Summer tyre review: Nokian zLine SUV
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2015 5:09 pm
The BMW X5 40d has an appetite for tyres. It's powerful, heavy, AWD, and has a relatively high center of gravity. Having worn out several sets of the OE Bridgestones, and a set of Uniroyals in only 15k miles, I decided to try some Nokians. We've been running Nokians for years as our winter tyres, because they very often win German press comparison tests and ratings by their omnipotent Auto Club (D.A.C.).
But would Finland deliver good summer tyres too?
In a word, yes. These zLine SUV tyres are quite good, wear well, and have a reasonable price point. Nokian is a company with a small marketing budget, so you don't see its name in a lot of magazine ads or certainly on TV. Their marketing approach is to have their tyres get tested and let word-of-mouth do the rest. That lets them spend more on tyre R&D. It shows.
WEAR:
Excellent. 255/50 R19 107W XL is the size I ran for several months on my X5. When I took them off for the winter, the measured wear was less than 20%, and no feathering was visible on the tread. The X5 started feathering its last set of Uniroyals within two days. Not so with the Nokians. I suspect that these tyres will give me well over 25k miles. That may sound low, but remember that the X5 is hell on tyres. With chip-tuning it delivers 375hp and gruesome low-end torque. The driver may smile a lot but the tyres are grunting in effort.
DRY TRACTION:
Good to excellent. The tyres grip well and make little noise in normal driving or cornering. Braking is excellent, even on the autobahn at 150mph. This tyre grabs as well as the OE Bridgestones (RFT), which cost twice as much and have a horrible ride.
WET TRACTION:
Excellent. Despite a tread with large solid blocks of rubber, the Nokian seems to evacuate water well due to its equally-large open channels in the tread. The few times that the VSC kicked in during rain, the tyres felt predicable and safe. The OE Bridgestones that BMW puts on X5s have a nasty reputation for poor traction in the wet. Not so with these Nokians.
NOISE AND RIDE:
Quiet, comfortable. But keep in mind that this is not a run-flat tyre (RFT). RFTs that I have tried all make more noise and have a harsher ride. In the summer, I choose to run non-RFTs and carry a tyre plug kit with compressor. The payoff is a smoother ride. The Nokians compare favorable to the Uniroyals I wore out quickly before them.
PRICE:
Very competitive. These tyres cost much less than the major brands that you see advertised in the media. Given their resistance to wear, you can probably cut your tyre expenditures in half by running Nokians instead of, say Michelins.
BOTTOM LINE:
A great tyre for a very fair price. I will buy them again. The zLine SUV has no weak performance traits, but it's not an RFT. If RFT is important to you, Nokian offers those too, but I have not tried them.
http://www.nokiantyres.com/tyreselector ... 4x4-tyres/
But would Finland deliver good summer tyres too?
In a word, yes. These zLine SUV tyres are quite good, wear well, and have a reasonable price point. Nokian is a company with a small marketing budget, so you don't see its name in a lot of magazine ads or certainly on TV. Their marketing approach is to have their tyres get tested and let word-of-mouth do the rest. That lets them spend more on tyre R&D. It shows.
WEAR:
Excellent. 255/50 R19 107W XL is the size I ran for several months on my X5. When I took them off for the winter, the measured wear was less than 20%, and no feathering was visible on the tread. The X5 started feathering its last set of Uniroyals within two days. Not so with the Nokians. I suspect that these tyres will give me well over 25k miles. That may sound low, but remember that the X5 is hell on tyres. With chip-tuning it delivers 375hp and gruesome low-end torque. The driver may smile a lot but the tyres are grunting in effort.
DRY TRACTION:
Good to excellent. The tyres grip well and make little noise in normal driving or cornering. Braking is excellent, even on the autobahn at 150mph. This tyre grabs as well as the OE Bridgestones (RFT), which cost twice as much and have a horrible ride.
WET TRACTION:
Excellent. Despite a tread with large solid blocks of rubber, the Nokian seems to evacuate water well due to its equally-large open channels in the tread. The few times that the VSC kicked in during rain, the tyres felt predicable and safe. The OE Bridgestones that BMW puts on X5s have a nasty reputation for poor traction in the wet. Not so with these Nokians.
NOISE AND RIDE:
Quiet, comfortable. But keep in mind that this is not a run-flat tyre (RFT). RFTs that I have tried all make more noise and have a harsher ride. In the summer, I choose to run non-RFTs and carry a tyre plug kit with compressor. The payoff is a smoother ride. The Nokians compare favorable to the Uniroyals I wore out quickly before them.
PRICE:
Very competitive. These tyres cost much less than the major brands that you see advertised in the media. Given their resistance to wear, you can probably cut your tyre expenditures in half by running Nokians instead of, say Michelins.
BOTTOM LINE:
A great tyre for a very fair price. I will buy them again. The zLine SUV has no weak performance traits, but it's not an RFT. If RFT is important to you, Nokian offers those too, but I have not tried them.
http://www.nokiantyres.com/tyreselector ... 4x4-tyres/
