Nokian W+

It's my first time every driving in snow, bought a car with these already on so I gave it a chance. Well in sweden we got a lot of snow and ice, I don't feel comfort at all in the snow-muddy curves or on straight lines because u feel the tires lose its grip on mud. One day I came behind a snow plow truck and went uphill, when the plower drove off and I could gas up a little - the f*cking tires wouldn't get a grip so my fiance had to push the car up until I got a grip on the road.. I know I drove a bit slow up but still . Well maybe I need other tires or maybe it's normal when it's a lot of snow, I have to experience more winters with different tires to know. But when the road is dry I do feel a real comfort and safety in the tires because then you really feel the grip on the road, just a bit noisy on the highway but maybe just my car :-) and it's not the pattern that is bad, actually the look brand new.
Saab 9-3 2008

Since 2009 winter (december) I had Nokian all WRG2s as winter tyres. They performed very very well. As I live near baltic sea, eastern Europe I managed to drive into very different winter conditions: snow, mud, ice, wet, dry cold.. All separate and sometimes combined. Unfortunately one tyre got flat because of damage I made for it in August of 2012. So I got a pair of W+ the last autumn to put on front because. Two WRG2s are made softer than W+ so I left them in the back as those still had 5mm of pattern. From first drives I felt the difference between W+ and G2. As the government rules says that we are ought to drive winter tyres since November 10th I did a lot kms on dry and wet and felt that W+ slips when starting more agressively, on wet it performs well, but it feels irresponsive. You can feel some hysteresis between wheel turn and car movement. This isn't an issue with summer(Michelin energy saver) or G2 tyres. But since December 2012 we had a lot of snow till April 2013 and I drove a lot in outlying roads with a lot snow and a lot of compressed snow. And there W+ performed impressively well. I was very comfortable to drive with them as I felt the traction and stability all the time. As those tyres are made from harder rub than G2 they still have 8mm mark on them (I haven't changed W+ to summer tyres yet. They are still mounted on car). I remember that WRG2s didn't have the 8mm mark after using them the first winter. I assume that wear of W+ will be great.
So, I wouldn't recommend these tyres as winter tyres for moderate or low (wet, dry) winter regions as you could find better performing tyres. But if you have a lot of snow, precipitation and you are not agressive driver you should definately go for W+ as they are cheap and perform very well on snow, as I assume they were designed for. If you prefer to spend more for tyres or you want assurance in every driving condition you should look for WR D3 or WR G2. Those are better. Though wear is worse because of softness.

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.

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.