I have a 2006 Honda CRV. Where I live the law calls for winter tires with the snow flake logo on them on some of the mountain roads. I have been reading a bit about these Hankook Optimo 4S tires which you can leave on summer & winter. Has any body out there had any experiance with these tires driving in summer as well as winter ?
Would love your comments. Thanks.
You can leave any winter tyre on all year, but it will wear faster and may have less traction in non-winter conditions. They likely will wear out faster and will also likely reduce your mileage. In the long run you are better off switching them out after winter.I believe that Hankoock is a new category called all-weather tires. I have no idea of how well they will work overall as this company has no experience with them.
I will state I have owned over the last 11 years an originator of this kind of tire(snowflake), Nokian, and these are incredible in both the summer and winter. They are not quite a pure winter tire but world’s apart from an all-season.
Their most recent Nokian WR G2’s that can be used year round are very quiet, pleasant, have incredible wet traction, good in snow, decent on ice and good in the dry. They also are eco tires have a low rolling resistance. The catch, you pay dearly for them, Michelin type pricing but typically not as discounted. Also you must rotate these tires in Nokian or they get really noisy.
One thing that really surprised me was the longevity. Our car has low profile high speed rated tires (215/45/17’s) with v speed rating. My wife got over 45k miles out of the Nokian WR G2’s before potholes/high manhole rim ruined the tire. I think 50k+ was achievable.
Agreed. The Nokian WR G2 is a great tire.
I can’t speak to the Hankook, but I run on their summer tires and like them a lot.
What is your yearly mileage on the CRV? What is the mileage rating on the tire? What is the mileage stated by Hankook for the tire?
If your yearly mileage is on the low side, about 10K a year I’d seriously consider the 4S tires. Extra wear balanced against the cost of a new set of wheels, storage for the tires, and/or mounting and dismounting every year is a good trade off for me.
If you drive 30K a year, then I’d go with the extra costs of switching summer for winter tires.
Tire design is all about compromises, open the tread up for snow traction and you get more noise, faster wear, and less dry road traction. The engineer can put in harder rubber for more wear, but that can mean less grip in ice. I’d be less concerned with wear in a low miles per year application, but road noise, and dry traction; are they comparable to a summer tire?
All my cars are now low miles per year, so I’d consider the Hankook 4S model, and others like them from Nokian, the next time I need tires for my Civic. That is still a year or more down the road, so the OP can be my guinea pig on this one.
All tires are compromises and these are no different. You sacrifice some soft tread capability and though they may be good winter tires for now, like all all season tires, as they wear, they will begin to lag for behind dedicated winter tires. Worn winter tires offer much better witer traction than worn all seasons in wintery weather. You will not save money and it cost you more over time just to keep from rotating spring and fall…a mistake if you live in snow belt but ok practice for less severe and warm weather areas.