Anyone trying the Nokian WR G4?

You can't have both good winter AND summer performance. Not to mention lrr

A tyre is either soft = good for winter when it will get tougher
Or hard = good for summer when heat will soften it

Of course we also have tyres that are no good neither in summer or winter. And that is the all weather tyre ( or rather NO weather tyre)

 

I used Nokian WRG2 (earlier all-weather tire) as a snow tire on separate rims, with a previous car. Not the same tire, but fwiw:

1. Better winter traction than all-seasons, for sure, but a notch down from dedicated snow tires.
2. Does impose mpg penalty, maybe 10%.
3. A little noisy, overly firm, not bad though.
4. I only used them through winter, but suspect they would wear fast, used year 'round.

 

As Mendel said, I went through a few sets of the WRG2 on my '13 Prius. I saw a bit more than the 10% mileage hit (closer to 15%) but the tires simply didn't last as year-round options in New England. They were decent in the snow but not great and, when driving year round, I would only get about 30k miles on them before they started to run low on tread.

I've switched to dedicated snow tires in the winter and LRR for the rest of the year. The cost of an extra set of rims was worth it to make changing over easy.

 

I'm getting a set of WR G4's installed on Monday to replace my 6 year old WR G3's

The tires have been fantastic for me letting me navigate Vancouver Snowmageddon with ease and confidence. No need to fiddle around trying to disable traction control on my 2010... like I had to do with Michelin X Ice II dedicated winters. No more hassle and added costs of having 2 sets of tires.
After 6 years of use, my tread left is 50% and performance has remained the same over the years. They have never needed to be rebalanced, never got a flat, like the several I had to endure with the hem Bridgestone Ecopia tires.
I'm a believer in being safe, after about 6 years you should swap out your tires before they are worn out or become to old for highway trips at speed loaded down in hot summer weather.
From what I've read, compared to my WR G3's the WR G4's should be equally excellent and perhaps better in some ways, including a longer warranty and life due to compound improvements. Can't say that I am going to wear them out prior to the 110,000 km warranty period as I'm retired driving less than in years past, but I highly recommend these tires based upon my previous experience and even in areas with more winter weather than I typically endure in the GVA, or greater Vancouver area. Keep in mind we have a very hilly mountainous Environment that is more challenging when those arctic outflows and pacific storms conspire to shut down traffic of all kinds.
I had no issues driving around and with SUV's and other cars that could not proceed this past week. Have to include a few Teslas's in that comment, not sure what is wrong with most of them being heavier than my Prius and having AWD, but it is what it is.

 

I think you're saying the WRG3 have better snow traction than XIce II? The WR's are an "all-weather" tire, a balance between snow tires and all seasons, A good one-tire solution for winter, but I don't think they would best the XIce.

Too, you're disabling traction control, by setting the car in a maintenance mode? That's not recommended by Toyota.

Look forward to the review.

 

Having had both X Ice 2 and the WR G 3's on my Prius I can honestly say that traction, both braking and getting going would always be better with the Nokians.. I'm aware the upgrade to X Ice 3 was widely reported to have been very beneficial, however I never tried them as I made my my up to change from dedicated winter and all season tires to an All Weather tire, and in 2014 when I did that, the Nokians were regarded highly.
I found that indeed they were right up there with high end dedicated winter tires and seemed to be a jack of all trades, and master of all.
I only learned how to get the car into maintenance mode to defeat traction control because I could not move away from my garage, slight slope, not being able to move an inch either forwards or reverse. That was with the Michelins on. I used the shovel, and covered the whole area with salt and went away to wait.
The Nokians also bested the Michelins on my car in terms of directional stability, and rarely would cause the rotation on low surface traction that would occur with the Michelins. So no stability control and seldom needed traction control to activate using the Nokians.
Since then, I'm sure the X Ice 2's are long discontinued, and I had purchased them based upon glowing reviews back in the day. Today I would look to them for their new All Weather tire, Climate something?, possibly the Toyo All Weathers, but I'm now happy to go with Nokians again for another 6 years of all year use.
Monday, January 20th. is supposed to be much warmer for us here, likely with tons of rain with water pooling and possibly slushy freezing roads in the evenings when I come home.
So not very challenging conditions for the new WR G 4's, so don't anticipate being able to make any kind of review based upon not having to cope with black ice, snow over Ice, and generally the worst of what we can experience here in the Lower Mainland.

Had I kept up with the summer/winter sets of tires I'd of course have to look at retiring them with even more tread life on them after 6 years of seasonal only use. I add that waste to the costs of 2 sets of tires rims and for some tpms reprogramming for those so inclined to avoid a piece of black electrical tape over the light if they don't. Myself, I used the same set of rims, less costly short term, but rebalancing, change over or mounting costs, not to mention possible damage to the tire beads or rims themselves adds up when done fall and spring.

You can find reviews on the web of these tires to read as did I, and from people who use them where winter is a real thing that is more regular in terms of ice and snow than we encounter. Perhaps they don'y have to cope with our topography, or seemingly limited fleet of snow removal equipment and regional response levels that vary. Still, it tends to be the case that it is wet and cold enough here pretty much all winter long to have softer rubber on, and the WR G3 and 4's are soft and flexible to the touch just like a dedicated winter tire. Thankfully they can take extreme summer heat and perform just as well as high end all season tires can do in warm weather but with surprising levels of precision for what are essentially winter tires that have been modified to be driven all year without damage. I think they are rated as 500 AA... just as you'd see with a long life all season.

I'll post back when I get properly bad weather to impress or disappoint myself as the results dictate in the coming months or years.

 

In for more reviews and mileage info with these tires.

 

Bottom line is, how much can you afford, and which brand do YOU like.
You will find good and bad with each tire for each user.
There are many good options. Pick one, then go from there.
When I purchased my Prius, it had the Bridgestone ECO's, that were about to the wear limit.
I go the continentals because of price and mpg. But they were noisey.
I got the cooper, because of price, it's what I could afford at the time. They were suppose to be
good on MPG's, but I've lost 4-5 mpg. But they are a LOT quieter. And handling in dry and wet
weather is about the same. Maybe a little more softer ride.