Everyone's raving about these winter tires, so we tested them ourselves

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In a recent story, I shared a mental checklist of my favourite winter tires , formed from literally hundreds of thousands of kilometers of testing in real winter conditions. I explained that Michelin X-Ice tires are the ones I spend my own money on, because their performance always impressed me whenever I’ve encountered them — especially when it comes to hard braking in the snow.

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As an experienced winter driver and testing driver, it’s not measured distances or rating scales that brought me to this conclusion. Rather, it was the Michelin X-Ice showing me, time and again, that they’re worthy of my trust.

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Everyone's raving about these winter tires, so we tested them ourselves Back to video

In that article, I also mentioned that I’d never driven on a set of Nokian Hakkapeliittas before. Nokian got in touch and shipped me a set of Hakkapeliitta R3s to try, providing me with my first-ever experience driving on them.

I’ve always been curious what all the fuss was about.

By “fuss,” I mean the way so many friends, family members, viewers and readers in Northern Ontario seem to rave about Hakkapeliitta tires. They even have a nickname — ‘Hakkas’. (How does a tire get a nickname? Fans.)

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People love these tires, and I’m surrounded by people who hold the the Nokian Hakkapeliitta as a sort of ‘one-and-only’ winter tire that they buy once, and then, forever. The truck guys up here seem to love them with studs, too.

The tires in our test were freebies — though as a multiple award-winning road safety journalist, wintertime vehicle testing is a topic I’ve taken very seriously for over 15 years, so I’ll be telling you exactly what I think. Our test car is my own daily driver, a trusty VW AllTrack with 1.8-litre turbo engine, manual six-speed, and all-wheel-drive.

I started on the Pirelli Ice-Zero winter tires equipped to my car to set a baseline. I’m not massively familiar with these tires, and I’d planned to run a set of X-Ice on the AllTrack, but promo pricing when I bought the car got me the Pirellis for a smoking deal, so I saved a few bucks instead. 

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From the seat of my pants after an hour of braking, swerving, accelerating and braking on polished hard-packed snow, I’d peg the performance of the X-Ice and Ice Zero similarly, with the X-Ice maintaining the stronger bite in braking and cornering, in the conditions I drive in most often. I find the Pirelli Ice Zero tires a little less impressive than my favorites from Michelin, but they give me no complaints. 

Returning to the same testing surface 90 minutes later with the R3s installed ensured a good comparison — using the same surface, on the same day, in the same conditions. That’s a rule I learned after many years as a member of AJAC (the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada) and long-time participant in their Canadian Car of the Year Awards program. In this program, “same roads, same day, same conditions” helps form the basis of a more accurate comparisons.

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I arrived back to my testing surface wondering if I’d get a surprise from the R3s. En route via highway, I did note a slightly smoother and quieter ride on the highway from the R3s, but that comfort doesn’t help if, suddenly, there’s a moose. Still, overall the R3s surprised me, but not how I expected.

After reading on some of the technologies in these tires, including “Cryo Crystals” that act like studs and special sipe patterning that bites more firmly into the snow, I expected the R3s would show up the X-Ice tires in hard braking. This is the situation that’s made me an X-Ice fan, remember. 

I’d peg the R3s braking bite to be more impressive than the Pirelli, but still a touch shy of what I love about the Michelins. On the Pirellis, the ABS was working the hardest — though I still figure the X-Ice gets a bit more stopping power to the road than the R3s, in these conditions.

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So many friends and readers in Northern Ontario rave about Hakkapeliitta tires, they even have a nickname — 'Hakkas'

The surprise on the R3s came during an evasive handling test. With some rhythm to the steering and throttle and brakes, it’s possible to provoke the car into a near-spin condition, where a battle is waged between the slippery polished snow and the electronics and brakes and AWD and traction management systems trying to help the car stick to it.

As tremendous amounts of data are crunched, these systems fire everything they’ve got to try and optimize the car’s handling, and keep it going where it’s pointed.

In this sort of exercise, everything comes into play — and the deciding factor in who wins the battle between “control” or “spin out” is the tires that transmit the work of those systems to the surface of the road.

To the seat of this writer’s very experienced pants, the R3s do a fantastic job of making their driver feel like they’re winning that battle. I have to work harder at the controls to try and break the car’s tail loose. The electronics are able to correct the attitude of the vehicle more quickly, and more consistently.  From the driver’s seat, the rear of the car follows more tightly in line with the front. There’s less momentum whipping me from one side to the other, since the tires are doing more gripping, and less slipping and sliding back and forth as I try to make them let go.

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Point is, in this very specific comparison, switching to Hakkapeliittas from Ice Zero tires resulted in even more of that sensation of your car having your back. Confidence, and peace of mind, enhanced. It’s not a night and day difference, but it’s sufficiently noticeable, right from the get go.

I couldn’t tell you if the R3s are my new favourite winter tire. I only gave that title to the Michelin X-Ice after many years of testing, and several nicely-mitigated ‘close calls’ in the snow. 

Still, based on a very specific initial test, I can see what the fuss is about with the Hakkas. To me, the best part of these tires is how quickly you start to feel like they’ve got your back. And that’s exactly what you want a good winter tire to do.