Writing about the
Nokian zLine AS given
80% (235-55-17-)
Driving on
a combination of roads for 15000
spirited miles
I have been very impressed with these tires on my 1997 BMW 740i. I drive it very hard and often way too fast but never have they caused me and concern. I replaced an older but almost new set of Bridgestone touring tires and these were better in every way I could imagine. They are very predictable on hard cornering and have the high XL road rating my large and heavy car needs.
If there was a concern that surprised me it is that the tires did not handle as well as I had expected of Nokian in snow and ice conditions. While I usually use dedicated snow tires, I tend to leave a change out until there is more consistant winter weather. I had heard that Nokian tires were particularly good in snow and wet. I find that in the wet they do perform well but in snow and ice they are only average. I would not call them spectatcular like I do in dry conditions. They are not bad in any way but I only rated them a 6/10 in ice because I was no longer able to risk spirited driving and had to tone it down a bit.
I would definitely buy these again for this tire with no reservations and I have never had as good a tire on my car.
A final note is that I choose the All season over summer only tires for two reasons. The first is that I tend to run into winter conditions before changing tires and secondly I was told the treadwear rating of the summer was on the order of 40-50,000 km where the All seasons was 65-75,000 seasons. Quite a difference in life span and worth the extra weather coverage