2001 Snow Tire Reviews

As editor of the Snow Tire FAQ, I have received many questions about snow tires. 95% of the questions ask the same thing, "What snow tires should I buy for my car?" In December of 2000, I realized that variety of vehicles was growing, but my experience wasn't. With this in mind, I enlisted the help of some of my friends and contacted several tire manufactures with the idea of doing real world tests snow tire tests. Three manufactures responded: Nokian, Dunlop, and Vredestein.

The Test

I have read many tire tests in the past, with the vast majority of them focusing on quantitative measurements done under well controlled conditions. These test leave only a modicum of room for qualitative evaluations. There is a place for quantitative tests, but I wanted to do something more representative of the experiences the people who were asking me questions would encounter. Consider this, how many times do you really drive on bare, perfectly flat "hockey rink" ice? How about 3 inches of virgin snow in a parking lot? This test would focus on real drivers driving on real roads under real conditions.

Rochester, New York formed the center of our test. Rochester is on Lake Ontario, half-way between Buffalo and Syracuse. Every year we get at least one major snow fall that drops up to 10 inches before it is over, and one or two days where the temperature is just right to give everything a slight coating of freezing rain. From November through April (and sometimes May), we get varied climate that can bring almost every type of winter precipitation you can think of. With all of this weather, the tires we tested were exposed to everything from heavy snow to ice to dry roads to slush to rain, sometimes all in the same trip!

The cars used in the test are daily drivers, making the test a true real world picture of what people are likely to see in their driving. Although we had originally planned to do a one-on-one shoot-out down a snow covered back road, it never materialized. Hopefully, things will work out to do another test in 2002.

So that all of the drivers had experience with all of the tires, we occasionally swapped cars for a day or so.

The Cars

I have two cars that get driven through the winter. One is an AWD Mitsubishi Galant VR-4. The other is a Volvo 740 sedan. I quickly decided that testing snow tires on the Galant, although quite fun, was not really fair. The AWD system works wonders to make even marginal tires perform decently. That left me with my 740 series Volvo.

With the choice of vehicle out of the way (~3200 lbs, RWD, sedan), it was a simple matter of finding other identical cars. The first car I enlisted was a Merkur Scorpio 5 speed. It is nearly identical in dimension and weight to the 740, takes the same size tire, and is also RWD.

When the third set of tires arrived, I was at a loss. The few other people who I knew with similar cars had already put snow tires on them. Finally, I found another ally where I least expected it – my mechanic. He willing agreed to let his wife's 740 Volvo Sedan be part of the test fleet. Although my mechanic sells Toyo and Nokian tires, he ended up testing Dunlop tires.

The Tires

The first company that agreed to supply tires set the tone of the test by supplying a studless snow tire (not non-studded, but a tire designed not to have studs). Since uniformity of tire type was one of the guiding rules, that meant all of the other tires needed to be studless snow tires. It also set the size standard for the test, 185/65 R 15, a very good choice for all of the cars.

All of the tires we tested meet the Severe Winter Traction Standard. This standard was put in place in 1998 to provide an industry standard based on performance. The older M+S rating is based on geometric proportions, not winter traction.

The tires tested, in alphabetical order, were:

Dunlop Graspic DS-1 - Digityre Studless

Nokian NRW

Vredestein SnowTrac

The Results

It is very tempting to say, "This is the best snow tire," but that's not the point. The goal of the tests was evaluate a set of snow tires and determine how well they worked in real world situations. Having said that, let's look a little deeper and see how the tires compare.

Nokian NRW

Let's start with the Nokian NRW. This tire became the baseline tire for a couple of reasons. The first reason was that it was the first tire I got and it ended up mounted on my car. The second was that it was a tire that two of the testers had been exposed to in the past.

Before testing this tire, I had heard that it is great in all conditions, including dry roads and snow. From my experience, I was skeptical. The last set of all season tires I had tried to use in the snow left my one of my cars with a new lower control arm and my bank account with a $500 hole. Then again, even Nokian is careful not to call these all season tires. They call them “all weather” tires. With headquarters in Finland, I expected great performance in the snow, but I did not expect much on dry roads.

After the first trip with these tires, I realized my preconceived notions were wrong. The NRW is truly a great all-round tire. In the snow it has very good linear (fore/aft) and lateral (side/side) traction. It seemed to do well both in heavy and light snow at both high and low speeds. As you will read later, there was one tire that bested the NRW's snow traction, but not by much.

Of all of the tires tested, the NRW had the best dry road performance. It drove as well as, if not better than, many inexpensive summer and all-season tires. After an especially brisk drive down a paved, dry, winding back road, I found myself startled at the realization that I was still driving on snow tires and not my summer tires.

On ice, it was reasonably good, but definitely not as good as a true studded snow tire.

Overall, it is quite a good tire for those who want great performance both on snow covered and dry roads, thus earning its claim: “All Weather.” It is a tire that won't disappoint you in the winter, and you can leave it on year round.

Vredestein SnowTrac

The next tire to arrive was the Vredestein SnowTrac. This tire was run on a 1989 Merkur Scorpio 5spd. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Vredestein is one of the last of the independent tire manufacturers.

In the snow, the SnowTrac did quite well. At highway speeds, it performed on par with the Nokian NRW. It had good, predictable grip both linearly and laterally and was thought by all of the testers to be a good overall tire. On the low speed hill climb (a 300 ft curved driveway going up 30 ft into my father's garage), the SnowTrac outperformed all of the other snow tires we tested.

On ice, it too showed that while the non-studded tire technology has improved, it still does not quite compete with a studded snow tire.

On dry pavement, the performance was again very competent, although it lacked some of the stability of the NRW. Regardless of the weather conditions, the Vredestein always felt like a snow tire.

Overall, this is another great choice to consider for your snow tire needs, but you will still want to change to a different set of tires for the summer.

Dunlop Graspic DS-1

Dunlop Graspic DS-1 was the last tire to arrive. By the time the details were worked out and the tire arrived, I was beginning to worry that we were running out of winter. Luckily, the weather in Rochester cooperated and we got some significant snow and ice through March.

The DS-1 was the hands down winner in terms of linear acceleration and braking on ice. In conditions where the NRW and SnowTrac were obviously working hard to find a grip, the DS-1 would just go. Unfortunately, when it came time to turn the car, things were not as clear cut.

One of the guiding rules of the test was keeping things as equal as possible, even down to how the cars were driven. All of us who tested the tires push our cars hard, even in the corners. That's what made driving the DS-1 a bit disconcerting to us. When pushed hard into a corner, the DS-1 would sometimes turn in nicely, and at other times not turn at all. The only rule of thumb we could find was: If you come into a corner hot, you can't be sure what the tires will do. If you go in slowly, you don't have to worry.

Overall, this is one tire we really want to love. It's a great choice for anyone who doesn't like to throw their car around corners in the snow. I think Dunlop is very close to having a truly great winter tire here if they can balance the linear and lateral performance.

And the Winner Is...

This is a hard one to answer. If someone were to give me any of these tires, I would gladly put them on my car. They are all good.

For me, my first choice would be the Nokian NRW. Although it gives up a tiny bit to the other tires in terms of snow and ice performance, it more than makes up for it with its dry road performance. If you are really lazy, you could even leave this tire on all summer without sacrificing too much.

My second choice would be the Vredestein SnowTrac. It is a good tire that performs slightly better then the NRW in the snow. It is not a tire you will want to drive in the summer, but is a great choice for winter.

What about the Dunlop Graspic DS-1? Is it relegated to being left in a stack in the garage? Emphatically, no. Perhaps the most telling comes from the tester who had them on his car. Although the sells Nokian tires, he did say the Dunlops would be a good choice for his wife's car since she is not as hard a driver as he. This says a lot as she shuttles their two children in that car.

Thanks to...

I need to thank Nokian, Vredestein, and Dunlop for providing tires to be tested. Hopefully I will have a new group of tires to test this coming winter. I have received many suggestions of brands and makes to take a look at.

I also want to thank the people who were willing to try new tires on their cars: Alan Werner, my father, and Dan Theil of Kurt's Garage.

Summary Of Results

	Snow Traction	Ice Traction	Wet Traction	Dry Traction
Nokian NRW	Excellent	Good	Excellent	Good
Dunlop Graspic DS-1	Good	Good	Excellent	Okay
Vredestein SnowTrac	Excellent	Good	Excellent	Okay

Future Plans

In December of 2001, plans for another round of tire tests in 2002 were announced in this press release. We will continue to review the tires we have already received. If we receive other tires, we will evaluate them also.

Snow Tires Needed!

The Snow Tire FAQ would love to test other brands of tires, but since I do this as a hobby not a vocation, it all comes down to what is donated. If you would like to donate a set of snow tires, please contact us at flybrick@frontiernet.net.