Just ordered Nokian Z-line A/S

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(/quote "Still very curious about the winter performance of the Zline. [/quote]

I guarantee the Zline is deadly in Winter conditions! I just went out once briefly in very light snow and felt I was on a skating rink!

The Zline AS is another story, I drove in a couple inches of fresh snow and while it was easy to force the Traction Control into operation the tire was not treacherous. The slight siping & different rubber compound seem to have made it a much better 3 Season tire. I live on the E edge of lake effect snow belt in Central NY and am not comfortable with anything less than a good snow tire. I use Nokian R2's on my wife's '09 Rabbit & my AUDI A6 Avant. This past winter was my daughters 1st and after a brief excursion into a ditch on glare ice with her 1/2 tread R2's I bought her a set of Studded Nokian Hakapelitta 9's since she's the only one in the family with work & school timelines to meet! I was very surprised to see how much quieter they are than than the old Hakka's. On my iPhone DB meter they read about 68-69db at 65 MPH and the R2's run the meter up to 65 DB at 65 mph, both on AUDI A6 Avants, '07/'08.
 
Originally Posted By: stuffinder


I guarantee the Zline is deadly in Winter conditions! I just went out once briefly in very light snow and felt I was on a skating rink!

The Zline AS is another story, I drove in a couple inches of fresh snow and while it was easy to force the Traction Control into operation the tire was not treacherous. The slight siping & different rubber compound seem to have made it a much better 3 Season tire. I live on the E edge of lake effect snow belt in Central NY and am not comfortable with anything less than a good snow tire. I use Nokian R2's on my wife's '09 Rabbit & my AUDI A6 Avant. This past winter was my daughters 1st and after a brief excursion into a ditch on glare ice with her 1/2 tread R2's I bought her a set of Studded Nokian Hakapelitta 9's since she's the only one in the family with work & school timelines to meet! I was very surprised to see how much quieter they are than than the old Hakka's. On my iPhone DB meter they read about 68-69db at 65 MPH and the R2's run the meter up to 65 DB at 65 mph, both on AUDI A6 Avants, '07/'08.


I meant the Zline AS, I would'nt drive a summer tire like the Zline in the snow.

The AS has a A/AA rating vs. the Entyre 2.0's A/A and I wondered how big a difference there was in snow most of all.
 
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Originally Posted By: 123Saab


I meant the Zline AS, I would'nt drive a summer tire like the Zline in the snow.

The AS has a A/AA rating vs. the Entyre 2.0's A/A and I wondered how big a difference there was in snow most of all.


The traction rating has nothing to do with snow. It refers to wet braking coefficients in asphalt and concrete.

UTQG doesn't have a snow rating. The 3-peak mountain snowflake is a Rubber Manufacturers Association test.
 
Just ordered a set for my Audi a4 in 235/45-17. Only $66.57 shipped from Simple Tire. I know they're pretty new, but I haven't seen a bad review.
 
Originally Posted By: stuffinder
I don't think we're complaining about lack of snow/ice/cold performance as much as making people aware of the fact that the Zline AS does have
have improved performance in that department as compared to it's predecessor the Zline. I believe the UTOQ rating dhow that it will give additional tread wear as well. Zline was 300, Zline AS 500 I believe. I don't think the handling is degrade much compared to Zline & I prefer a tire that I don't have swap due to danger in cold/snow/ice conditions! I've been averaging 35-40 k miles annually since 1966 in Porsche 356, VW's, Peugeot 504's, Volvo 122,145,745,965 and since moving to a bad hill in 2010 AUDI A4,S6, A6 Avants. Most of these cars were purchased used so I've had plenty of opportunity to experience all sorts of tires. Nokians have been the best winter tire I've used although I splurged on my 1st AUDI with a set of Vredestein Wintrac Extreme's. The Vred's were the best handling winter tire I've evr used but not up to Nokian in Snow/Ice! Due to the fact that Nokian is known as a "Snow" tire company their Summer tires have been slow sellers. They can often be found languishing in some warehouse in the Sunny South or Far West at absurdly low prices! I saw 245/45x17 Zline's at 50-60 bucks a yearorr two ago on simple tire! Not all my Nokian experience has been excellent, the early "All Season, WR G2 I think became serious screamers under 20K, others have have had similar experience. Frequent rotation is a must, especially on AUDI's, BMW's & M-B's according to a Nokian tech guy I talked to years ago. BTW the Nokian Entyre 2.0's I just put on my daughters A6 handle almost as well as the Zline AS and are smoother riding & should give more tread life & be even better in Cold/Snow. I needed something more cold weather worthy to balance her Studded R2's!


The Zline A/S has no procedessor. The Zline A/S is a tire specific for the US/Canada market.

The Z-line is still being made, (its predecessor is the Z-G2)and sold in the US/Canada for those who want a summer tire.

You're not going to find too many summer tires with a UTQG wear rating of 500 or higher sold for the US/Canada market. THe closest summer tire I know of is the Dunlop Direzza DZ102, which gets a wear rating of 460.
 
Originally Posted By: UG_Passat
Originally Posted By: 123Saab


I meant the Zline AS, I would'nt drive a summer tire like the Zline in the snow.

The AS has a A/AA rating vs. the Entyre 2.0's A/A and I wondered how big a difference there was in snow most of all.


The traction rating has nothing to do with snow. It refers to wet braking coefficients in asphalt and concrete.

UTQG doesn't have a snow rating. The 3-peak mountain snowflake is a Rubber Manufacturers Association test.


Correct. The Zline AS has a better rating for traction than the Entyre 2.0.

It would be the preferable tire if it measures up in snow to the Entyre 2.0.

Sorry for my sloppy sentence.
 
Stay tuned here I'm running '07/'08 AUDI A6 Avants with 245/40/18 Entyre 2.0 & 245/45/27 ZlineAS. Depending on the snowfall before my changeover to R2's & Hakka 9's w/studs I may be able to do a comparision.
At this point I wish the Entyre 2.0 had been available in 245/45/17 as they seem to ride a little smoother even w/18's running higher TP specified by AUDI, probably to keep from cracking/bending rims with lower profile. I haven't pushed either car very hard cornering wise. The Zline is probably a touch stickier. Both are excellent rain tires. (As are all Nokians in my experience) One thing I notice with Zline's is they feel like there is very minor flat spotting or something causing very slight imbalance that I can feel for the first 5-10 minutes of driving, even in 60-70 degree weather. At first I thought they weren't balanced properly and asked my mechanic how they had balanced when he installed them & he said they balance well with a minimum of weight necessary. I think it's just due to slightly different rubber compound/ They do smooth out fine until the next time the car sits for a day or more. All in all I'm very happy with both Zline AS & Entyre 2.0, will see how they work out!
 
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