Writing about the
Nokian Line given
86% (205-55-16-W)
Driving on
a combination of roads for 20659
spirited miles
After purchasing my first car I read an aweful lot of reviews/tests about tyres, as I view them as a massive safety feature. I settled on these as the reviews are extremely high across the board on a mixture of vehicles, and they're priced well.
I can highly recommend the Nokian Line tyre. I've had them on my Vauxhall Astra for the past 3 years and wouldn't put anything else on there now. I opted for the W XL tyres as they were priced cheaper than the lesser rated tyres at the time by a couple of quid. After using standard tyres previously, the rolling in corners was so noticable in those compared to these. Whilst it's a slightly firmer ride with the XL's, I'm more than happy with the almost non-existant rolling in corners.
They handle amazingly, especially in the wet where they flying through surface water like a hot knife through butter at all speeds (80mph+ on motorways with heavy surface water). Stopping in the wet/dry/ice is excellent too, gripping to the road insanely well. Cornering is just as impressive, I've pushed them hard in the dry, wet and icey conditions and they've done me proud.
I travel ~10,000 miles per year, through all weather conditions and a mixture of motorway, country lane and urban driving. The first set I bought (09/01/2016) went on the back for 9 months, then I switched them to the front on 05/11/2016 and they'd only lost 1mm of tread. I ended up getting 20,659 miles (10,541 miles on the rear / 10,118 miles on the front) out of them in total. They had 2mm of tread left on them before I put another pair of Nokian Line's on 11/11/2017.
17/02/2018 I changed the dipped bulbs and checked the tread on the front. They're still showing 5mm and they've already clocked up ~12,000 miles (10,028 miles on the rear and 1,972 miles on the front ), so I expect to get another ~8,000 miles out of them which I'll be happy with. The new rears have only lost 1mm of tread over 3 months so I'm more than happy they'll last a long time.
Handling doesn't seem to deminish like on other tyres as the tread drops, I had just as much confidence in them at 2mm that I do at 8mm, and I'll be buying another set to put on the front and switch over again when the fronts are down to 2mm.