[s-cars] Snow tire shopping, blizzak vs Nokian vs? thoughts?

[JC]

Larry - Nothing inherently studded about the Hakkas - I've had a number of
non-studded sets (as well as a studded sets when I lived in the mtns).

Chris -

I've had a fair number of Nokias in general as well as Blizzaks over the
last 20 years. Re: Nokia's (I hated when they changed the tire brand to
'Nokian' because they thought we'd confuse tires with cell phones) they
basically have 2 lines of snows - the Hakkas as the extreme snow tire that
will shed lots of deep snow, and the WR-former-NRW line which Nokia calls
'all season' but is still outstanding in the snow and doesn't start to
compare to some generic Conti all-season for instance. If you haven't
checked the WR (former NRW) line they are worth a look.

While the Hakka is great in deep snow, it is obvs a full-on snow and a bit
wiggly and noisy (as to be expected). The WR line is a notch down for
extreme snow as the tread packs sooner in really deep stuff but still
performs extremely well and is still surprisingly good on the highway and
surprisingly acceptable going around corners.   I run a set of WR's now and
they've been around for several years and been on 3 soon to be 4 different
cars, so treadlife is surprisingly good. Haven't had any flatspot issues but
then again I don't park them for months - they're either off the car in dry
storage or they are being driven. It's the perfect tire for me to live in
lower altitudes, do lots of dry highway speed and daily city driving, but
still make trips to the mountains regardless of weather (or BECAUSE of the
weather... heh-heh...)

Haven't tried the newer WR-G2 and Hakka Rsi, but if I have to buy snows
it'll probably be the WR-G2 since it's essentially the WR with Blizzak-style
silica compound and some other fancy stuff.

Re: Blizzaks, I've had them and they 1. ran well particularly on ice (hence
the WRG2/RSi are the Nokian answer to the silica compound ice-tire), 2. had
very good dry performance feel, 3. did OK in snow although not as good at
shedding as the Nokias, but 4. the wear was terrible as you say, even vs.
other snows like Hakka/NRW/WR.

JC

---- current ----
1995.5 S6 Avant
---- past lives ----
2006 A4 2.0TQA
1998 A6Q 2.8 PES G2
1989 200TQA SJM
1990 CQ
1997 A4 1.8TQ Wett
1987 4kCSQ

John J. Cunningham
jc at j2c3.com
US Mobile +1 (617) 750-5025
Main / Global +1 (978) 633-3510
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> -----Original Message-----
> miles before they hit the winter wear bars. Never had Hakka's
> (it's the highway thing, I just don't think Hakka's will last




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