Nokian WRG2

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Nokian WRG2 Tire Review
Winter Tire
By Tabitha

Nokian designed this tire for all seasons, but it especially excels in the winter time when cold temperatures hit the road. As you can see if you click on the image of the tire to the left, there are many grooves to channel water, and plenty of sipes for snow and ice traction. 

Nokian is a company based up in Finland where the winters are rough, and the temperatures stay low for most of the year. This tire is designed for especially for climates such as this, but still gives great dry road traction when you need it during the summer. 

Nokian produced the tread compound with special purified oils, using their one of a kind green production process which also gives the tire low rolling resistance and saves fuel.  These earth friendly oils also keep your tires from polluting the environment as the slowly wear down over time. 

The WR G2 is the third generation of this particular model, which keeps getting better with every new version. Keep in mind this tire is asymmetrical so it can only be rotated from front to back and not side to side. This allows the tread to be specialized with dry compound on the inside portion of the tire and wet tread compound on the outer portion. 

The inner portion of the tire is also designed for extreme winter grip with tread that stays soft even when freezing temperatures hit. 3D sipes are the new rave with all winter tires, and Nokian has implemented them in the WR G2. This improves ice traction, while still trying to minimize noise on dry roads which is all too common with winter tires. 

Tire Test Results
So the big question is: how do these tires perform when they hit the road? We took them for a test run in a variety of different road conditions to see how well they do when driven aggressively. 

Pros:

• We took these for a test run on snow and icy roads first to see how they performed, as these tires were designed for winter conditions. They gripped very well in light snow, deep snow, and on ice. When cornering, the tires gripped well even on ice. At high speeds on the freeway with snow and black ice / glare ice they gripped well at 65 mph with moderate turns on the road.
• In wet conditions the tires performed well and gripped the road like it was dry. The grooves do a good job of channeling out water, and preventing hydroplaning. No complaints here.
• When we took these for a spin in dry road conditions they provided excellent handling and cornering. Steering response was nice and crisp. Traditionally all season tires, and especially winter tires will make a considerable amount of road noise, but that was not the case here.

Cons:

• The treadwear does seem to wear more quickly on these tires. This seems to be a common theme in winter tires, and tires with softer tread compounds.

Conclusion:
The Nokian WRG2 is a solid all around tire that performs well in all seasons, and especially excels during cold winter conditions such as ice and snow. This is a great tire for those that do not want to swap out winter tires for summer tires if you live in an area where you see a lot of ice and snow during the winter months. Finish company Nokian has put some time and effort into making this tire eco friendly as well, which is always nice to see.