Initial Impressions Review
Given
79%
while driving a
Hyundai i20N
(215/40 R18)
on
for 8,000
miles
I bought the Kinergy 4S2 as a winter tire, in central europe we have usually mild winters with mostly wet and slush, so a wet focused all-season seemed like a good idea, and the 4S2 had a good price in my stupid size.
TL;DR: It was, I’m 95% satisfied with the performance
Dry: Well, it’s an all season on a sporty car, and i didn’t drive it in the summer heat, so not much to talk about. The grip is good, it doesn’t soften up too much in highway drive in ~15C (the warmest it seen), the handling isn’t too fun, but communicative. The comfort is good (way better than the OE PZ4 ofc), but it is quite loud @70/140kph (some sort of resonance, it was bad in the first 500km, then got better). It’s slightly better than a full winter, and that was my goal.
Wet: My point with the tire choice was to handle cold (below 5C) wet, and it nailed it. It has absolutely no grip issues in cold wet, even in the usual salted up/slushy 0C winter roads, or deeper water, it feel just like driving in a summer rain. This comes with the compromise, that the wet grip doesn’t get better with warmer (10-15C) temps, it was weird at first, but i guess that’s a design choice, and i like it.
Snow: Now, that we finally got proper winter, i can say that in fresh or slightly packed snow, these feel just like real winter tires, the grip is good, the balance was perfect (even playful). However, as we move from fresh snow to more packed/icy snow or full ice, the grip dropped drastically (it does with any tire, but less with full winters). It was ok-ish for just getting from A to B, but you really felt the lack of sipes.
Wear/fuel use: I didn’t drive too much on them yet, but they seem to handle the agressive suspension/LSD/torque of the I20N well, there is no significant wear (the OE Pirellis died way quicker lol). The fuel use is hard to tell, it dropped a bit vs PZ4s, but i think the new PS5 set going up in spring well be even better.
As conclusion, i love the tires, if i drove in the mountains i’d need real winters, but currently they perfectly fit my sporty-ish mild winter tire needs (CC3S wasn’t yet on the market, and tbh I’m slightly concerned about the low starting tread depth of them). So, defo buy again, or maybe try something else for curiosity, oor 4S3? :D
