2018 NAF/Motor Magazine (Norway) Winter Tire Test

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2018 NAF Studless Winter tire test rankings:

#1 Continental Contivikingcontact 7
#2 Pirelli Ice Zero Fr
#3 Goodyear Ultra Grip Ice 2
#4 Nokian Hakkapeliita R3
#5 Bridgestone Blizzak WS80
#6 Hankook Winter I*Cept IZ2
#7 Michelin X-Ice Xi3
#8 Nokian Nordman Rs2

https://www.naf.no/forbrukertester/dekktester/vinterdekktest-2018/

And the results tables.

https://www.motor.no/artikler/slik-rangeres-dekkene-ulik-foreforhold/

Basically the Continental has the best snow and ice ranking and mid-pack pavement ranking. Goodyear had the best pavement ranking and mid-pack snow/ice ranking.

About half of those we can't get in the USA anyway, but it's interesting anyway. Looks like that Xice Xi3 is getting a outdated.

Consumer Reports just rated the new Cooper Discoverer True North their top winter tire. Might be a good option!
 
I wonder where the General Altimax Arctic and Vitour Polar Bear's would stack up in this test.
 
Why surprised? They are small company being beaten in their own game, unluckily.
I wonder if any big player will buy them or Chinese.

We shall see.

Krzysztof
 
Edit the list down to the tires that are actually available in the US: (parentheses to indicate the original NAF rank)
#1 Pirelli Ice Zero Fr (2)
#2 Nokian Hakkapeliita R3 (4)
#3 Bridgestone Blizzak WS80 (5)
#4 Hankook Winter I*Cept IZ2 (6)
#5 Michelin X-Ice Xi3 (7)

The Nordman RS2 is probably a rebranded Hakka R2. Although Nokian doesn't sell that studless Nordman here, you can probably still get the R2 on clearance, since the R3 just came out.

Originally Posted by krzyss
Why surprised? They are small company being beaten in their own game, unluckily.
I wonder if any big player will buy them or Chinese.

We shall see.

Krzysztof


Nokian is the most profitable tire company.
 
Originally Posted by krzyss
Why surprised? They are small company being beaten in their own game, unluckily.
I wonder if any big player will buy them or Chinese.
We shall see. Krzysztof


Surprised because they have always produced outstanding winter tires, their R & D is second to none, but like everything else there are ups & downs in this business. Next test they may be on top again, but I will NEVER trust any chinese made item for quality; if they have quality the price is almost the same as ours.
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Tire Rack only shows two sizes available for Pirelli Ice Zero. Is it new? Maybe more will be available soon?


There are many more sizes shown on Pirelli's site
 
Originally Posted by Pelican
VERY surprised that Hakkapellitta is not at the top.


The Hakka9 was rated #1 this year among the studded tires in the NAF (Test World) testing. Last year they were rated #3.

Looks to me like the R3 lost some ice traction, compared to the R2, in exchange for improved wet traction. The R3 ranked second (among studless tires) in the wet braking test, but the R2 would typically rank near the bottom.
 
A couple years ago Nokian cheated by supplying tires in a consumer test that weren't exactly what they were selling to the consumer. They represented their tires as off the shelf when in actuality they were much softer durometer than the real thing. They won the contest hands down with the cheaters.
 
Originally Posted by sloinker
A couple years ago Nokian cheated by supplying tires in a consumer test that weren't exactly what they were selling to the consumer. They represented their tires as off the shelf when in actuality they were much softer durometer than the real thing. They won the contest hands down with the cheaters.


Continental was guilty of this in the past. This year the studded Hankook RS2 (W429) tire is under suspicion, as noted in the Russian website:

https://shina.guide/press/15941/#more-15941

From an imperfect Google translation:
Quote
In August 2018, ice doping tests were conducted at a closed Contidrom test site in Germany, but only for Hankook Winter i * Pike RS2 tires purchased in the retail network. The results of the latter differed from the initial achievements of the model and were not so overwhelming against the background of the indices of the main competitor Nokian Hakkapeliitta 9.

"Retail" Hankook tires could not confirm their advantage in the braking performance on the ice: their braking distance was 8% longer compared to the brake distance of Nokian tires. That is, it turns out that the overall difference in braking models is 13% not in favor of Hankook.

And assuming that the results of the doping test and the basic test of Nokian tires are the same, it turns out that the braking ability of the Hankook Winter i * Pike RS2 W429 studs is somewhere on the level of the friction models Continental VikingContact 7, Yokohama iceGuard iG60 and Toyo Observe Gsi-5.



From the same link, there is a test (done by Autoreview) summary of these tires:

Tested winter studless tires:

Continental VikingContact 7 -
Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3 -
Yokohama iceGuard iG60
Hankook Winter i * cept iZ2 W616
Goodyear UltraGrip Ice 2
Pirelli Ice Zero FR
Nokian Nordman RS2
Bridgestone Blizzak VRX
Toyo Observe Gsi-5


Tested winter studded tires:

Bridgestone Blizzak Spike-02
Continental IceContact 2
Cordiant Snow Cross 2
Firestone Ice Cruiser 7
Gislaved Nord * Frost 200
Goodyear UltraGrip Ice ArctiÑ
GT Radial IcePro 3
Hankook Winter i * Pike RS2 W429 -
Nokian Hakkapeliitta 9
Nokian Nordman 7
Pirelli Ice Zero
Toyo Observe Ice-Freezer
Yokohama iceGuard iG65

Quote
"Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3: [ranked #4 overall] Their hobby is an icy road, where they brake faster than other non-studded tires and have better results among competitors. On the rolled snow behave somewhat more modestly, and on the asphalt inferior in the reliability of contact with the roadway and ride comfort. Their habitat is outside the city."

"Continental VikingContact 7: [ranked #1 overall] In the leaders, they brought the balance between the indicators on snow, ice and asphalt, as well as the lack of punctures in the results and the comfort of the move, although on the ice they were worse than the main competitors. Ideal for urban use, Continental VikingContact 7 is the best non-studded winter tires of the 2018/2019 season according to the magazine Autoreview."
 
Originally Posted by sloinker
I wonder where the General Altimax Arctic and Vitour Polar Bear's would stack up in this test.

Generals are hand me down tires from Gislaved, the Nordfrost line, which are studdable. These results are studies specific designs
 
Is there anywhere that has the results of mileage or tire wear? I've always ran snow tires in the winter but with the amount of road trips I do, I'm not sure if I can justify buying winter tires that'll only last me one, maybe two seasons max. Especially when I drive from Illinois through Colorado, Utah, then down to Arizona and Texas in the winter.
 
Originally Posted by Pew
Is there anywhere that has the results of mileage or tire wear? I've always ran snow tires in the winter but with the amount of road trips I do, I'm not sure if I can justify buying winter tires that'll only last me one, maybe two seasons max. Especially when I drive from Illinois through Colorado, Utah, then down to Arizona and Texas in the winter.


Could swap snows off/on if you are worried, or try to only use for Jan/Feb -ish. Put on good A/S for Dec/Mar, like a new set--if you still have life left in the old(er) A/S then leave those on a set of rims and burn off that rubber in the summer months. Yeah ok that means having three sets of wheels but if cost is the bottom line...

Every mile you put onto the winter tires is a mile you take off your good A/S tires. It's not as if you just doubled your tire cost per year.

Also, if you truly are wearing out the good half of the rubber over the course of the winter: just run the tire farther into spring. Supposedly (?) winter tires are not good on hot asphalt--but they should be fine through May I'd think.
 
Originally Posted by Snagglefoot
Interesting that Goodyear beat out Nokian. The Goodyear's are priced better up here. Thanks for the post.

Good Year always had top notch winter tires in Europe. Actually in 1990's and beginning of 2000's they were absolute leader in winter tire field. Later they would be overtaken by Continental.
 
Originally Posted by Pelican
Originally Posted by krzyss
Why surprised? They are small company being beaten in their own game, unluckily.
I wonder if any big player will buy them or Chinese.
We shall see. Krzysztof


Surprised because they have always produced outstanding winter tires, their R & D is second to none, but like everything else there are ups & downs in this business. Next test they may be on top again, but I will NEVER trust any chinese made item for quality; if they have quality the price is almost the same as ours.

They do not have outstanding winter tires. Winter means driving in dry, wet, warm, not only deep snow and ice.
I have R2 SUV on Tiguan, and they stack somewhere in middle of 40+ models of winter tires I had before. They are good in snow and ice, abysmal in dry and wet. They cannot carry water to Michelin X-ice Xi2 I had on BMW, because those tires did everything good. Not to mention that one R2 needs same amount of weights to be balanced like all 4 Michelins.They are loud, very hard over road imperfections. And their R&D is not second to none, that is Michelin, Bridgestone, Pirelli etc.
Nokian tire is like Liqui Moly oil. Overhyped company that is selling product under ad: we are Finish company, there are winters here, so we know how to make those tires.
Now, what they improved on R3 is yet to be seen after multiple tests. I know on regular R2 (not SUV) any wet discipline was an issue, although from personal experience, as stated above, R2 SUV is horrid in wet too.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by E365
^ +1

In the 2017 NAF Test, the Nokian Hakka R2 was dead-last in the wet asphalt braking test. Behind all the cheap Chinese tires.

https://www.motor.no/artikler/2017/oktober/vinterdekk-2017-bremsing-pa-vat-asfalt/

You mentioned Xi3 being outdated. Take into consideration that Xi3 is more well rounded performer whose real competitors are Continental TS860, Good Year Ultra Grip 9. I am still though skeptical about Xi3 and deep snow. Though I was skeptical about Xi2 and deep snow and they proved really good.
 
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