My Review for the Nokian WRG3 SUV Tire

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'14.5 CX5 Grand Touring AWD w/ tech
So some of you may have read other threads I have posted in, describing a vibration and having a slightly tough time tracking straight down the road.

I had my tires rebalanced shortly after purchased and had my alignment checked which was good - this significantly fixed the problem for awhile. However in the last 2 months the problem returned. I went and had my tires rebalanced and this time one could not be road forced balanced. I had this done at an independent and trusted tire shop. I brought my CX5 back to my dealer for its oil changed and explained what my tire shop informed me. I spoke directly to the tech at my dealer who said they do not even have a road force balance machine, and do not recommend tires road forced balanced on Mazdas. I nodded my head and immediately knew not to go to this dealership again for service.

I decided to troubleshoot the problem on my own, and after much research on this forum and others, I decided to go for the Nokian WRG3 SUV tires in 235 55 19". The stock tires for the GT model are 225 55 19". There are no rubbing issues of any sort going with the slightly wider+taller tire. (55 is a % of the width so it is now ever so slightly taller too)

I went to a different Mazda dealer and had a complete alignment done ($99+tax, compared to the first dealer which wanted 169.99+tax).

My vibration is gone and now the car tracks much straighter than it has ever before.

I have only had them for 2 weeks but here are my impressions:

Grip seems much better when driving normally and I feel as if there is less body roll when going into turns. Bumps seem to be less jarring also. However when making quick turns the tires feel a bit squishy. I am not sure if it is the tires or the cold weather, but it feels like I must brake earlier to stop compared to the Toyos which seemed to stop the car in a shorter distance.

It had snowed here yesterday - only 2 inches, but the tires performed flawlessly. It actually felt as if the car handled significantly better on the snow/slush/ice then how it drives on completely dry pavement.

I have never driven a car with snow tires or "all weather" tires like these Nokians which are one step away from being a snow tire, so I do not know if this is a normal trait. If anyone with experience would like to chime in, please do!

Would I recommend these?

Well the jury is still out on that question. I will have to wait until summer and hotter temps to see how they handle. For snow/slush/ice, they seem like they will handle this with no problem at all. Even though it snowed only 2 inches, I have driven with the Toyos in similiar conditions (small amount of snow/ice/slush) and I would be able to in certain instances get the tires to spin freely before traction control/awd kicked in. Have not had that happen yet with the Nokians - they just drove as if the roads were clear.

I have also driven with the Toyos through last years NY winter, which was either the 7 or 8th worst on record...lots of relatively deep snow and ice patches. I have not driven with the Nokians in those types of conditions yet.

One last thing, these tires are significantly louder than the Toyos when braking and accelerating from a stop. This probably wouldn't be an issue if the car had more sound proofing (a major complaint on this forum) But yeah, the Nokians are loud. At highway cruising or even after getting up to speed 25/30mph, there is no difference in sound over the Toyos, only when braking to a full stop and when accelerating from a full stop.

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Not sure why you would choose a tire that isn't as good as a winter tire, and will be a poor summer tire when the temperature gets hot. If you think the handling isn't great on paved surface just now, wait until it's hot and you start to load the tires up more at speed, then you will see their weakness.
 
I debated long over these, but every review I found made these tires sound like the best all season tires available. Great in winter, very good in dry/summer. I don't think I need an all winter/dedicated snow tire because the winter conditions here are not so harsh to require them. I wanted the best all around tire I could find, and these were supposedly them.
 
Fair enough, reviews are mixed so maybe they work out good over the year. I don't think many run all weathers so you might not get much feedback.
 
Thanks for your driving impressions.

I'm going to guess if you find the handling and noise level on cold bare pavement satisfactory, you will also find them satisfactory in the heat of summer. Any dissatisfaction is likely to be due to short tread life. Time will tell of course.

Do you mind telling us what you paid for them?

I'm thinking these tires might be ideal for a Seattle "city car". In other words, a car that doesn't do big highway miles but still needs to be competent in all weather conditions and the (presumably) shorter tread life is a good trade-off for not having to do seasonal tire changes.
 
Thanks for your driving impressions.

I'm going to guess if you find the handling and noise level on cold bare pavement satisfactory, you will also find them satisfactory in the heat of summer. Any dissatisfaction is likely to be due to short tread life. Time will tell of course.

Do you mind telling us what you paid for them?

I'm thinking these tires might be ideal for a Seattle "city car". In other words, a car that doesn't do big highway miles but still needs to be competent in all weather conditions and the (presumably) shorter tread life is a good trade-off for not having to do seasonal tire changes.

I bought them from the website tiresavings.com for a total of $980 I believe. $230 per tire and $60 for shipping. Plus mounting+balancing from my local tire shop. Pricey tires, but still cheaper than the stock OEM Toyos from tirerack. They were delivered in 1 week.
 
We got rain turned ice on the morning to get our WRG3's and replace the stock Yokohamas on the new CX5 a few weeks ago. With the stock tires she slid right thru the stop sign, and text me, this car/tires is not as good as the RAV4 with 3 year old tires on it that we just traded. So we get the WRG3s on and driving home in same conditions, she tested them and said when she braked, she almost went thru the windshield. They gripped that well. Today we have a bunch of snow and she texted that they were great. I hope they last close to 50K as that's their rating, that's the main concern. S'posed to rotate them religiously.

Doing lots of research, these seemed the best for our driving needs. http://info.kaltire.com/sites/kaltire.newshq.businesswire.com/files/press_release/additional/Kal_Tire_Tire_Comparison_Info-graphic_0.pdf
 
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We got rain turned ice on the morning to get our WRG3's and replace the stock Yokohamas on the new CX5 a few weeks ago. With the stock tires she slid right thru the stop sign, and text me, this car/tires is not as good as the RAV4 with 3 year old tires on it that we just traded. So we get the WRG3s on and driving home in same conditions, she tested them and said when she braked, she almost went thru the windshield. They gripped that well. Today we have a bunch of snow and she texted that they were great. I hope they last close to 50K as that's their rating, that's the main concern. S'posed to rotate them religiously.

Doing lots of research, these seemed the best for our driving needs. http://info.kaltire.com/sites/kaltire.newshq.businesswire.com/files/press_release/additional/Kal_Tire_Tire_Comparison_Info-graphic_0.pdf

Are they the WRG3 SUV or just the WRG3? I think there is a difference between the 2. If you look up pictures, there is a difference between the SUV version and the "regular" WRG3. Maybe the WRG3 are better than the SUV version?
 
I thought it was just the size diff. Didn't know it was different type. We just got the p225 65 R17 for the stock CX5 size. It is under the SUV sizes on their page.
 
I thought it was just the size diff. Didn't know it was different type. We just got the p225 65 R17 for the stock CX5 size. It is under the SUV sizes on their page.

From the Nokian website, those appear to be the same I have. However, even on their own website, they show THREE different tread patterns whenever you look up WRG3. Our WRG3's (WRG3 SUV) have an aggressive tread pattern on the sides, with 2 parallel treads going straight down the middle. In other pics from the Nokian site, and other sites - if you look up different tire sizes under the WRG3 name, you will see 2 other tread patterns. One with aggressive treads similiar to ours but with no 2 parallel treads in the center, and another which has basically all parallel treads except for one zig zagging tread off to the side.
 
Yes, it's crazy. Nokian told me the reason for so many types is complicated. For the small passenger car, tires, there wasn't enough demand. I think for 6 of the sizes. and the rest of them, the tread looks similar to the WRG2 tires. For the WRG3 SUV tires, the tread is again different and they said, it's directional tread and seemed to work best for handling with SUV vehicles. So kinda cool that they are customizing to the handling traits of different vehicles. My wife loves them. Hope they can last like they say.
 
From the Nokian website, those appear to be the same I have. However, even on their own website, they show THREE different tread patterns whenever you look up WRG3. Our WRG3's (WRG3 SUV) have an aggressive tread pattern on the sides, with 2 parallel treads going straight down the middle. In other pics from the Nokian site, and other sites - if you look up different tire sizes under the WRG3 name, you will see 2 other tread patterns. One with aggressive treads similiar to ours but with no 2 parallel treads in the center, and another which has basically all parallel treads except for one zig zagging tread off to the side.

The diff tread you referred to was for passenger/light cars but the directional tread and the one you have is the WRG3 SUV....it all depends on the size of tire and obviously the bigger tires with higher load rating will require the SUV tires.

I installed a new set of these WRG3 SUV tires on my Volvo XC60 several weeks ago to replace the 5yr old OEM Pirelli Scorpions zeros w/c were great tires but we needed better tires for winter and we didn't want to bother with the changeover to dedicated winters then summers during fall and summer, not to mention the cost and storage space for a set of wheels/tires. I stumbled upon Nokian tires since I deal with Kal Tire here in Canada and they're the only exclusive retailers for Nokians.

What a difference in grip and handling in snow/ice and cold weather even in slush/rain! I only noticed that yes they were a bit louder and firmer than the OEM tires but thats because if the tread pattern but you do get low rolling resistance which is a bonus therefore better MPG. I would say it depends on where you live and if you do get snow/ice and extreme cold weather spells then these are the ideal tires without having to changeover to dedicated winters. Regarding treadlife/wear, these tires have a UTQG rating of 600 A A which was even better than the OEM Pirellis that had 520 A A so the Nokians should last longer if not on par with your older all season tires. The WRG3s should perform well even during the summer months.

I am really impressed with these all weather plus tires and these are quality made tires from Finland...very popular in Europe and Russia but no so much here in NA...no wonder when you see videos of Nokian tires being tested the vehicles they use are always Audis, Volkswagens, Volvos, Mercedes, etc (European vehicles)
 
The diff tread you referred to was for passenger/light cars but the directional tread and the one you have is the WRG3 SUV....it all depends on the size of tire and obviously the bigger tires with higher load rating will require the SUV tires.

I installed a new set of these WRG3 SUV tires on my Volvo XC60 several weeks ago to replace the 5yr old OEM Pirelli Scorpions zeros w/c were great tires but we needed better tires for winter and we didn't want to bother with the changeover to dedicated winters then summers during fall and summer, not to mention the cost and storage space for a set of wheels/tires. I stumbled upon Nokian tires since I deal with Kal Tire here in Canada and they're the only exclusive retailers for Nokians.

What a difference in grip and handling in snow/ice and cold weather even in slush/rain! I only noticed that yes they were a bit louder and firmer than the OEM tires but thats because if the tread pattern but you do get low rolling resistance which is a bonus therefore better MPG. I would say it depends on where you live and if you do get snow/ice and extreme cold weather spells then these are the ideal tires without having to changeover to dedicated winters. Regarding treadlife/wear, these tires have a UTQG rating of 600 A A which was even better than the OEM Pirellis that had 520 A A so the Nokians should last longer if not on par with your older all season tires. The WRG3s should perform well even during the summer months.

I am really impressed with these all weather plus tires and these are quality made tires from Finland...very popular in Europe and Russia but no so much here in NA...no wonder when you see videos of Nokian tires being tested the vehicles they use are always Audis, Volkswagens, Volvos, Mercedes, etc (European vehicles)

I understand the different size tires require the correct version of the WRG3, however when reading reviews it is hard to distinguish which WRG3 they were reviewing.

So far this winter, here in NYC we have had only one significant snow storm that dropped 6-7 inches. We have had many days of 1-2 inches which then would turn to sleet and eventually ice. I have to say the WRG3's performed awesome in all conditions - snow, slush, ice. The CX5 felt very planted to the ground in all conditions. I watched other SUV's struggle through these conditions (not sure if they were in AWD or 2WD) but my CX5 drove as if the roads were clear. I did not feel AWD kick in at all except for 1 occasion where it was 4-5 inches of slush/ice.

The next test will be to see how these tires fair in the summer when the temperature heats up significantly.
 
I understand the different size tires require the correct version of the WRG3, however when reading reviews it is hard to distinguish which WRG3 they were reviewing.

So far this winter, here in NYC we have had only one significant snow storm that dropped 6-7 inches. We have had many days of 1-2 inches which then would turn to sleet and eventually ice. I have to say the WRG3's performed awesome in all conditions - snow, slush, ice. The CX5 felt very planted to the ground in all conditions. I watched other SUV's struggle through these conditions (not sure if they were in AWD or 2WD) but my CX5 drove as if the roads were clear. I did not feel AWD kick in at all except for 1 occasion where it was 4-5 inches of slush/ice.

The next test will be to see how these tires fair in the summer when the temperature heats up significantly.

Glad to hear you are liking the tires and the way they have performed for you. I am also interested to find out how mine will perform this summer and that'll be the true test. We can also have real warm summers but very short where it only lasts for 8-10 wks then back to cold weathers...that was one of the other considerations when I decided on getting the WRG3s vs dedicated winters or just back to all-seasons...we experience 6 mos of really cold/extreme weather here in Canada with lots of snow
 
Hey #SomeGuyFromNYC since its been a while, how is your impression of these tires on your vehicle? Were you happy with their performance in the hotter months?
 
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