Nankang winter tyres. Worth a punt?

[matt21]

Debating fitting a set of nankang snow 2 to my 2010 Cooper s for this winter. Price seems ok but are they any good. Better than their summer tyres I here. Mini does 25k pa mainly mix of a roads and motorways although the final few miles tends to be on country lanes.

Surely they can't be worse than my bridgestone run flats?

[daemon]

matt21 said:

Debating fitting a set of nankang snow 2 to my 2010 Cooper s for this winter. Price seems ok but are they any good. Better than their summer tyres I here. Mini does 25k pa mainly mix of a roads and motorways although the final few miles tends to be on country lanes.

Surely they can't be worse than my bridgestone run flats?

Theres a review of several sets including nankangs in this months What Car?

From memory the Nankangs werent the best by a long shot, but were considerably better than any non winter tyre they also tested.

[garycat]

There's a winter tyre test in this months EVO mag. The Nankang comes 9th out of 10.

[s m]

EVO winter tyre test in latest issue and an Autoexpress one out this week too.

Personally I think runflats are poor in cold weather although you can get winter runflats I'd rather have normal winters.
Got a set of Conti TS winters for our R53 Cooper S
Coped fantastically last winter

[JulianHJ]

Have a look at the winter tyre thread - recommendations include Avons, Continentals, Goodyears, Michelins and Nokians, which all come in at various price points. I've not seen anyone recommending Nankang.

[parapaul]

Nankangs are always going to be close to the bottom of the heap when compared to other, better tyres.

However, I'm sure that ANY winter tyre will be safer than the best summer tyre once the cold weather hits.

[philmots]

garycat said:

There's a winter tyre test in this months EVO mag. The Nankang comes 9th out of 10.

Any idea of the top 3?

[EDLT]

hora said:

9th out of 10th?
C25k per annum?

I'd spend alittle more personally. Peace of mind.

Depends on the competition really, if the others were twice the price then its not so bad.

[matt21]

hora said:

9th out of 10th?
C25k per annum?

I'd spend alittle more personally. Peace of mind.

I am justifying this as summer tyres will wear out much slower. Hoping at around 7k use per winter I could eek out three winters.

[benjj]

Please could someone post the results of the Autoexpress/Autocar winter tyre test!

Ta.

[lemonslap]

philmots said:

Any idea of the top 3?

Complete results: mix of 6 Winters, 3 All seasons and one summer.


1. Continental Wintercontact 830P, Rating: 90.5%

2. Michelin Alpin A4, Rating: 90.4%

3. Pirelli Sottozero W240 Serie 2, Rating: 90.1%

4. Goodyear Ultra Grip Performance 2, Rating: 89.5%

5. Vredestein Quatrac 3, Rating: 89.0%

6. Dunlop SP Winter Sport 4D, Rating: 87.9%

7. Hankook Optimo 4S, Rating 87.8%

8. Nangkang Snow SV-2, Rating 82.9%

9. Kumho Solus Vier, Rating 80.8%

10. Continental Sportcontact 3 61.5%

[joebongo]

I've got SV2's for my E38 beamer and they're fooking awesome in the snow and slush. Turned a RWD snow-cripple into a snow athlete.

[E24man]

I've got Nankang Snow SV-2's on my Alpina B10 V8 Touring (in 235/40x18's x 4) and as above they are fantastic; spend some more if you like but I scooted past many a 4x4 (on summer tyres) during blizzard conditions in Bradford last year; rear wheel drive, automatic gearbox, never got stuck once.

[benjj]

This makes me happy, i have 4 snow sv2's in the garage that i bought last year ready to go on the wife's golf.

[matt21]

You guys with the sv2s. How do they cope in non snow / ice.they say they perform better below 7deg but on say the motorways when the temp is not too shabby did they cope admirably?

[Bitzer]

I'm looking at getting 4 x 235/40/18s for my Audi A4 Quattro. I've been looking at the Falken 439s, so it's interesting to hear people's points of view on them. I've had Falken 452s (summers) on a BMW in the past, and they were very good.

It's not like the car is redlined and drifted around on each journey, just want something that is surefooted on snow and wont stop us going out!

Edited by Bitzer on Sunday 9th October 21:29

[falkster]

If youre going to spend money on winter tyres you dont want to spend the minimum because you might as well keep your summer tyres.
I personally still think we're not in a country where we need winter tyres as we'll get 4 weeks of poor weather - not really worth 4,5,£600??

[benjj]

falkster said:

If youre going to spend money on winter tyres you dont want to spend the minimum because you might as well keep your summer tyres.
I personally still think we're not in a country where we need winter tyres as we'll get 4 weeks of poor weather - not really worth 4,5,£600??

As i recall the 4 sv2's i bought from mytyres gave me change from £180 last year. 195/65/15

[falkster]

benjj said:

As i recall the 4 sv2's i bought from mytyres gave me change from £180 last year. 195/65/15

Ben, you must be the exception - 15 inch wheels? they still do them :lol:

[benjj]

falkster said:

Ben, you must be the exception - 15 inch wheels? they still do them :lol:

They just about squeeze over the drum brakes