Michelin X Ice North 4

Coming from Finland, a country of winter snow and studs. Have these on two cars
- 2007 Focus Cabrio
- 1998 996 C2

In most winnter conditions amazing grip level. However, two shortcomings. 1) The modern light studs do not penetrate well if there is loose snow on top of hard snor/icy surface. Obviously this has more to do with regulations rather than the tyre brand and model. 2) These modern silica tyres seem to collect a layer of snow in slow speeds, say below 30..40 km/h . Both these properties make the tyres a bit Jekyll and Hyde. At best it gives enormous amount of grip but then you come on loose snow and you think you are driving very slow - and suddenly you have absolutely no grip. I wish we could still have the longer studs. I can tell it is not nice to get the impression of good grip for some 50 km (0.3 < muu < 0.5) and then in an open place wind has collected snow on the hard snow surface and a deer runs into your lights and you find absolutely no grip at all (like muu = 0.05). Fortunately I had my insurances. I dont think this would have happened with the old style big block, long heavy stud Hakkapeliittas. Those would have not given the level of grip on the 50 km stretch but they would have lost pretty much nothing coming to the loose snow.

What impresses me is the strong stud base. The cavity seems wrapped with a very strong compound and the studs seem to not come off at all. The construction of the tyre seems very good for winter purposes, not too stiff nor too soft side wall. Subjectively I think I would prefer a sharper shoulder but that is more like an image in my head rather than supported by my driving experience.

If I was to develop this tyre I would look into the slow speed attached snow layer phenomenom - perhaps on all the silica tyres. I also would like to try something like raised tread on the lines of studs to get the modern studs penetrate better the loose snow on top of the hard.

I know one problem with the winter tyre testing is that the tracks are always similar to get good comparability. But in real life the surfaces vary much more in winter conditions and a good winter tyre should even the grip levels to predictable. As good as the X-Ice 4 is it is not the most predictable tyre. Fortunately you can learn to predict the places where you will loose the grip. I find this all more of a result of rather compromized regulations than tyre makes development work.

The best I have tried in winter conditions. Fantastic grip on ice and snow, comfortable ride and the studs seem to last much longer than on others I have owned. Going into the 5th winter of mostly urban driving in Reykjavik I can see that most of the studs have come loose now so they will be disappearing soon. I used to run Goodyear ultra grip ice arctic on my cars before, but the ride was rougher and noisier, the studs would be long gone by now and they did not have as much grip on snow and ice. The Goodyears had a better grip in the wet at high speeds though.

I've had the North4 studded tire for 3 winters ( 20-25 000 Km) in Manitoba Canada on a 2018 Kia Stinger GT limited AWD. They have never let me down, starting and stopping driving normal, is like driving in summer, but with some light tiktac clacking from the studs. The road noise is much better than any other studded tire due to advances in technology. I can feel a certain amount of slippage in rain and dry concrete, but on snow and ice ( and that's 90% of the roads here in winter) they dig in like claws. I drive in sport mode and it splits my power 80/20 to the back, and have the best control I have ever had in very bad conditions. The tires surpass my every exception and will be purchased again!

Great tyres, bought new for winter 2021-2022.impressed by the lack of noise from studs on clear pavement. Used them on my WV Passat, and tread life is extremely high, went trough 32 000 miles. The first 25 000 miles only polished away just 1,5mm and took 4 winter seasons, but this winter after 10 000 miles I lost 4mm. And because they are now on the legal limit, will change them. I had similar experiences with Michelin x-ice north3, where the first mm holded extremely long, and after 20 000 miles they started to loose tread us other soft Nordic compound tyres. Now decided to try the Nokian Hakapelita 10.

Bought these three winters ago. First impressions were excellent with quiet highway and excellent traction. However, at end of the first season we noticed the front tires lost a lot of studs and submitted a warranty claim. Got the front two replaced (prorated of of course). The second winter season was short due to warranty replacement but we did loose studs on older tires. Third winter we lost studs on all 4 tires. One tire is missing 54 studs, and other tire 40 studs and the newer tires are missing 18 and 9 studs. We maybe have 20,000 km on the newer tires and max 30,000 km on all of them. These are installed on base Toyota matrix so not a power house car. We also have a van with Hakkepeleta tires (8 and before and now 10’s) for years and never have a studs loss issues. My recommendation is go with Nordman or Hakkepeleta. I love Michelin tires but they haven’t figures out the studs part. Hope these make this season then switching to Nokian.

Very good tyres, on par with Nokian Hakkapeliitta 8, or even better when they were new. Maybe a bit faster wearing compared to Hakka8, but definitely better than Continental IceContact2. Of course these are not summer tyres, so my scoring is compared to other winter tyres.

This tire was bought for my old analogue awd car for use partially on road and ice track and it has been phenomenal. It made a twitchy and understeery car much more direct and leaning towards oversteer in a very preferable manner both in thems of controllability and for road feedback. My tires are quite narrow and has a bit of a wallowy feel on dry road. The width also dictates the feel of the tire in the wet, but is very much as expected from any studded tire in this dimmension. It made my car feel much more communicative in low friction enviorements

This is by far the best Winter Tyre i have ever used. Compared to its competitors its miles better. The grip is outstanding, and the overall performance is perfect. I would never choose another Tyre, unless its he next generation.

Uncompromising grip on all types of winter surfaces. Out of competition on the ice tracks. Very low noise level, audible only at low speeds when driving on a clean road. With these tires, it is very difficult to achieve ABS actuation. Perfectly copes with leaving the track. After running-in in compliance with the manufacturer's recommendations, the studs took their position and after 15,000 km remain in place. I recommend to buy, the best studded tire.