Tires MICHELIN or Nokia

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.

I don’t own a Tesla (yet) but I am huge fan of the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S on my Audi S3. I run them year round on Florida and have virtually unlimited grip in dry and rain. Great tires. Should last about 30k miles.

Anecdotal but I originally had the 18" aero wheels on my Model 3 and installed 19" Michelin Pilot Sport 4S and wow what a difference on the curvy roads. It grips the road like glue. Lot of fun.

I’ve had the cross climates on my LR AWD model 3 for a month now. Here are some comments on them (with no winter testing obv) now that I’ve had them 900 miles. I live in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

- Sound: they are definitely louder than stock 18” at low speeds (<35 mph). Seriously they sound like all terrains with windows down, but no complaints at higher speeds. Given how bad the stock Michelin’s are in the winter; I won’t complain!

- ride: yea they’re comfy :)

- handling: They feel good around town but I haven’t pushed them yet. Wet performance was great, the car felt steady as a rock in downpour rain.

Efficiency: this is hard to get an ideas of just yet. Average since tire install is 248 Wh/mi since install. I went on a mini Colorado road trip he first weekend I had them. The car was getting worse efficiency than predicted (used about 5% more than predicted), but it was also 90 degrees out with my mom and my Airedale Terrier that isn’t happy unless the a/c is set to 65 or below. I don’t have the data to really make a fair comparison.

Summary: worth getting if you’re in a mixed climate that gets some snow and you can put up with a little more noise and a little less efficiency.

I now have 18" wheels and tires to replace the base car's 17" and that was all that was needed, good Michelins as well.

They're expensive but Michelin Pilot Super Sports are the best damn tires. They're grippy, quiet and last a long time for summer tires.

The PS4S is the best tire I’ve ran so far. Everything just clicks. Good wear (I rotate every 3k), quiet, good sidewalk stiffness but very compliant for a daily driver, good feedback and gradual breakaway at the limit. I really really really like these and frankly they’re worth the premium.

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.