Here is my experience with Nokian winter tires over the last 20+ years of using them on two different 124’s and one 211 - all rwd Mercedes sedans. All three of these cars were useless on ice and snow when shod with summer or all-season tires. Nokian winter tires made it possible to safely drive these cars anywhere any time in the winter.
In the Ohio climate where I drive, Nokian’s studless winter models worked out best. According to my research, and in my experience, performance on snow is always great with any Nokian winter tires. Studs provide a little better traction on icy roads. But studs significantly reduce traction on cold dry or wet roads. The soft compound of Nokian winter tires without studs already provides impressive performance on ice. Ohio’s winter roads are much more frequently dry or just wet or snowy than they are icy. Each set of winter tires wore for 40k to 50k miles provided I would use them only the worse 3 to 4 winter months each year. Tires that provide “W” or “V” rated handling are not very useful in winter months anyway. The soft compound winter tires would wear too quickly in warm weather. And I think winter tires would be too noisy and squirmy for nice summer driving. Mounting the winter tires on a separate set of rims made changing them very convenient and long term more economical. To get the benefits of great winter performance, stick with winter only rated tires. I put a set of Nokian all-season tires on one of my cars for a while. Although they were very good tires, their winter performance was unremarkable. Ned _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
