Bought 4x Nokian WRD3s from Tyre Leader in summer 2014 for approx’ £38 per tyre in 155/65/14. Had them fitted locally in Nov’ 2014 ready for winter time.

These winter tyres replaced some fairly new Continental Contact Premium 2 as fitted by the vehicle manufacturer.

I’ve had a reasonable amount of experience with Continental tyres in the last 10 years and overall I’m not entirely impressed with them. Sure, they get rave reviews from the magazines that test them at Continental’s own proving ground in Germany. But in my experience they wear far too quickly, cost more than they should and in the last 3mm or so of tread life they ride harshly and road noise increases significantly. My Toyota Aygo (a very light car) had covered just 7k miles and the front tyres were at 3mm – this was not through aggressive driving, far from it.

Anyway, I have driven on the WR D3’s for around 4k miles now and I have to say I’m very impressed with them. In direct comparison to the Continental tyres the following was noticed:

1) Nokian have a more direct turn-in when tackling corners

2) Nokian are quieter on dry roads. On wet roads the noise from the tyres seems a little louder as you can literally hear all the sipes gripping the road surface, especially driving over white lines. This is only of note and does not irritate in any way.

3) Nokian’s softer compound offers as slightly more absorbent ride; road imperfections are soaked up more easily.

4) The 8mm wear indicator has just started to disappear from the front tyre’s central band after 4,000 miles. So, 1mm wear after that mileage is very impressive, especially given how quickly the Continental tyres were wearing out.

Dry Roads: The WR D3’s grip very well and provide a linear turn-in when going around corners. You can throw the car into corners or around roundabouts with the same grip that a quality summer tyre would provide.

Wet Roads: I feel they provide more trustworthy grip than the Continental’s did. They cut through standing water at motorway speeds with no affect on the car’s position within its lane; aquaplaning is well suppressed.

Frost: On frost-covered road surfaces the WR D3’s grip very well indeed and inspire confidence.

Snow: Driving on fresh snow the Nokian’s have a fantastic amount of traction off the line. The same can be said when cornering and stopping. On hard-packed snow delicate use of the throttle is needed whilst performing hill starts. This also applies for stopping and cornering. The deepest snow I drove through was 6 inches and this was tackled with ease - this also includes performing hill-starts and stopping on a 1:5 gradient.

Ice: Again, you have to be very cautious when accelerating, braking or cornering. If you want or need absolute grip on ice you need to buy studded tyres.

Slush: Travelling on slush due to its unpredictability is the most dangerous of all the above conditions. Happily, I can report that driving at about 50mph on a slush-covered M60 during a blizzard in Jan’ 2015 the Nokian’s were completely surefooted. I overtook several 4x4s on a trip I had to undertake when time was critical. I can only image what they were thinking when the little Aygo blasted past their £50k+ off-roaders’ with their fat tyres which dragged them out of their motorway lanes from time to time.


Nokian – winter tyres you can trust:

From Nov’ 2014 to Jan’ 2015 my Dad was severely ill and I had to travel a 60-mile round trip most mornings and evenings to see him at his home and, latterly, every single day at a hospice to help look after him.

Throughout this time the weather was mostly cold and snowy, sometimes worse. On numerous occasions before setting off to see him I was chiselling ice / snow off the car and driving in sub-zero conditions early morning and at night.

On Jan’ 17th 2015 I had left the hospice to go home at 4pm having been with my Dad since 7:30am. My 2 year old son had been asking his Mum where his Dad was each day, so I’d decided to come home to bath him and put him to bed. At 6:30pm I received a phone call from my Mum to say that my Dad had died.

I remember leaving home that evening to head to the hospice, again de-icing / removing snow from the car before setting off and travelling on deep, snow-covered roads to get onto the M60. A severe blizzard was already underway and all lanes of the motorway were quickly covered in icy slush about 1 inch deep. I travelled about 20 miles at 40-50mph on the motorway in these conditions to meet other family members at the hospice and to see and say farewell to my Dad in his room.

Why am I telling you this?

I live in the hills on about 2 miles of unadopted roads that the council don’t plough or grit and have been stuck a lot over the years with company cars that had ‘summer’ tyres. 4x4 soft roaders get stuck up here regularly, too.

I know for a fact that without these Nokian winter tyres I would not have been able to visit my Dad as often as I did in the last 2 months of his life or been able to make that final journey to say ‘goodbye’ to him.

In my book, that makes these Nokian WR D3 tyres pretty damn special.

Mike

PS I have also reviewed Nokian WR A3 and Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons (both lengthy reviews)

I replaced my old BF Goodrich tyres with nokians and o boy what a difference, these tyres are simply awsome in almost every way, best thing i would say is the progresivity i cant stress enough about this, they have very predictable edge of traction on dry, wet, snow or even ice compared to other winter tyres i tryied, grip is great on any surface although when its little bit warmer outside you realy feel the soft compound but that is expected from winter tyres, only downside is feedback but that is partly because i have size with very high side walls, but all and all its very good tyre more focused on safety and snow performance than sporty feeling, and i will definitely buy theese again

I was trying to find WR D4s back in 2016, but as I needed the tyres quickly, I bought the D3s.
I'm relatively happy with the tyres. Almost no wear for 3 winters. This is their fourth season and they grip very well. I had issues with breaking on wet surfaces in the beginning, but never had problems with aquaplaning. I also had issues with higher speeds. The car feels a bit uncomfortable over 160km/h or over 140 in corners(a bit wobbly).
Noise is also a bit higher then I would like.

So, If you are a calm driver, this one is definitely a good choice.

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The best winter tyre I have ever had on the dry tarmac, but that's all. The worst winter tyre I have ever had on the wett and snow (I had Michelin Alpin A2, GY UltraGrip 7+, Semperit Speed-Grip 2 before). Slipping on wett, almost no traction on snow, aquaplaining on slushy roads and made in CCCP. I threw away of my car after a week in winter conditions and meanwhile I received Dunlop Winter Response 2, I have to switch to my summer tyres GT Radial Champiro HPX, which was better on a snow and slush than this overpraised Nokian. Michelin Semperit and Dunlop were the best on slushy roads, due to two the wide grooves around and wide lateral grooves. GY was also good on slush, but little bit behinde. GY and Dunlop were best on the snow, but Semperit wasn´t far to them.

The best winter tyres I've ever driven. Perfect on snow, even on ice they have the needed grip to push you at the start. I have some concerns over the wet, but again perfect job, as we know - the winter tyres are not so good at only wet roads.

Rapport qualité prix quasi imbattable, je recommande.

Extremely good on snow. Bad on warm days (10-15C) when braking. Very bad when braking on wet asphalt!! Car just can't stop quick enough - must be careful.

Excellent tire!
Excellent on snow, great on wet and dry roads.
I did not drive in the summer so I do not know how to withstand high temperatures but winter tires do not run in the summer.
Nokian has made an excellent winter tire at a reasonable price.

the best snow tyre i ever had.
very good even on wet and dry road, not so far from the "main" of the brand (WRG2) but really much better on the snow:
great traction, brake power and steering control,
optimum feedback.
will buy again!

Initially purchased for winter 2013 as winter tires are an essential for driving in the north of Scotland. I drive approximately 150 miles a day on a combination of A roads (single and dual) B roads and some city driving. I'm very impressed with the wear on them, after around 30,000 miles they are now just below 2mm and in need to changing.
As a winter tires you would expect them to perform well in all low temperature situations, anything below around 10C these are brilliant. They give good grip in normal wet and dry conditions and perform great in snow and slush.
Where they fall down is when then temperature rises, above 10C they start to lose a little grip, in my car this meant occasional wheel spin and some under steer, if move beyond 20C (quite rare in Scotland I know) they pretty much turn to jelly and become quite a handful. I accept these conditions are not what they are designed to do so I'm not marking them down for that.

Overall great tyres, perfect for a range of conditions and ideal for most weather experienced in the UK and come it at a sensible price (

wery good on dry and snow, low wear

By far the best winter tires I ever had
I drove them more than 30000 miles and 10000 miles during summer. Wear is their biggest downfall but in all other things they are amazing.
Highly recommended!

Excellent winter tyres on dry, wet and particularly on snow.
I've used them both on my old alfa romeo Giulietta and now on my Fiat 500L Living 1.6 jtdm 105hp.
I think I'll buy Nokian again

as a winter tire that wont cost you an arm or a leg and still can get you where you want .. this is a quiet soft comfortable tire , even when the temperature rises above 10c its still grips well , the wear is good to but i didnt drive them hard or pushed them to the limit .. for a suzuki swift 4x4 1.3L they put a smile on my face

I must say its was my first winter that i was drriving with theese tyres on dry i must say they are pretty noisy but the grip and cornering is good but on the wet and snow they are execellent