Everyone still lovin' the Nokian WR's?

[Garandman]

We just got another minivan (used Mazda MPV) and will be replacing the tires soon. I have both 16" and 17" rims for it, but will probably stick with the 16" for ride comfort.

 

I've read reviews on Canadian Driver, snowtire.info, and a few other forums like this one. The Nokian WR seems perfect for this vehicle. Boston doesn't get huge amounts of snow, but we live on a hill and take trips elsewhere in New England.

 

Seems like the WR gives up a little high speed cornering stability: with three kids on board that is immaterial (the crayons fly everywhere). They seem to be very good on wet roads (not generally true for dedicated snows) and substantially better than most A/S on snow and ice. And tread life seems to be reasonable.

 

This all in line with your experience? They'd cost $139 mounted and balanced for 216/60416's, which is not bad - the optional 17" would be $185 each. I have a set of RSI's for the Subaru but my wife doesn't drive that much to warrant two sets of rims and tires.

[BoxerGT2.5]

I love them, but it's been awhile since I've driven on them. Well see how they do in season #3.

[S4]

Been loving mine, but I don't use them in the summer. They were fine though in the spring when it was warmer. Just not performance tires. They'd be fine year round, but I just didn't want to wear out my "winter" tires.

[chenc544]

Been loving mine, but I don't use them in the summer. They were fine though in the spring when it was warmer. Just not performance tires. They'd be fine year round, but I just didn't want to wear out my "winter" tires.

 

2nd, they are not performance tires. But since they are going on the MPV they would be great year round.

[GTIan]

Seems like the WR gives up a little high speed cornering stability: with three kids on board that is immaterial (the crayons fly everywhere). They seem to be very good on wet roads (not generally true for dedicated snows) and substantially better than most A/S on snow and ice. And tread life seems to be reasonable.

 

I have a set mounted on the stock rims for winter use and I love them for a winter tire.

 

I ended up leaving mine on until mid-april when the threat of snow/ice/slush was over. In snow, ranging from a dusting to 5+ in they handled great. And they did handle wet conditions better than most A/S tires as well. On dry roads they were fine, nothing outstanding but then again it's not a performance tire.

 

The nice thing about the tires is the fact that they wear like an A/S tire. I only put about 3k on them this past season, but they show very little signs of wear.

[Impulse]

GTIan:

 

from your experiance with rochester winters (not the last one), would the WRs be sufficient for our type of winter? (really cold, lots of lake effect snow, and salt for those not familliar with rochester, ny)

[GTIan]

GTIan:

 

from your experiance with rochester winters (not the last one), would the WRs be sufficient for our type of winter? (really cold, lots of lake effect snow, and salt for those not familliar with rochester, ny)

 

Yes, I'm expecting these to hold up well in our typical winter. Last year we only got ~60" of snow, when we would normally get 100+". And we didn't get any of the late march freezing rain/ice/snow storms. I did encounter 5+" of snow and some slushy conditions on trips last winter and the WR's seemed like they could handle more.

[andrew_j]

IMHO Nokian WR are an incredible winter tire in the fact that they last 50k miles and are incredible on dry/wet (substantial portion of winter).

 

For a non-performance car/van they are a perfect all-in-one tire with serious winter capability. My wife an excellent winter driver still has not noticed a signficant difference between her previous 96 Civic equipped with Nokian WR's and my WRX with Nokian WR's. She works in the medical field and has to be at work regardless of conditions. She commutes 40 mins on a good day. Really bad days she makes it in the same time usually since people don't venture out Her Civic had no issue in during a 12" snow storm in unplowed areas.

 

I however think as a year round tire on my WRX and if on a LGT or any performance car they give up a lot of dry performance in the warm months vs an ultra-high performance tire. They are an expensive tire.

[PGT]

we have them in stock LGT size on the wife's MINI. She thinks they are fine, but would agree with the 'at the limit' handling. On our recent local 'Burger Rally', she drove and commented the car felt 'light' through many of the fast sweepers. Her commute is 8 miles one way and never over 45mph, so it's rare she pushes them. :thumbsup: from me, as they do make a difference in the white stuff, which is why we bought them (the MINI is a BMW and BMW's don't like snow for some reason).

[Garandman]

Thanks for the updates. I'm still debating the 16" versus 17" sizing. The stock 215/60r16's are around 26-26.2" in diameter. To keep the speedo in range, I'd have to go to a 215/55r17 or a 50 series to get a 225 section. As our minivans spend a lot of time whackin' potholes, it seems like a lot of expense to little purpose. A 225/55r16 seems to be more logical.

 

GTIan:

 

from your experiance with rochester winters (not the last one), would the WRs be sufficient for our type of winter? (really cold, lots of lake effect snow, and salt for those not familliar with rochester, ny)

 

You have a great resource: the guys at www.snowtire.info are from Rochester and do all their testing nearby. If you go down to http://www.snowtire.info/#JohnsPersonalPicks|outline

the 2004 tests used the WR year-round. He was impressed.

 

There are forums there, including links to other snow tire tests. And one guy translated the results from a Norwegian car magazine snow tire test, then put the results into an Excel spreadsheet. Of the non-studded tires available in the US, the top-rated were Nokian RSI; Michelin X-Ice; and Blizzak WS-50. The WR placed last in the 2004 Norwegian tests, but the competion were all dedicated snows like those mentioned above that are generally noiser and faster wearing. The source doc is at

http://www.motor.no/pdf/Vinterdekktest_2004.pdf

[chenc544]

^^^ Basically comes down to it, the WR is the best performing A/S tires for the white stuff. The fact that they would even put it up against dedicated snow tire is a testimony to its winter performance.

[emlevins]

Agree. I love them and they held up well in the last Erie, PA winter....and our winters can be as bad as anywhere. I run F1s in spring, summer and early fall. But the other thing I love about the WRs is that there is not a huge drop in performance in dry conditions. I enjoy driving spiritedly with them and rarely miss the F1s when I am running the WRs. OK, I miss the F1s a little...but that is as much because I miss the weather I drive them in

[Garandman]

Just took a look at the Norwegian test. There are no "regular" tires tested as controls. But in a CR test, regular tires took twice as far to stop from 20-0 as dedicated snows. The tests were "blind" in that the driver did not know what tires were on the car when testing.

 

The studded tires stopped on ice in 37-47 meters. The RSI stopped in 51 m; the X-Ice 51.5; the Blizzak 55.5; and the WR 64.5.

 

Acceleration 5-30km/h took 7.4 to 10.7 seconds for studded tires. The RSI took 11.6; X-Ice 11.9; Blizzak 12.7 and WR 14.5.

 

They also tested lateral acceleration on a 60m ice circle; snow acceleration and braking; and another category called Kjoreegenskaper that I could not decipher.

 

The sidebar comment seems to say that the WR is best on asphalt: not surprising.

[CreoSTi]

I use 225/55/17 Nokian WRs on the Forester year-round in San Francisco, and they've been great in the rain (34.43" last year), dry (50-90 degrees), and snow (Tahoe).

 

-Mike-

[rougeben83]

ask the guys over at mpvclub.com :D (family has an 04 LX)

[Garandman]

I have. The one guy who had WR's lives in CA (no snow mileage) and put Nokian i3's on. Hence the search for Truth.....

[rougeben83]

You can search the Audi A4 forums; a lot of them use WR's

[Garandman]

We got them. Here's a comparison with the tread on the RSI.

http://www.geocities.com/theseventhfirst/nokianwr.jpg

 

http://www.geocities.com/theseventhfirst/nokianrsi.jpg

[Garandman]

I got the following private message. I'm responding here so that others may comment.

I'm still wrestling with my choice of going more extreme weather oriented with RSi or X-Ice vs. more cold dry/wet oriented with WR, 3D, or PA2. The X-Ice would have to be 205/50 and the 3D either 205/50 or 225/45.

 

I know it sounds stupid, but I am a bit biased away from WRs. This will be my first set of separate (stock) wheels for winter in a long time, and the thought of buying "all-seasons" bothers me. I know the WRs are head and shoulders above of other A/S, but there you have it.

Without knowing where someone lives, and how much driving they do, that's hard to decide. If you have to be at work early before the plow trucks get going, you need snows more. Last winter I was glad I had them a total of 6 days: the Winter before, double that.

 

Our Subaru is driven throughout northern New England at all times of day or night and has RSI's. Our Nissan Quest, used the same way also has dedicated snows. Our MPV seldom leaves greater Boston and Boston only gets 45" of snow per season on average (range is from 20 to 109" though) - and ice melts fairly quickly since we're a few hundred yards from the ocean and the ocean temp seldom falls below 40 degrees. But we live on a hill and often have to back up into a parking space. The Michelin X radials on our old van did amazingly well in snow, but not so well on ice. So the WR seemed a good choice.

 

The WR was the worst performing studless snow tire in the Motor tests - which was 10-20% worse than the RSI. But that's 50-100% better on snow or ice than many all-seasons. It was rated relatively higher by ADAC. I'd say it's the perfect year round tire for most New England drivers - although the TripleTred seems to outsell it many times over.

 

We bought them at Johns Tires in Manchester NH (where we have an office and also get truck tires) so I don't know who the best MA dealers are or what they charge.

[Garandman]

....The average soccer mom that takes her minivan to the tire shop to source out winter tires probably just goes with the first recommendation...

 

Yeah, except soccer mom's car is taken in by Macho dad, apparently: I was referring to the number of Subarus I see in the area with TT's. I'm in the habit of stopping and checking the replacement tires when I see a parked Subaru.....

 

Women Subaru owners buy Michelins, more likely.

[mlrtime]

Last year wasn't there a group buy or a resource for the WRs?

 

We need to get that going again.

[Lil_Sol]

so i know this is the 11billionth time its been asked... but in toronto... good or bad for a legacy gt?

 

im lookin to buy a used set for 350 CAD good deal or bad?

[Vimy101]

I haven't driven on much snow (all of 1 inch fell here last year )

 

And you say you come from the great white north. Where are you located? Hongcouver?

[Garandman]

Did you see the Canadian Driver review?

http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/hl/nokian.htm

[jim1969]

I'm deciding between the WR SUV or the Yokohama Avid TRZ for my wife's minivan. I want one set for the year. I live near NYC. I see packed plowed stuff and slush. Not a lot of deep snow. Recommendations?