winter tires-nokian vs. the rest?

NYSpeed Automotive
1

The only winter tires I’ve ever had are a set of hakka q’s that I got very cheap. They still have quite a bit of tread left after 3 full winters with a lot of driving but aren’t anywhere near what they used to be in snow/slush.

They have been great but I’m wondering are the less expensive tires as good? Can anybody compare nokians to other tires? The blizzak revo is on sale at tire rack and the hankook w409 looks pretty good too. They are both about $40 less per tire compared to the nokians. I drive to arcade every day and frequently to ellicottville so snow traction is the #1 priority.

2

Garick, I’ve never had problems with my $50 per tire Winterforces in the past on both AWD and a FWD car. Traction was always incredible with those.

3

Winterforces got me home from work (from Elma to Tonawanda) in the Slocus during the absolute worst of the October Storm.

4

I had Kelly Magnagrips on the Civ. Never had a prob. Hakka’s are amazing though, no doubt.

The RX7 has Blizzak’s. They do just fine.

5

winterforce tires are the most amazing bang for the buck winter tire. I had them for a year on my civic and LOVED um… and ive read of many other people that had a set and never any complaints.

6

my hakka Q’s are amazing, i know hakka replaced them with another model or whatever, but ive had blizzaks as well last winter and both get the job done :tup:

7

I mean, honestly, snow tires are snow tires. I drove my CRX with all seasons when I was 16, never had problems. They’re a bonus, but not exactly a neccessity.

8

werd, I have nitto’s on my car right now. I’ve been laid off so I haven’t had money to get snows but even those can work in the snow (just not crazy deep snow).

9

the best snow tires i ever had were some hanook snow tires… they had like 1" tread on them

10

That’s like saying all season tires are good for any season. When in reality all season tires are NO season tires (says the guy rocking Cooper Turbo’s all winter because he didnt feel like buying snow tires this year ;)). There are certainly better snow tires than others. I’d put money I wouldnt have had an issue on our street that one night if I had my studded Nokian’s from last year. Same with my jeep when I went through 3ft of snow last year in mud, in a back yard to drop an engine into a barn in Albany. I know for a fact certain snow tires couldnt handle that type of abuse. It all comes down to personal preference, driving style, and how much you want to spend.

Yes, Nokian’s are that good.

11

Take the same cash you would have dropped on a better brand and get a set of Winterforces studded.

12

Dont get studded tires until you ride in a car with studded tires, they are fucking loud

13

I had no trouble getting used to them. IMO they help quite a bit.

14

Does road noise really bother you that much? Seriously, your driving your car not sitting in a spa. The noise is there but isn’t anything crazy.

15

I am a tire snob.

If you buy Hankook or Kuhmo for the summer then just buy shitty snow tires too.
If you buy high end summer tires then buy Nokian or Bliazzak for the winter.

At the end of the year I never say, “Damn I wish I had that extra $200 back that I spent on snow tires.”

My 2 cents.

Edit: You always see crashes on here in the winter. Have you ever seen someone with Hakkas crash unless they were seriously fucking around?

16

Had Nokians. They were great. I’m speaking in terms of casual driving. If people crash in winter and blame the tires, they clearly weren’t thinking of the road conditions. The best tires won’t stop an idiot from crashing. That’s all I’m saying. No Gin Gin for you.

17

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there is a big differance between running all seaasons in the winter Vs running snow tires.

Going from one brand of snow tires to another you start to see diminishing returns on the investment in snow tire $ vs traction advantage.

Going from all seasons to ANY dedicated winter snow/ice tire is a huge advantage.

But going from Brand X at 50 dollars to brand Y at 200 dollars per tire does not yield a 400% difference in traction. I would say the difference will be minimal at best.

18

100% spot on what I was thinking.

19

my first snow tires were Dunlop wintersport M3 on my maxima. they were great. they got the job done in the snow (stopping insanly better then any all season) and when it was freezing but the roads were clear you can drive like hell and get great traction.

then on the evo I ended up with some cheap snow tires first because I couldn’t find a place with the M3 in stock.

the difference was BIG.
-they didn’t stop as well
-they didn’t turn as well
-getting moving was pretty equal (but I have AWD)
-the sidewalls stucked
-they were miserable to do any fun driving with.

this year I’m back to M3s on my evo now and I love them to death… so much fun.

but as I expected from this thread we have mostly people who don’t know the difference saying that there is not one. just like the audio thread.

20

i miss my blizzaks…but i got a set of hanook icebears for free so i am not going to complain…next year i am def gettin atleast 2 new blizzaks…of course 2 diff cars as well…but my spec with LSD has a hard time getting going with the Hanooks than my one wheels peel maxima with blizzaks…maxima had more torque