Tires Nokia or Vredestein

They are good, but the tests are misleading here. A Y-rated UHP tire is being compared to V-rated Touring tires. You’ll see those Vredesteins have only a 400 UTQG so don’t expect mileage here as compared to other tires in the test.

I am running the Quatrac Pros on my R (225/45 18), and have been really happy with them. I ended up running them year round. They are a really impressive tire.

I have Vredestein Quatrac 5 (I think that's the model, not sure if it's still a 'current' tire) on my Alltrack, also an '18 SE. I drove them on some hard pack and a little ice last winter and thought they were good.

I just replaced my stock tires with Vredestein Quatrac Pro tires (205 55R17 for me). These Dutch made tires seem to be quieter and have a better grip than the Falken OEM.

I wouldn't settle for anything less than studded Nokians if you can afford it. They'll be hard to get this late in the year, but you likely already know that. I live in western NY though, so YMMV.

I've switched back to my "winter" set up, actually just severe snow rated all-seasons. On this setup, I run Motegis MR131s (Super light, inexpensive wheels BTW), with Vrederstein Quatrac Pro 225/50/17s. I now have just minimal wheelspin at wot in second, even uphill, and I'm able to take off from a light without babying it. I can now drive normally. These tires are Y-rated, so not quite the typical all season.

+1 for hakka's ... they also have a all-weather tire, think snowtires you can drive year round ... I've had blizzaks, xice's, dunlops, sotto's, alpin's etc and sofar the Hakka's have been as good if not the best.

I bought Nokian Hakkapelitta R3s for my MKVI Golf R before last season. These replaced Nokian WRG3s. The R3s were a noticeable step up in grip in snowy conditions last winter on the Matterhorn 225/45/R17

I had the Ultracs on my audi years ago and they very nice tires, expensive but nice.

Hate to be a neighsayer, but I've haven't been really impressed with the Nokian Hakkas. For all the praise they get on the forums, I was pretty disappointed with how they performed. I live in Central NY so we get tons of snow, so I got to test them out in a variety of conditions and they never really seemed to have traction. I had a set of 195 wide studless tires on my Golf. Upgraded to a GTI and the previous owner threw in a set of 225 studded Hakkas with the car. So I've tried these studded and studless, and have tried narrow and wide tires. I'm looking to try some Blizzaks this year if I can get my hands on them. A family member had them on their FWD Audi and the traction on them seemed really impressive; we were driving on a road that was completely covered in snow and he was swerving left and right and the car rode like it was on rails.