Writing about the
Hankook Optimo 4S given
69% (205-60-16-V)
Driving on
a combination of roads for 16000
spirited miles
Living in north Wales with a very varied weather system with lots of rain, mud on roads and snow, a & b rds combined with lanes. The combined with cost and storage space I cannot really justify a set of summer wheels and a set of winter wheels and tyres. These new type of 4 season all year round tyres seemed ideal for me in the area I live and drive so I gave them a try, from my experience I can tell you that I'm totally of the opinion that these type of tyre should be fitted as standard to all normal everyday road cars! Fantastic tyre, improved fuel economy from Dunlop response tyres fitted previous & also quieter. Rain- fantastic, doesn't aquaplaned and gives much more feel on wet roads. Now the crucial bit- snow, well on my way home from work late in the depths of winter when large amounts of snow fell in north Wales I decided to really test them............ I took a detour through Snowdonia and was passing 4x4's which were stuck due to being on rubbish tyres and laughing at them! The only time I lost grip was in a 2 foot of snow over the Denbigh moors where I had to admit defeat, believe me the snow was half way up the doors and piled up the front bumper like I was ploughing!! The tyres didn't fail just the ground clearance of the car got beached in deep snow so I had to reverse back down. Braking in snow is fantastic, pulls up straight and in half the distance than on summer tyres in snow. So in snow they are bloody fantastic and more than adequate for the british winter, the combination of these tyres a heavy high torque diesel front wheel drive car is very good in the winter and you don't need a 4x4, even a 4x4 with the wrong tyres on it in snow is useless. An octavia 4x4 tdi with these fitted must be amazing!! These types of tyres are the way forward for motoring in the uk for the country not to stop dead to gridlock with a sprinkle of the snow. They are not a sporty tyre for really pushing on with but I see no real lack of grip compared to the Dunlop summer tyres that were fitted before and the 4 season tyres are not designed as a track day tyre anyway, they are designed as a good, practical all year round everyday normal tyre to which they excel at.
I have currently done 16000 mixed road driving with mixed driving style and have just swapped them front to rear as the rears were like new and the fronts were around 3/4 worn, I see no reason why they won't do approx 22000 before needing changing.