The grip and launch in the summer is great, but they are simply not designed for water displacement.
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