Nokian Tires Review

Founded in 1932 in Nokia, Finland, the Scandinavian tire manufacturer Nokian is best known for their high-quality winter tires. The world’s northernmost tire manufacturer produces some of the best premium quality winter tires on the market, which is no surprise considering Finland’s longest season is winter. In fact, the company operates the only permanent winter tire testing facility in the world! However, specially-designed winter tires are just some of the products Nokian offers. Today, the brand’s product lineup consists of a number of different models, including all-season, summer and winter tires for passenger cars, light trucks and SUVs, vans and trucks.

To help you decide if this is the best tire brand for you, we’ve reviewed three of Nokian’s best-selling models. We’ve also written a short but helpful information buying guide, so read on!

Best Selling Nokian Tires

Nokian eNTYRE All-Season Radial Tire

The eNTYRE is one of the Nokian’s most popular All-Season tires. Designed specifically for North American versatile weather conditions (although you can certainly use it no matter where you live, as long as the climate is similar), this tire performs well in rain, sun and snow.

The eNTYRE is designed to provide a firm grip in dry, wet and light snow weather conditions, comfortable and quiet ride and long tread life. This is also an environmentally friendly tire as it uses Nokian’s green technologies, including only purified, low aromatic oils. It’s also quite affordable, especially considering the quality of the materials, making it overall one of the best value for money all-season tires. Notable technologies and design elements include:

• 3D Lock Sipes: this design stiffens the structure of the tire, improving braking responsiveness. It also reduces the heat generated inside the tire, which allows it to withstand the stress of poorer road conditions
• Silent Groove Design: by cutting out any noise induced by the edge of the transverse grooves, the design reduces overall noise levels, making driving pleasantly quiet
• Polished grooves: to allow water to flow easily, the main grooves are polished and slippery, while the open design increases the volume of the grooves, reducing the risk of aquaplaning. This improves both wet and dry grip and vehicle stability
• Mudstopper design: by preventing dirt, mud and small rocks from becoming trapped in the grooves, the mudstopper design also prevents damage and extends the life of the tire and rim
• Driving safety and aquaplaning indicator: found on the center rib, these indicators indicate groove depth in millimeters, letting the driver know when the grooves are worn out.

Nokian Rotiiva AT ATV Radial Tire

Rotiiva AT is Nokian’s best selling all-terrain, all-season tire. Constructed to offer excellent off-road capabilities, as well as proper on-asphalt manners, this model is the definition of versatility: great both on and off road, in rain, snow and sun, Rotiiva AT checks all the right boxes.

This tire is packed with some of the Nokian’s best technologies and features, and as a result, is incredibly stable no matter the weather or road conditions, plus highly durable even on heavier vehicles. Its aggressive tread pattern is what ensures exceptional handling capabilities, while its sturdy structure with cut-resistant tread is what provides long tread life and durability. Rotiiva AT’s most important features include:

• Stabilizers on the center rib: this design stiffens the tire on road contact, leading to excellent driving stability, quick responsiveness to steering and smooth and comfortable rides
• Aramid Sidewall Technology: exceptionally durable and puncture-resistant sidewall compound with strong aramid fibers ensures durability and safety even in surprising/dangerous situations
• 3D siping: increases grip, providing additional driving stability and enhanced handling
• Cooling ribs design: reduces heat generation inside the tire, increasing tire durability and tread life. Also leads to more comfortable driving even on rough roads
• Rock-removing design: located at the bottom of the grooves, stone ejectors minimize the risk of rock penetration.

Nokian ZLINE A/S Performance Radial Tire

Combining safety and performance with comfort and luxury, the zLine A/S tire is one of the Nokian’s most popular performance tires. This model is specifically designed for fast driving throughout all four seasons.

The zLINE A/S provides excellent grip on both dry and wet pavement, as well as high handling stability and safety in all weather situations. The model is also pleasantly quiet and comfortable even on bumpy roads, thanks to a number of Nokian’s innovative technologies and element designs. Another important feature is zLINE’s ability to save fuel and increase tread life. There are various technologies to thank for this, but the most important is the new rubber compound. But more on that later; now, let’s take a look at this model’s most notable features.

• Silent Groove design + Polished grooves: silent groove design below the tread surface softens the road shocks and vibrations, leading to more comfortable rides, while the polished grooves reduce noise levels both inside and outside the vehicle
• Dynamic Traction Boost tread compound + Clinch rubber compound: new rubber compound adapts to changes in temperature, resulting in enhanced wet grip, better fuel economy and good wear resistance. Clinch rubber compound provides additional durability while minimizing rolling noise
• Special tread pattern design: stiff outside shoulders stabilize the handling, providing much-needed support during high-speed cornering and lane changes
• Comfort base compound: softens the impacts during driving, leading to more comfortable rides
• Cooling Edge technology: diagonal sipes on the shoulder area tread blocks provide cooling to the hottest parts of the tire, improving durability and handling capabilities.

Nokian Tires Buying Guide

With over 80 years of experience in tire design and manufacturing, especially winter tires, it’s more than safe to say that Nokian know what they’re doing. Made of quality, environmentally friendly materials, with durable designs and innovative technologies, all Nokian tires deliver first and foremost safe and stable driving. They’re also highly responsive, most are very comfortable and quiet too, plus every single model can boast about its long tread life. On top of all this, all of their tires are reasonably priced!

Still unsure about purchasing Nokian tires? Perhaps our buying guide that covers Nokian’s notable design features, plus potential reasons to choose this brand, can help.

Why Choose Nokian Tires?

When reviewing Nokian tires, two things jumped out at us immediately: excellent design and innovative tire technologies. Nokian understands that in order to continuously produce tires that the consumers like, non-stop innovation, including eco-friendly rubber compounds and smart technologies, as well as durable and safe designs are a must. That’s why the company invests a lot of time and money in not only in developing new bio-based materials and element designs, but in testing as well.

Durable Designs and Thorough Testings

Nokian takes time to develop tires that perform well in all seasons and on most roads which is why all of their models have durable and often unique designs. Take their eNTYRE as an example: not only does this model boast 3D lock sipes, polished grooves and silent groove design, it also has hydroplaning and driving safety indicators. Rotiiva AT, on the other hand, has cooling ribs, cut-resistant tread and exceptionally sturdy structure.

To ensure quality and durability, all models are tested in extreme conditions at the Ivalo Testing Center, the world’s largest winter testing facility (1,700 acres in Finnish Lapland). In fact, around 50% of Nokian’s developmental costs go to arduous testing, which covers driving in extreme conditions for hundreds of thousands of kilometers, as well as convoy testing (three same cars drive one after the other on a set route).

Continuous Innovation

The company invests heavily in research and development (R + D) of tires, especially their winter models. Their R +D work allows them to continuously produce quality, ‘smart’ tires that adjust to the weather and road conditions seemingly effortlessly. Particularly notable is their dedication to eco-friendly materials: none of their models use toxic chemicals, but bio-based materials and purified, low aromatic oils. Instead, Nokian utilizes a number of innovative technologies to allow their tires to not only use less fuel, reducing CO2 emissions, but to last longer than competitive products. Take Rotiiva AT as an example: besides a durable, sturdy design, this tire boasts aramid sidewall technology to ensure superior resistance to punctures and external impacts. This same technology is used by the aerospace and defense industries.

Design Features

Nokian tires deliver solid traction in all weather situations, provide comfortable and pretty quiet rides, as well as super-stable handling and quick responsiveness to braking. To top it all off, they’re also highly durable with great tread life. How do they manage to hit all the right buttons? It all comes down to great design features.

• Durability and Long Tread Life: as mentioned, Nokian tires utilize various technologies and design elements to provide a long tread life, plus excellent resistance to punctures/shocks/impacts. The tires also have tough internal structure, especially the winter models, which allow them to stay safe and stable even on very rough terrains and in severe weather conditions. It also helps that most models come with average to above-average milege warranties.
• Stability and Comfort: if Nokian tires are anything, they’re safe and stable. Literally every model we checked out is made of quality materials and uses a number of useful features that allow it to stay stable no matter the speed, road or weather. In fact, Nokian has made the world’s first winter tire with retractable studs (with a push of a button you can bring them out or retract them), which speaks volumes about the safety and ride comfort these tires bring to the road.
• Environmentally Friendly: to put less burden on our environment and help consumers spend less money on fuel, Nokian makes their tires with low rolling resistance, using renewable materials. None of their models use carcinogenic/toxic materials, only purified oils such as canola, which are not only better for our planet, but for the tire’s all-season traction and handling. As a bonus, most models are highly durable and should last for years with no issues, providing you maintain them regularly.