Nokian W Plus

This (2011-12) is the second winter this set of Nokians have been fitted to my Megane Sport Tourer dCi Dynamique Tom-Tom. The 195/65-15 Nokian tyres - on steel rims - were put on in place of the normal 205/55-16 Michelin-shod alloys for the winter season in early November expecting the usual harsh winter conditions... and nothing yet!
But last winter (2010-11) both car and tyres excelled in conditions that even had 4X4s and Audi quattro-equipped cars struggling for grip and traction!
Wear has been negligible after approximately 5,000 miles covered in two winters.
Noise levels are lower, and ride comfort is somewhat better than the original tyres... but this may, in part, be due to the deeper sidewalls of the Nokians over the Michelins.
Dry road grip isn't to the very high standards of the Michelins though... the Megane's traction control does occasionally have to kick-in on a particularly twisting hilly section of road on my daily travels.
That apart, I have no problem in recommending the Nokian W+ as a great winter tyre for central European-type winter driving conditions.

Solid tyre, i have expected more from it. Not excellent on snow when you start agressively.

Have had these fitted to steel rims of my Mk6 Golf since November, having now covered almost 7k miles. They've been excellent in most conditions through winter, only the very warmest of winter days (10-11'C) have seen them feeling a little less grippy and a bit soft. I've driven in 8" of snow easily thsi winter, whereas last winter i was almost stranded in an inch with the original 225/45/17 Bridgestone RE050s (brand new at the time). Even whent he snow was compacted and iced over with -15'C tenmperatures the tyres didn't struggle at all, i haven't seen the traction control light once this year, last winter the system actually threw an error as it was working so hard to get me nowhere !
Comfort has been very good, but then moving back to 15" tryes with a high sidewall is bound to improve things over a 17" wheel with an inch less wall height.
Handling has been fine, winter conditions aren't great for sporty driving and these tyres have no claims to be sporty - driven in normal manner they've ahd all the grip thats been required and a fair safety margin left.
Noise - for such a blocky pattern with very deep tread (about 9.5mm when new) they've been remarkably quiet, long curve at speed such as motorway intersections produce a little extra noise, but hardly noticeable (even in a car as quiet as the Golf)
Wear - after 7k miles, the built in tread indicators show exactly 8mm on the front and over 8mm on the rear (first wear indicator is at 8mm). By rotating the tyres the wear would average out at about 1mm every 7k miles, which would give a life (down to 4mm) of around 40k miles in winter use, and a further 14k miles of potential warm weather use to see them wear down to 2mm.
Value for money - absolutely. For £50 a corner you can't go wrong as a winter tyre set, extra security and mobility in winter alone make then a good buy. No idea what they'd wear like in summer temperatures, but even if they wear faster they are still capable of great mileage for the money.
Will i buy again - I will always run winter and summer tyre sets going forward and when these wear out, probably after another 3 winters !, i'll look again at Nokian and compare the prices to the big brands ike Dunlop and continental. No doubt i'll go with Nokian again.

These tyres are an experiment which so far has been very successful. The OEM firestone F590s were OK in dry and warm, and acceptable wet and warm but as soon as temperatures dropped the grip dropped markedly, and in winter conditions the car was almost not driveable with any degree of confidence.
Thus the experiment to fir central European winter tyres and run them all year as the mileage is low, and the car is low powered and driven quite gently by the regular driver.

The comment by that driver, who has never had experience of winter tyres before, is that the vehicle has been transformed in the 2009/2010 winter and they no longer dread the journey to/from work.

My comments as I have been using winter tyres for many years is that these relatively inexpensive tyres have performed beyond all expectations, and on a cost/benefit measurement are even more outstanding.

Typical of winter tyres, for the first couple of hundred miles on clear tarmac especially warm and damp then the grip is very low. Once the tyres have been bedded in then the grip is in all ways amazing. On cold dry 0C tarmac the grip is such that I know my more expensive Michelins would have let go earlier. Even more so on cold wet tarmac.

On the snow, the tyres are still good, perhaps not quite as good as a dedicated ice and snow tyre but still good enough to drive about, go, stop and corner on snow, rutted ice, slush. Smooth ice results in much reduced grip as with any studless tyre, but even so the car remanined very driveable on roads which were not gritted for weeks and with polished ice on the corners. The OEM Firestones even if they had got to the icy corners would certainly not got round it at anyting over 1 or 2 mph.

The tyres are still on the car after the summer. The fronts have worn very little by measurement, and the rears there is no measurable wear. The edges of the block s still seem sharp and it will be interesting to see a second winter season and how they cope.

Good tyres for a low performance runabout, fully recommended.