All Weather Tire Recommendation for AWD Honda Crosstour (CrossClimate2 vs WRG4)

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Aug 27, 2013
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Location
Nebraska
I have a Honda Crosstour AWD running 225/60 R18's that is in need of some new tires. I live in the Midwest, last season was one of the top 10 snowfalls on record, and it seems to be that way about every 3 years or so. I currently have Nokian WRG3's on the car and have monitors tire pressures and rotated them every 5k miles resulting in about 42k miles of life out of the rated 50k. I have had Nokians the last few sets of tires on a couple of vehicles and they are great in snow, good in wet, ok in dry. Tread life in hasn't been great but the G3's have been the best so far, and the WRG4 are supposed to improve that again. That added traction in the snow and ice has gotten me out of a bind more than once, which is why I am looking at All Weather rated tires instead of All seasons. I do primarily city driving so tire noise isn't a big concern.

So I think I have things down to 2 options, some Nokian WRG4's from a local tire shop, or Michelin CrossClimate 2 from Costco. The Nokian's do come with free oil changes but I do like to DIY on my oil changes so it's not a huge value add unless I'm super busy, the local shop is also a one stop shop for mount, balance and align. The bad news is the Nokian is about $275 more after comparing apples to apples (With rebates factored in) best I can.

I am curious to what you guys would do in this situation? Both tires are mountain snowflake rated, same rated tread life, similar performance all around from common metrics. The CrossClimate2 has a traction rating of B but my understanding this is due to how it's tested rather then an indicator of actual real world performance.
 
I'd get the CrossClimate just to compare them to the Nokian that you already have a fell for.

Noise of tire depends on vehicle and the ear.
 
Michelin CC, this coming from a Nokian fan. Mostly because of the savings and nice to try a different tire periodically.
 
Here in Sweden winter tires like the ones you are considering is illegal, that is how bad they are in real winter compared to real winter tyres. These tyres might work the best of all tyres in 1 month in the spring and 1 month in the fall. They are not really good compared to summer tires even. So 10/12 months of the year you are driving with a tire that is suboptimal. I have bought a car that has a set of the CrossClimate tyres on one of the rim sets as summer tires. (We here change tyres/rims after season). The CrossClimate felt like a summer tire last fall when it was slippery. The effect of putting on Nokian Hakkapelliita 9s were on another planet compared to it.
 
Here in Sweden winter tires like the ones you are considering is illegal, that is how bad they are in real winter compared to real winter tyres. These tyres might work the best of all tyres in 1 month in the spring and 1 month in the fall. They are not really good compared to summer tires even. So 10/12 months of the year you are driving with a tire that is suboptimal. I have bought a car that has a set of the CrossClimate tyres on one of the rim sets as summer tires. (We here change tyres/rims after season). The CrossClimate felt like a summer tire last fall when it was slippery. The effect of putting on Nokian Hakkapelliita 9s were on another planet compared to it.
How are they illegal? They have the requisite 3PMS logo, just like a Hakka 9, so they would be just as legal.

In winter conditions, minimum tread depth is 5 mm on all tires except trailer tires. When winter weather prevails, from 1 December to 31 March, vehicles GVW ≤ 3.5 t must be equipped with 3PMSF or studded tires.

An American All-season tire would be illegal for a Swedish winter, since American All-seasons do not typically have the 3PMS logo, however the 2 tires discussed in this thread are not the case.

The Nokian WR G4 started out life as the WR A4, but Nokian made some "changes", don't know what and called it an All-Weather tire for the US/Canada market. Everyone but Michelin and their customers knows that All-weather tires are a compromise tire.

Comparing those tires to a Hakka 9 studded tire, those are on 2 different planets of tires.
 
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Nokian will be better in snow and ice while new, after some time Michelin will probably be better (my Xi2 after 3 years have better traction now than Nokian R2 after 3 years).
In EVERYTHING else, Michelin and then several steps down Nokian, maybe.
 
Nokian will be better in snow and ice while new, after some time Michelin will probably be better (my Xi2 after 3 years have better traction now than Nokian R2 after 3 years).
In EVERYTHING else, Michelin and then several steps down Nokian, maybe.
But when you compare the CC2 to the WRG4, the CC2 has quite large treadblocks with not much in terms of siping. So, it's mostly compound that makes it work.

This is why on the Tyre Review Youtube channel, the bloke differentiates the Euro All-season between summer-focused (Michelin CC) and winter-focused (Continental AllSeasonContact, Nokian Weatherproof/Seasonproof, etc)

But, yes, when the WRG4 is close to the WSI mark and worn, the packed snow grip is non-existent (guess how I found out), but at that remaining tread depth, it's illegal in many areas, including your state of Colorado (3/16")... so Michelin's bragging of their X-ice snow performance at 4/32" is a moot point.
 
But when you compare the CC2 to the WRG4, the CC2 has quite large treadblocks with not much in terms of siping. So, it's mostly compound that makes it work.

This is why on the Tyre Review Youtube channel, the bloke differentiates the Euro All-season between summer-focused (Michelin CC) and winter-focused (Continental AllSeasonContact, Nokian Weatherproof/Seasonproof, etc)

But, yes, when the WRG4 is close to the WSI mark and worn, the packed snow grip is non-existent (guess how I found out), but at that remaining tread depth, it's illegal in many areas, including your state of Colorado (3/16")... so Michelin's bragging of their X-ice snow performance at 4/32" is a moot point.
My Michelin Xi2 has less depth than R2 on my wife's Tiguan (they are at healthy number 6). Yet, they are starting to struggle, mostly where the compound is at play, hard-packed snow, ice etc. I do not notice in Xi2 any degradation in snow and ice performance, yet. It must be said that R2 was much better in snow and ice initially. Now? They are off the car in the Fall, regardless that they still have healthy depth. Their already miserable dry and wet performance is entering "pray to stop" territory.
 
My WRG4's are still on the car since I have to wear them out completely before I put on the 18" wheels. They did just fine one the curvy roads in Sequoia National Park, though I don't push too hard on a 215/65r16 tire.

It's worn down to some nice and stable tread blocks. At that condition, it struggled to start from a stop on packed snow from an incline. (I should of threw on the chains)
51099397167_4c979729c6_b.jpg


Next ski season, I plan on getting a larger SUV... a HiHy Platinum AWD. After having the Tiguan with the Panoramic sunroof, I can't go back to the Plebian sized sunroof anymore.
 
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My WRG4's are still on the car since I have to wear them out completely before I put on the 18" wheels. They did just fine one the curvy roads in Sequoia National Park, though I don't push too hard on a 215/65r16 tire.

It's worn down to some nice and stable tread blocks. At that condition, it struggled to start from a stop on packed snow from an incline. (I should of threw on the chains)
51099397167_4c979729c6_b.jpg


Next ski season, I plan on getting a larger SUV... a HiHy Platinum AWD. After having the Tiguan with the Panoramic sunroof, I can't go back to the Plebian sized sunroof anymore.
We just had snow storm this Sunday. So I usually keep Sienna and Tiguan on snows until mid May. But on Saturday it was 82 degrees and had hard braking with Tiguan and it was all over the place. After this week they are off.
By tge way what is HiHy? Highlander Hybrid?
 
We just had snow storm this Sunday. So I usually keep Sienna and Tiguan on snows until mid May. But on Saturday it was 82 degrees and had hard braking with Tiguan and it was all over the place. After this week they are off.
By tge way what is HiHy? Highlander Hybrid?
Yes, Highlander Hybrid. I wouldn't mind 35 mpg combined, compared to about 23 for the V6.

I would love the Atlas, but I don't love the 19 (Vr6) or 22 (2.0T) combined fuel economy, and more maintenance for the Haldex... the drain & refills, and occasionally pulling the pump to clean the screen
 
Yes, Highlander Hybrid. I wouldn't mind 35 mpg combined, compared to about 23 for the V6.

I would love the Atlas, but I don't love the 19 (Vr6) or 22 (2.0T) combined fuel economy, and more maintenance for the Haldex... the drain & refills, and occasionally pulling the pump to clean the screen
Here at altitude I didn’t like how Vr6 behaved. Never tried 2.0T in Atlas to see if it handles thin air better than VR6. On paper 2.0T should do better here.
 
But when you compare the CC2 to the WRG4, the CC2 has quite large treadblocks with not much in terms of siping. So, it's mostly compound that makes it work.

This is why on the Tyre Review Youtube channel, the bloke differentiates the Euro All-season between summer-focused (Michelin CC) and winter-focused (Continental AllSeasonContact, Nokian Weatherproof/Seasonproof, etc)



That video, you mean?

Then you will also know there's not much in it between the summer-focused and winter-focused all weather tyres, when it's winter.

On his website he has a tyre test with used crossclimates (2 mm thread remaining IIRC) and they still performed in winter. In fact better than worn winter tyres.
 
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