Wheels and Tires

[Official] All-Weather Tire Thread

  • Last Updated:
  • Mar 13th, 2024 3:25 pm

Poll: Have you owned any of these tires? If so, which one(s) do you recommend?

  • Total votes: 198. You have voted on this poll.
Nokian WRG4 or WRG4 SUV
 
61
31%
Nordman WR or WR SUV (or Nokian WRG2 / WRG2 SUV)
 
27
14%
Nokian Rotiiva AT
 
3
2%
Toyo Celsius
 
26
13%
Kumho Solus HA31
 
26
13%
Hankook Kinergy 4S
 
2
1%
Vredstein Quatrac 5
 
2
1%
Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady
 
23
12%
Minerva Emi Zero All Weather
 
3
2%
Firestone WeatherGrip
 
25
13%
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[Official] All-Weather Tire Thread

I decided that it would be nice to include information about niche all-weather tires in one single thread since people ask about them on RFD every few months. I'll try to include links to old threads as well. Recently, a couple more players have burst onto the "all-weather" bandwagon, notably Toyo Tires and Kumho. All-weather tires are ideal for the west coast of BC such as the GVA and Victoria, as well as other urban areas in Canada. Other parts of Canada would benefit from separate winter and summer tires. All-weather tires' main attraction is the convenience factor, not the performance. With that said, please refrain from childish bickering, please and thank-you. I will be using an RFD fan favorite beige 2010 Toyota Corolla CE tire size (195/65R15) as a reference for pricing.

Feel free to add more tires if I've missed anything. I'll try to add more detailed info/reviews about each tire later. I've only listed tires with the "severe service" snowflake emblem.

The Players (currently available in Canada):

Hankook Kinergy 4S: .....
Kumho Solus HA31 (100,000 KM Warranty): $104.99 /tire (http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/kumho ... 264560#srp)
Nordman (Nokian) WR (80,000 KM Warranty): $116.72 /tire (https://shop.kaltire.com/tiresdetails1/tireid/10114/)
Nokian WRG3 (100,000 KM Warranty): $153.83 /tire (https://shop.kaltire.com/tiresdetails1/tireid/8149/)
Nokian WRG4
Michelin CrossClimate Plus
Toyo Celcius (100,000 KM Warranty): $130.18 /tire (https://www.oktire.com/view-tire/toyo-c ... 1OTd8fEI=/)
Vredstein Quatrac 5: $94.03 /tire (https://www.quattrotires.com/tires/vred ... ac-5/22661)
Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady: .....
Minerva Emi Zero All Weather: $82.25 /tire (https://www.quattrotires.com/tires/mine ... proved/336)
Nokian Tyres Rotiiva AT & Rotiiva AT Plus: SUVs only
Yokohama Geolander A-T G015: SUVs/Trucks only
Toyo Open Country C-T: SUVs/Trucks only

NEXEN N-PRIZ 4S: $107.99 /tire (http://www.1010tires.com/Tires/Nexen/N- ... eid=128763)
Multi-Mile Wild Country XTX Sport: SUVs only
Muteki Trail Hog: Trucks only
Nitto EXO Grappler AWT: Trucks only
Falken WILDPEAK AT3W: Trucks/SUVs only

Hankook Optimo 4S : Discontinued
Last edited by dealseaker101 on Nov 19th, 2019 1:19 am, edited 23 times in total.
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Reviews:

Nokian WRG3:

"Ranked Very Good, this fairly new tire replaced the old WRG2. It is the best of the "All-Weather" year-round tires. A possible solution for the last two years of your lease, if your original snow and summer tires have all worn out. APA members who used the old WRG2 were pleased with its winter and summer performance, and tire life was good. Performance on snow is superior to many dedicated winter tires; the four-season rubber compound is likely a compromise on ice. Good handling on cleared roads, comparable to the best winter tires. A good choice for an all-wheel-drive vehicle if you're not prepared to bother with the spring and autumn changeover. Not enough long-term information to predict its durability in extended summer driving. Expensive. Popular on the Canadian West Coast as a tire for year-round use." (https://www.apa.ca/wintertire_reviews.asp)

Consumer Reports Recommended (Rated 64, tied with Toyo Celcius)
"This tire shined in our tests with its very good snow traction and braking on ice. It distanced itself from most other winter tire models for its well rounded grip on dry and wet roads and secure handling. We also tested the WR G3 on our extended 12,000-mile vehicle tread life test where it achieved a very good rating compared to ultra-high-performance all-season tires. This performance also confirmed its very respectable 55,000-mile tread wear warranty. (See our complete winter tire and performance winter tire ratings.)

Taken a step further, the versatile WR G3 would have even achieved a respectable mid-pack overall score among UHP all-season models. Not a bad compromise for any tire…and even more eyebrow-raising considering that it’s a winter tire. (In a concession for cold-weather grip, winter tires traditionally last fewer miles than all-season tires.)" (http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news ... /index.htm)

Nordman WR:

Based on the venerable Nokian WRG2 but slightly modified with softer rubber and lower tread-wear performance:
"But I've been quite vocal about my complaints about the Nokian WRG2 before, which I swapped over to Yokohama iceGuard iG20s after the WRG2s did not meet my expectations for winter traction. So was I crazy to give them another shot with the budget line Nordman WRs? I was about to find out.

Dry traction and braking is quite similar with the old WRG2s, matching that of a mid range H rated all season tire. What the budget WRs lost though is that steering response and handling that the WRG2s had so if you have ambitions of tearing up that windy mountain road in the summer time, you might be a bit disappointed. What it may amount to is that the WR has a rubber compound that remains soft in warmer weather unlike the WRG3's silica infused rubber compound that is designed to be soft in the cold and harden up in warmer weather. Thus, the WRG3 has a 25% higher treadwear guarantee than the Nordman WR for anything up the H-rated tires. V-rated and faster tires have less.

Wet traction and braking is also on par with the WRG2s, but loses a bit of that hydroplaning resistance I raved about with the WRG2s, perhaps due to the lack of polished grooves which promote the evacuation of water. For this feature, you'll have to move to the WRG3.

Snow traction is where the Nordman WR sees a remarkable improvement over the old Nokian WRG2 which I described as barely better than a good all-season tire. There is a lot more bite and brings it up on par with a mid range winter tire. If you're going to market an all-weather tire as a good alternative to a winter tire, it should have at minimum good snow traction, and I can safely say that they've done it. Starting from a stop uphill on both compact and fresh snow showed no signs of slippage whatsoever. Stopping downhill in both types of snow also showed little drama. A note here that neither the traction control system nor the ABS brakes work in my Honda Odyssey.

Ice traction is similar to the WRG2 which I would describe as on par with the lower end of mid range winter tire choices like my old Toyo Observe G-02 Plus. This is probably the one expected compromise area with all weather tires, where starting off and braking requires some finessing of the gas and brakes to avoid slippage and lockup but the traction is there. The WRG3 supposedly has better ice traction.

So in summary, Nokian's effort to bring all-weather tire goodness to the masses is a good one. Yes it is still a compromise tire maybe not suitable for an enthusiast vehicle and requires an extra degree of caution on ice compared to the Michelin X-Ice 3 and Bridgestone Blizzak WS80. But for the masses and even enthusiasts' non-enthusiast vehicles, this is a fine choice if you only want one set of tires for any reason." (http://www.autos.ca/forum/index.php?topic=95095.0)

Toyo Celcius:

Consumer Reports Recommended: (Rating: 64, tied with the Nokian WRG3)

"In our tests, the new Toyo Celsius and Nokian WR G3 deliver solid winter traction, with good stopping grip on dry roads and confident handling. In contrast, many snow tires may edge-out these all-weather tires on snow and ice, but they trade-down with fair to poor stopping ability on cleared pavement and lackluster handling. The Celsius and WR G3 offer good winter grip but neither is quite as good as dedicated snow tire models from those brands.

The Toyo Celsius and Nokian WR G3 have virtually identical overall scores, placing them in the upper half of Consumer Reports' winter/snow tire ratings chart. These tires perform similarly in most of our tests. The Celsius stops longer than the WR G3 on wet road surfaces, though shorter than many dedicated snow tires. " (http://www.consumerreports.org/winter-s ... ear-round/)
Last edited by dealseaker101 on Aug 22nd, 2016 2:41 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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[links to previous RFD All-Weather threads]

Nokian WRG2 (Nordman WR) Review: nokian-wrg2-all-weather-tires-my-winter ... ce-675868/
Nokian WRG2 (Nordman WR) Discussion: nokian-wrg2-still-best-all-weather-tires-1214726/

Nokian WRG3 Discussions: nokian-wrg3-tires-all-weather-tires-sno ... g-1821425/

Nexen all-weather and Hankook Optimo 4S Discussion: nexen-hankook-optimo-4s-all-weather-tires-1871395/

Hankook Optimo 4S Discussion: hankook-optimo-4s-tires-960086/
any-hankook-optimo-4s-owner-1560099/


General all-weather tire Discussions: opinions-all-weather-tires-1802031/
winter-tires-vs-all-weather-tires-1646049/
list-all-weather-tires-tires-snow-rated ... r-1448980/
all-weather-tires-should-i-get-1607637/
Last edited by dealseaker101 on Aug 22nd, 2016 6:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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I'm using Nokian WRG3 on my Camry.
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I think these are still overkill for Vancouver. We literally got no snow last year. And the coldest daytime temperature was maybe, 0 C?

I wish the reviews could show if all-weather tires had any improvement over performance all-seasons in cold dry/rainy weather.
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Spinner wrote: I think these are still overkill for Vancouver. We literally got no snow last year. And the coldest daytime temperature was maybe, 0 C?

I wish the reviews could show if all-weather tires had any improvement over performance all-seasons in cold dry/rainy weather.
Having used All-weather tires, I can tell you that they perform much better in rainy weather than my previous all-seasons. So All-weather tires would work great in the Lower Mainland.
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Spinner wrote: I think these are still overkill for Vancouver. We literally got no snow last year. And the coldest daytime temperature was maybe, 0 C?
That's true in a sense. These are good for people that go up the mountains (for example, Cypress requires winter rated tires in order to be allowed to drive up there) or to whistler for skiing. Additionally, if people need to travel to the interior once in a while to meet friends/family, these could be useful.
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dealseaker101 wrote:
Spinner wrote: I think these are still overkill for Vancouver. We literally got no snow last year. And the coldest daytime temperature was maybe, 0 C?
That's true in a sense. These are good for people that go up the mountains (for example, Cypress requires winter rated tires in order to be allowed to drive up there) or to whistler for skiing. Additionally, if people need to travel to the interior once in a while to meet friends/family, these could be useful.
For the record, even in Edmonton I'd use Nokian WRG3 all year. They're obviously a compromise but it lessens the hassle of having to swap tires twice yearly.
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How are all weather tires on rwd? Should I stick with winters in Toronto? Can be pretty bad here.
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Tactical wrote: How are all weather tires on rwd? Should I stick with winters in Toronto? Can be pretty bad here.
On a rwd car? I'd go with winter tires if I were you.
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That's too bad. I did a lot of googling myself and speaking to people I know said winter is a must. The video from CR got me hopeful about the wrg3 since I have a similar rwd car. Hopefully this thread grows for more inputs.

CR All weather
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Tactical wrote: That's too bad. I did a lot of googling myself and speaking to people I know said winter is a must. The video from CR got me hopeful about the wrg3 since I have a similar rwd car. Hopefully this thread grows for more inputs.

CR All weather
Hmmmm, I can't say for sure that it would be a bad idea but rwd cars usually aren't the best in the snow to begin with. Maybe someone with a rwd and all weather tires can give you a better answer.
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Oct 26, 2014
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Does anyone own General Tire's altimax RT43s? I have a bmw 328i and was wondering if these tires would be good for a 328i or are there better alternatives?

General Altimax RT43
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Better than driving on winters all year round.
I'd consider all-weather on my second daily driver that gets less than 20k km a year.
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FinancialFreedom wrote: They're obviously a compromise but it lessens the hassle of having to swap tires twice yearly.
Depending how much you drive, you should probably have the tires rotated once or twice a year anyways. I take that into consideration when determining how much of a "hassle" it is to switch between summer and winter tires.
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rkjredflag wrote:
FinancialFreedom wrote: They're obviously a compromise but it lessens the hassle of having to swap tires twice yearly.
Depending how much you drive, you should probably have the tires rotated once or twice a year anyways. I take that into consideration when determining how much of a "hassle" it is to switch between summer and winter tires.
That's a very good point I didn't consider.
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St.Genis wrote: I'm using Nokian WRG3 on my Camry.
How do you find them and what tires did you have on the car before? What year is the Camry?

Nokians were ok on my civic (as mentioned here nokian-wrg2-all-weather-tires-my-winter ... ce-675868/) but on light cars, winter driving can really suck.
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JayOnrait wrote: Does anyone own General Tire's altimax RT43s? I have a bmw 328i and was wondering if these tires would be good for a 328i or are there better alternatives?

General Altimax RT43
Continental Truecontact offer the same or better winter traction for all season tires. This thread is about All Weather tires (i.e. tires with snowflake symbol that denote enhanced winter capabilities).
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hightech wrote:
St.Genis wrote: I'm using Nokian WRG3 on my Camry.
How do you find them and what tires did you have on the car before? What year is the Camry?

Nokians were ok on my civic (as mentioned here nokian-wrg2-all-weather-tires-my-winter ... ce-675868/) but on light cars, winter driving can really suck.
From the last winter, changed it one day before the snowfall at Jan 12. Camry, 2007, V6.
The snowfall day I filled the difference. The excellent stability when changed the lanes on 401.
Received the insurance discount, about $19 a month. Previously, I used all season Michelin.
One set is came with the car, second I bought the used. It's a little noisy by summer when Michelin but not too much noisy.
I'm using the same tireshop during the last 8 years so the owner has suggested me the tires.

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