I’m going to buy new all-season tires for my wife’s '07 Subaru Outback. We live in eastern Massachusetts, so get a fair amount of snow, but the roads are generally plowed. The Subie is an automatic, so AWD when needed. She uses the car for suburban commuting; we might take a trip in it now and then, but for long trips I prefer my big Chevy van.
The owner of the shop I use is pushing the new model Nokian, called ‘eNTYRE’ (that’s how they spell it), billed as an all-season tire “designed specifically for North America” (Nokian is a Finnish company, best know for their winter/snow tires).
Nokian’s WR-G2 ‘all-weather’ (rather than ‘all-season’) gets good reviews for winter performance.
The eNTYRE is new, so probably few have had much experience with them, especially in winter. They don’t look as aggressive as the WR G2s.
Other recommendations welcome. I was considering Goodyear Triple Treads, but Joe at the shop says he’s had terrible experience with them and wouldn’t recommend them. He likes Cooper CS4s.
/Mr Lynn
Corrigenda: The inverted question mark in the headline should be an em dash. And ‘know’ in the second paragraph should be ‘known’, of course.
Don’t see an Edit option for posts.
/Mr L
I just got a set for my AWD RAV…half the price of michelins and triple treads and the tire rep said they would perform the same…I read Nokian’s blurb on the tires after i bought them and felt somewhat confident that they would not over promote their tires. Can’t say anything since I’ve only put 500 miles on them.
I’ve had good experience with Nokian winter tires (Hallipalankin 1 - where do they get these names) for several years on a Honda Civic. Still have lots of tread and are great winter tires. I’d tend to trust claims of Nokian as far as tire performance is concerned. Thay make good tires and the tires live up to their claims.
I’m curious about the difference between the ‘all weather’ and the ‘all-season’ composition.
Nokian seems to be saying that the eNTYRE is basically a summer tire that’s OK in snow, and the WR-G2 is a snow/slush tire that’s OK in summer. They say that strictly winter tire rubber is not designed to be used when temps are consistently over 40? F, and summer tires the reverse. So what compound do they use in these two?
/Mr Lynn
I live in coastal NH and my wife commuted to the merrimack valley no matter what the conditions(medical field).
She has had the Nokian NRW, WR (on her Civic) and then WR G2 on her similar car to yours (05 Legacy turbo wagon). The WR G2 is simply an incredible tire all around. It absolutely shines in slush(very difficult) and rain. It is great in snow and decent on ice. On dry roads performance is okay, not a performance tire in the summer but really decent. Longevity was decent, we would have likely hit 50k+ on v rated low profile( 215/45/17) but a nasty pothole on I495 busted the sidewall and bent rim.
I would go for the Nokian WR G2 again in a heartbeat for our vehicle.
In consumer reports test of performance winter tires they also tested WR G2. It topped the category even though all other tires should not be used above 40F.
After some stewing, I’m seriously considering getting a set of true winter tires and steel wheels. Winter tires may be overkill for this area (suburbs c. 20 miles west of Boston), but my wife often has to drive in bad weather. I’m looking rather longingly at the Nokian Hakkpellitta Rs, which I’ve read are the cream of the crop for (non-studded) winter tires.
The stock wheels are 17s, but I’m thinking of buying a package with 16" steel wheels just for the winter, which will save on wheels and tires, and provide a narrower footprint for snow.
The Hakkas seem awfully pricey, though ($168+ for 16s at 1010tires, and probably not any better locally).
Love to hear what others think about the Hakka Rs (and opinions versus other winter tires). Are the Hakkas really better than Michelins, Continentals, Dunlops, etc.?
Nokian page on the Rs here:
/Mr Lynn
Nokian tires have great longevity. The other choices I would strongly consider are Michelin X-Ice2 with good longevity and pleasant road manners since it will be dry or wet not wintery the majority of your time.
I have a set of Nokian Hakkas mounted on steel wheels which I use as winter tires on my Subaru Legacy wagon. I have no complaints, and if you can afford it this is the way to go.
Use your three-season tires most of the year, and the dedicated winter tires in the winter. You won’t be sorry.
UPDATE:
I decided to spring for winter tires and wheels for my wife’s Subie, following the principles that AFB77 on the Subaru Outback Forum propounded:
Firstly, all season tires are bad winter and bad summer tires. Any tire expert will say this.
I am a firm believer that it is a smart move to get winter tires and summer tires.
Summer tires lose grip below ~50F, whatever the road condition is - the rubber gets too hard. Winter tires inversely, get too soft above ~50F and wear very quickly.
All season tires are a compromise of the two. it’s an ok tire in the fall and spring, and a poor tire in the winter and summer.
while not denying others’ observations that good all-seasons would do fine for most circumstances we’d encounter around here; I’ll continue to run them on my other two vehicles.
A local chain, Sullivan Tire, offered a Michelin X-ice Xi2 tire and 16" wheel (downsizing from our stock 17s) package, including TPMS sensors, for $916 plus tax (.0625%), minus a $70 Michelin mail-in rebate. For $70 I’d better remember to mail it in!
Another local chain (Direct Tire) had much higher prices on the Michelins, and almost double the amount for Hakkapelitta Rs, which I would have liked, but the price was insane. The Michelins were highest surveyed at TireRack for studless winter tires and at ConsumerSearch (which seems to rely a lot on TireRack). Close contenders were the Brigestone Blizzak and the Continental Extreme Winter Contact. According to TireRack reviewers, the Michelin X-ice Xi2 was “A very good winter tire option, especially if you spend plenty of time driving on clear roads.”
What this encourages me to do is to find really good summer tires in the spring, to replace the OEM Potenzas (though they might be good for another season, if I want to save the money till 2012). But that’s for another day. Certainly that’s enough time spent on the winter ones!
/Mr Lynn
Quote from an earlier post:
"Firstly, all season tires are bad winter and bad summer tires. Any tire expert will say this.
I am a firm believer that it is a smart move to get winter tires and summer tires.
Summer tires lose grip below ~50F, whatever the road condition is - the rubber gets too hard. Winter tires inversely, get too soft above ~50F and wear very quickly.
All season tires are a compromise of the two. it’s an ok tire in the fall and spring, and a poor tire in the winter and summer"
Well, that may have been truer 20 or 30 years ago, but not so true today. Rubber chemistry and tire compound formulations have gotten so good in recent decades that some “all season” tires perform better in winter than some older snow tires did, and perform better in summer than virtually all older tires.
For example, take a look at the Tire Rack owners surveys. No, they’re not entirely scientific, but a whole ton of admittedly subjective data points say that some “all season” tires are nearly as good in winter conditions as the best snow tires.
For example, look at the Tire Rack surveys for:
- Michelin X-ice (studless ice & snow)
- Goodyear Assurance Triple-Tred (all season)
In winter conditions,if you compare the light snow traction, deep snow traction, and ice traction results, the X-Ice gets a score of 25.4/30, while the Triple Tred- gets 23.4/30, a differential of 2/30 or about 7%.
In summer conditions, comparing hydroplane resistance, wet traction, and dry traction, the X-Ice gets 25.8/20 while the Triple Tred gets 27.1/30.
What this says is, a good all-season tire like the Triple Tred is considered by an average of a very large group of users to be only a few percentage points worse in winter conditions than a dedicated snow and ice tire!
Is it worth almost $1000 for an extra set of dedicated winter tires and the annual pain of swapping wheels to buy a few extra percentage points of winter traction? If you’re driving up and down Berthoud Pass every day, probably, but most of us aren’t. Yes, for some people, the investment may be worth it. But my point is that tire compound chemistry and tread design are so good these days that a good all-season tire can come closer to the performance of a dedicated winter tire than most people seem to think.
If anyone has had experience with nokian entyres since this discussion, I’d like to hear their review. thanks!
I live in Canada and have the Nokian Hakkapeliita’s on my Subaru Forester XT. They are simply amazing - coupled with Subaru all wheel drive, they are almost unstoppable. Quieter than my all seasons that I run in the summer, compliant ride, excellent traction in snow and on ice. Bought them used, and after two winters and about 30,000 km, I can’t tell that they’ve worn. I can’t say enough good things about them.
I previously had Michelin X-Ice on a different vehicle, and while they provided excellent stopping power on ice, they seemed to spin easily on acceleration. To be fair, this was not an AWD vehicle. Even so, I think the Nokian is a superior tire.
I previously had some Nokian WRs on a Ford Explorer. These were great tires too, in every season. I highly recommend Nokian.
No experience?yet! I’ve been contemplating three-season tires for my wife’s Outback, as ‘summer’ tires may not be entirely adequate April-October here in Eastern Massachusetts. Was heading in the Michelin Primacy MXM4 ‘all-season’ tire, but then remembered the eNTYRE, which my local mechanic can get for me for less than my tire shop charges for the Michelins (though both are expensive). So I think I’m going to buy a set.
Follow-up: The Michelin Ice-X2s did fine in the rough winter we had here (six storms in January). My wife reported no problems at all. Now I’ve just got to get the car from her so I can get the winter tires and wheels off!
/Mr Lynn