Got some new tires. Nokian WRG4. Was it a dumb choice?

[BurnItDwn]

I live in IL and tend to do winter road trips to northern WI to visit family. I don't have a garage and it's not convenient to swap tires when seasons change.
I've always used "all season" tires which generally work decently for 3 seasons and slip and slide in the winter.
I always have had enough traction to get moving due to AWD and/or limited slip differential, but wanted to be able to stop and handle better in winter so I took a gamble and got myself some "all weather" tires.
I have friends with the Continental DWS tires who are pleased with them.
I considered the Michelin Cross Climate tires.
Ultimately I chose the Nokians but I'm not sure why.

I know they might have bit more road noise than typical all seasons.
I also know they may not have as good of performance in mild weather as typical all seasons. (i've heard that wet performance tends to suffer the most).
But, not seeing too much actual published data to know exactly how much im sacrificing in the summer....

Anybody else running Nokians here?

 

[mindless1]

They will wear faster in summer and have a little squirmy handling from all those sipes and softer compound, but otherwise seem like a fair choice for what you've described, not as good all-around as the Cross Climates (except possibly as good or better on ice or hard pack snow).

They are closer to being a winter tire than being an all-season. That being said, I have some Nokian One all seasons on an AWD SUV and get around fine in winter, because it's seldom below 20F when I'm out on the road, and I learned to drive RWD cars in snow so a FWD or AWD/4WD is a piece of cake if you are mindful of your speed, and black ice on curves.

Sometimes I think people get too caught up on what's "best" when what's best is to swap summer and winter tires twice a year, and yet, it's not that important to me. I don't get stuck and am far more likely to stay home in really bad weather because of the risk of someone else, hitting me.

Summer is easy on tires, I mean as long as you're not driving it like you stole it and being in IL, it's not extremely hot in summer so you won't suffer as much extra wear that someone would with those tires in a southern state.

 

[BurnItDwn]

They will wear faster in summer and have a little squirmy handling from all those sipes and softer compound, but otherwise seem like a fair choice for what you've described, not as good all-around as the Cross Climates (except possibly as good or better on ice or hard pack snow).

They are closer to being a winter tire than being an all-season. That being said, I have some Nokian One all seasons on an AWD SUV and get around fine in winter, because it's seldom below 20F when I'm out on the road, and I learned to drive RWD cars in snow so a FWD or AWD/4WD is a piece of cake if you are mindful of your speed, and black ice on curves.

Sometimes I think people get too caught up on what's "best" when what's best is to swap summer and winter tires twice a year, and yet, it's not that important to me. I don't get stuck and am far more likely to stay home in really bad weather because of the risk of someone else, hitting me.

Summer is easy on tires, I mean as long as you're not driving it like you stole it and being in IL, it's not extremely hot in summer so you won't suffer as much extra wear that someone would with those tires in a southern state.

Thanks,
I expect it to wear a bit faster. I drive pretty low miles these days since Im lucky enough to work remotely. I will probably run into dry rot territory before wear from mileage is a concern.
I drove like I stole it until I got cited and then decided to behave better.
Current vehicle is an AWD variant of a RWD model (Lexus GS 350), before that I was driving a 2nd gen Subaru with symmetrical AWD. I learned on an 80s full size RWD Chevy van .. that thing slipped all over the place but was fun in the snow.

Hot is relative. To me, anything over 80 deg f is "very extremely hot"

Cheers

We have a 2nd vehicle with regular All Seasons. And, the AC blows a bit colder in that car (I love my Lexus, but the AC in my wife's Ford Edge is like an Ice Box!) So her car will likely get utilized for any summer road trips...

 

[desy]

I had two cars with those Nokian tires both sets wore out after 40K miles.
These were my kids cars. Normally I change winters studs to all seasons but like you mentioned, storing and dealing with two sets
I found winter driving acceptable 'in Canada' with their cars. So for the first time in a long time my AWD vehicle got GoodYear Weatheready because that is what the dealership had and I forgo the 2X a year swap and rotate once a year. These now have about 30K miles and I plan to get rid of them next fall and probably go back to the Nokians for it.

 

[BurnItDwn]

We had a couple of decent snows, and I drove on fresh powder a few times, as well as ice, slush, and everything in between.
It brakes in like 1/4 to 1/2 the distance as so called "all season" tires. I can even steer the car on ice!

 

[compcons]

My first foray into snow tires was Green Diamond tires I picked up from TSD Motorsoorts (rally car place in Lake Zurich that worked on my Galant VR-4). Those were a bit squishy and didn't handle well but snow and ice were nothing. After that, I have tried a variety of dedicated snow tires. I now have a second set of wheels with snow tires for 4 cars. I will never go back to all season tires for winter driving. Trips during freezing rain or blizzards in IL/WI are totally manageable. I have some Nokians on wheels in the garage for my Taurua but I am currently using Blizzaks until they wear out. Then I will try the Nokians.

I highly recommend dedicated wheels for each season up here. I have done Dunlops, Michelin, and Yokohamas. Any dedicated winter tire is a game changer. Anyone disputing this has never driven in snow and ice on tires designed for it.

Discount Tire offers swapping and storage for each season. It has gone from $75 to $110 per season but it is still reasonable for a single vehicle. Just pick up some oem takeoffs on ebay and use the ugly set for winter.

 

[Paperdoc]

I live in Canada on the north shore of Lake Superior (north of Wisconsin and Minnesota). Until a few years ago I drove year-round on All Seasons on all my cars - all basically 4-door sedans type. A few years ago when my wife's old Toyota needed new tires I put on Pirelli winter tires for all-year use, since that car gets low mileage mostly in short trips around town - almost no long high-speed stuff. Those worked well, and made the poor handling of my daughter's Hyundai Accent in winter obvious. A couple years later she bought a new Nissan Sentra and purchased a second set of wheels with Nokian Hakkapellita tires for winter, so we swap sets of tires spring and fall. That Accent went to my son, who put Hakkas on it for year-round use, and that certainly improved its winter handling. Meanwhile I bought a used Mazda 3 five years ago that came with Bridgestone Blizzaks in a second set of rims, so for the first time in my life I had real winter tires to swap on for winter. Again, handling of that car in winter was significantly better that I had been used to.

Skip forward to last fall, and my son bought another Nissan Sentra (two in the family now) and got spare rims and Hakkas again. The 1999 Toyota Corolla finally failed and we towed it to the metal scrapyard. The Accent is in use by my granddaughter going to school here. I replaced the worn-out Blizzaks (about 8 winters on them) on my Mazda 3 with Hakkas, too. So now all our cars have Nokian Hakkapellita tires, and three of them have summer tires on separate rim sets. We built our first garage on our property last summer, and I installed tire storage racks for all three sets. I can do my own swaps each spring and fall on those three.

Bottom line, compared to past experience with all-seasons, I REALLY notice better handling on snow and ice with proper winter tires. It requires seasonal swaps, of course. Plus there's an up-front cost about $1000 for each car to get the second set of rims and first set of winters on them. But the lifetime of TWO sets of tires on a car is twice what 1 set gets (roughly), so the only real extra cost is the rims. It's worth it! Since I do my own swaps, I don't pay for that. Not only that, many car insurance companies (mine, for one) give a DISCOUNT on rates for a car with winter tires installed for that season.

So most of my experience is with highly-rated winter tires by Nokian and with Blizzaks, and some with Pirelli rated not quite so good. All have shown much better car performance in winter conditions.

I cannot comment on the specific tires that OP has on. I will say that Nokian is not a huge-volume seller of tires in North America, so you are less likely to find results for them in multi-tire comparative reviews. When you do find those comparisons, many of their products perform quite well. The Hakkas I have are among the best, they say.

 

[gk1616]

I live in Canada on the north shore of Lake Superior (north of Wisconsin and Minnesota). Until a few years ago I drove year-round on All Seasons on all my cars - all basically 4-door sedans type. A few years ago when my wife's old Toyota needed new tires I put on Pirelli winter tires for all-year use, since that car gets low mileage mostly in short trips around town - almost no long high-speed stuff. Those worked well, and made the poor handling of my daughter's Hyundai Accent in winter obvious. A couple years later she bought a new Nissan Sentra and purchased a second set of wheels with Nokian Hakkapellita tires for winter, so we swap sets of tires spring and fall. That Accent went to my son, who put Hakkas on it for year-round use, and that certainly improved its winter handling. Meanwhile I bought a used Mazda 3 five years ago that came with Bridgestone Blizzaks in a second set of rims, so for the first time in my life I had real winter tires to swap on for winter. Again, handling of that car in winter was significantly better that I had been used to.

Skip forward to last fall, and my son bought another Nissan Sentra (two in the family now) and got spare rims and Hakkas again. The 1999 Toyota Corolla finally failed and we towed it to the metal scrapyard. The Accent is in use by my granddaughter going to school here. I replaced the worn-out Blizzaks (about 8 winters on them) on my Mazda 3 with Hakkas, too. So now all our cars have Nokian Hakkapellita tires, and three of them have summer tires on separate rim sets. We built our first garage on our property last summer, and I installed tire storage racks for all three sets. I can do my own swaps each spring and fall on those three.

Bottom line, compared to past experience with all-seasons, I REALLY notice better handling on snow and ice with proper winter tires. It requires seasonal swaps, of course. Plus there's an up-front cost about $1000 for each car to get the second set of rims and first set of winters on them. But the lifetime of TWO sets of tires on a car is twice what 1 set gets (roughly), so the only real extra cost is the rims. It's worth it! Since I do my own swaps, I don't pay for that. Not only that, many car insurance companies (mine, for one) give a DISCOUNT on rates for a car with winter tires installed for that season.

So most of my experience is with highly-rated winter tires by Nokian and with Blizzaks, and some with Pirelli rated not quite so good. All have shown much better car performance in winter conditions.

I cannot comment on the specific tires that OP has on. I will say that Nokian is not a huge-volume seller of tires in North America, so you are less likely to find results for them in multi-tire comparative reviews. When you do find those comparisons, many of their products perform quite well. The Hakkas I have are among the best, they say.

I live in Canada on the north shore of Lake Superior (north of Wisconsin and Minnesota). Until a few years ago I drove year-round on All Seasons on all my cars - all basically 4-door sedans type. A few years ago when my wife's old Toyota needed new tires I put on Pirelli winter tires for all-year use, since that car gets low mileage mostly in short trips around town - almost no long high-speed stuff. Those worked well, and made the poor handling of my daughter's Hyundai Accent in winter obvious. A couple years later she bought a new Nissan Sentra and purchased a second set of wheels with Nokian Hakkapellita tires for winter, so we swap sets of tires spring and fall. That Accent went to my son, who put Hakkas on it for year-round use, and that certainly improved its winter handling. Meanwhile I bought a used Mazda 3 five years ago that came with Bridgestone Blizzaks in a second set of rims, so for the first time in my life I had real winter tires to swap on for winter. Again, handling of that car in winter was significantly better that I had been used to.

Skip forward to last fall, and my son bought another Nissan Sentra (two in the family now) and got spare rims and Hakkas again. The 1999 Toyota Corolla finally failed and we towed it to the metal scrapyard. The Accent is in use by my granddaughter going to school here. I replaced the worn-out Blizzaks (about 8 winters on them) on my Mazda 3 with Hakkas, too. So now all our cars have Nokian Hakkapellita tires, and three of them have summer tires on separate rim sets. We built our first garage on our property last summer, and I installed tire storage racks for all three sets. I can do my own swaps each spring and fall on those three.

Bottom line, compared to past experience with all-seasons, I REALLY notice better handling on snow and ice with proper winter tires. It requires seasonal swaps, of course. Plus there's an up-front cost about $1000 for each car to get the second set of rims and first set of winters on them. It's worth it! Since I do my own swaps, I don't pay for that. Not only that, many car insurance companies (mine, for one) give a DISCOUNT on rates for a car with winter tires installed for that season.

So most of my experience is with highly-rated winter tires by Nokian and with Blizzaks, and some with Pirelli rated not quite so good. All have shown much better car performance in winter conditions.

I cannot comment on the specific tires that OP has on. I will say that Nokian is not a huge-volume seller of tires in North America, so you are less likely to find results for them in multi-tire comparative reviews. When you do find those comparisons, many of their products perform quite well. The Hakkas I have are among the best, they say.

"But the lifetime of TWO sets of tires on a car is twice what 1 set gets (roughly), so the only real extra cost is the rims."

Lol that's entirely not true. True winter tires get about a 1/4 of the tread life that all seasons do and about 1/3 of what a summer tire does. Meaning clearly no, coming sense says you don't get "twice the lifetime lol."

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Over the years I've had a few sets of Nokian "all weather" tires (G2s and G3s). They're not snow tires, per se. They last probably 80% as long as Ecopias or other value-oriented long-life tires.

I wasn't unhappy with them; they're excellent in snow and ice. (Minnesotan here.)

 

[Paperdoc]

While I agree that Winter Tires do not really last as long a Summers - especially if you compare to high-mileage "touring tires" - I find they do last much longer than only 1/3 of a summer tire. One thing you must do to ensure good lifetime, though, is NOT use them on bare hot summer roads. I always swap about the end or March, and again in about November.

 

[mindless1]

I don't put enough miles on any one vehicle to wear down the tires before they age out, so that much more waste if it includes a 2nd set for winter to further reduce mileage per set.

 

[BurnItDwn]

So far so good with the Nokians here. That said, since over the last 4-5 years, I've been driving a lot less miles, so I'll likely have to replace tires due to age/rot even if there is still a good amount of tread left.

 

[Paperdoc]

I have one car in a situation similar to mindless1 above. It is a 2007 Hyundai Accent used by my granddaughter almost exclusively for short trips around our smaller city, and rare longer-distance highway trips. Thus yearly tire wear is low. It has a set of Nokian Winter tries (Hakkapellita R3's) that simply stay on it all year.I'm betting they will deteriorate by age and oxidation before the tread is worn out.

 

[nOOky]

I don't use Nokians personally. We live in SW Wisconsin, and I have many years of swapping out summer tires for winter on two of our vehicles. Someone above said summer tires don't matter, and that's somewhat true. I've thought the same, and hydroplaned and went off the road on a cheap set of Continental high mileage tires still indicating good tread depth.

I am at the point this spring where I will have a worn out set of winter tires, and my summer tires are essentially shot also. I'm thinking about switching to Cross climate 2's on the smaller diameter winter rims and ditching the summer setup. My wife just bought a new Lexus with 21" all seasons and I told her to drive carefully because I don't feel like spending the money again nor changing wheels for another vehicle. I worry more about rim damage from kissing the curb than I do about driving in a blizzard with that though.

Swapping wheels only takes an hour for me, but it just seems tiring lol hence why I want to go with the Michelins, which is what would have suggested getting instead of the Nokians.

 

[desy]

I bought Cross Climates this year because the vendor I go to didn't have the Nokians in stock. No complaints so far

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Swapping out the alloys for the steelies twice a year is getting annoying. I'm in the same boat as some of you. I don't drive much nowadays so having two sets of tires is hard to justify. My summer tires are shot and need replacing. My winter tires are okay for a couple more seasons but they are getting old (5 years now). I might unload the steel wheels and old winter tires on Facebook and just put winter oriented tires on the main alloys. Driving just 5k a year they'll last a while anyway.