Nokian All Weather Tires - Too good to be True?

[s4ski]

I got the sales pitch on Nokian WRG2 all weather tires today, and it was intriguing, but seems a little too good to be true.

Some background: I drive 6 months of the year on ice and snow, so winter wheel/tire setup is significant. I have traditionally driven with dedicated summer tires/wheels and winter studded tires/wheels. On my last vehicle, a b5 A4, I used Hakkapeliitta studded tires on stock rims and they made winter disappear. Very impressive. Although they were of course stiff, noisy and severely limited speed, as to be expected of a dedicated studded winter tire.

The Nokian WRG2 offers an interesting dilemma, no need to maintain two sets of wheels and tires and the hassle of changeover. They have a 60k warranty, suggesting I never need to buy another set of tires. However one size fits all often means fair at everything, good at nothing. Does anyone have experience with these tires? Opinions, advice?

[awdjunkies]

If you are going with Nokian? I would suggest the Hakkapeliitta winter tire. Yes, I would suggest a separate tire for the winter, especially because you drive half of the year on ice/snow. You already know the dedicated snow/studded tire outperformed any and all of your expectations from your last car... Especially in Alaska, don't buy into the A/S tire because you may regret it, as you are absolutely correct, it does everything great but not an expert at ONE thing... Just my 2 pennies.

[Dcass08]

If you are going with Nokian? I would suggest the Hakkapeliitta winter tire. Yes, I would suggest a separate tire for the winter, especially because you drive half of the year on ice/snow. You already know the dedicated snow/studded tire outperformed any and all of your expectations from your last car... Especially in Alaska, don't buy into the A/S tire because you may regret it, as you are absolutely correct, it does everything great but not an expert at ONE thing... Just my 2 pennies.

Agreed, I used regular Hakkapeliittas and they worked great. Obviously here in New Hampshire our winter is a bit shorter so not really a need for studs. Love the brand though.

[LJH]

Agree with all of the above....a "all weather" tire will never be as good as a tire dedicated to whatever job it was designed to do. In my younger years when I was going to VT every weekend from December through April I ran a couple sets of Hakkapeliita snows and have nothing but good things to say about them except for the price.

Cheers,
Jim

[snowbird]

Here here! My Nokian Hakka's were my fav winter tire ever. They're now pretty expensive though.

I'm totally against all-season (or all-weather as Nokian calls them) tires. They definitely won't have the same winter capability as dedicated snows. And I feel this way driving in Toronto, never mind Anchorage!

[dparm]

Agree with all of the above....a "all weather" tire will never be as good as a tire dedicated to whatever job it was designed to do. In my younger years when I was going to VT every weekend from December through April I ran a couple sets of Hakkapeliita snows and have nothing but good things to say about them except for the price.

Cheers,
Jim

Exactly. All-seasons are just mediocre at everything, whereas a summer tire is excellent at dry performance and a winter tire is excellent at cold performance.

[Axel-]

I used to have Nokian NRWs (like 10+ years ago, they stopped making them a while back) and they used black magic technology. By that I mean they were at 80% level of performance compared to my dedicated summer performance tires and absolutely fantastic in both snow and ice. I couldn't believe it and they saved my car a bunch of times. Unfortunately, they stopped making them and now Nokians are pretty expensive so I haven't tried their recent "performance" oriented winter tires. (The Hakka 1s are pure winter). I'm curious whether their current version is as good.

[Tugboatguy]

Exactly. All-seasons are just mediocre at everything, whereas a summer tire is excellent at dry performance and a winter tire is excellent at cold performance.

Yes All Seasons Are mediocre, WRG2's are Not All Season they are All Weather and there is a difference.
I bought a set a couple of years ago because i was doing a road trip in Nov from up here in Vancouver down through Washington cutting over to the East side of Navada down to Vegas,Then we were heading to Cal and up the Coast.
The weather was good at the time but there was a good chance it could change to at the Very least very cold and heavy rain if not snow coming back up through Wa.
At the time I had summer onlys and a Set of Dunlop winter tires, I had a choice of risking the summers that were getting a little slick at home already due to the cool temps at night or burn off a lot of tread on my winters.
I read about the WRG2's and found a place local that had them in stock and mounted them on my stock rims, I drove them really hard for the next couple of days and tryed to get the traction light the come on. Frosty mornings had a day of heavy rain, and dry high speed, very impressed.
Well did our trip and had beauty full weather till Napa and up through The Red Woods, hit the Oregon border in the dark with heavy rain mixed with snow ( this was November 2010) .
We ended up driving up through Oregon and Washington through heavy snow and ice,lots of cars off in the ditches but the Nokians were great.
They were not quite as good as the Dunlops but dam close. I haven't actually put my snow tires on since then, I run my summers while its warm and when the Temps drop and the summers get slick I switch to the Nokians.
Frankly I've been tempted to just leave the Nokians on, it's just that the summers are on my black rims and they do have a better high speed grip ( but surprisingly not that better).
When I bought my Cherokee I was going to put a set on it but they were out of stock at the time and I need tires now, ended up with scorpion AT's.
Nokians good all round tire, only big draw back it the high price up here ( we get raped on tires up here) .

[s4ski]

Thanks everybody for the replys and confirmation. I think I will pass on those tires and stick to dedicated winter summer wheels and tires.

I have a follow-on question. The car came with Blizzak WS70 with only one season on them. They are 215/50 R17 mounted on 7.5" rims. They felt great on test drive, but haven't spent a winter with them. I dislike the rims they are on, looking like impellers from a jet engine. Looked for replacements but not much to choose from that I like. I could sell the whole set, maybe put some new Blizzaks or comparable studless tire on the Avus rims, since I want to replace for summer anyway. Or even shell out for Hakkas. Opinions?