A new tyre to guide you safely through the winter season


non-studded tyre.

One fairly new tyre that I bought last winter, which has been nicknamed Northern Comfort, is a great non-studded tyre. The Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3, is a tyre that has changed the winter driving for me into a very pleasant experience. The Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3 boosts the best driving comfort I have ever had when it comes to winter tyres. Smooth and yet giving me perfect balance. Despite not having studs, it gives me perfect grip on both snow and ice.

I have always thought that I needed to have studded tyres to achieve such grip in winter conditions and it took long convincing from my tyre shop that the makers of the best winter tyres now can deliver great winter tyres even without studs. The owner of the tyre shop had these tyres on his car and let me test-drive it for a bit. It wasn’t enough to fully convince me, but he showed me how well they had performed in winter test versus other tyres, so I thought I would give it a try. I am now into my second season and I am of course now fully convinced.

It was also great as the family ventured on a ski trip to Chamonix, where we took the car. As we had no studded tyres, there was no problem cruising through Germany on our way to France. Studded tyres are forbidden in Germany, which can cause some hassle if you have studded tyres and try to do the same trip. The tyres worked as well on autobahn through Germany as the windy winter roads up the Alps.


These tyres also exhibit very low rolling resistance so we didn’t spend much on fuel despite the long distance. We didn’t drive to save money; we did it more for the fun of a car vacation at the same time. Our friends made sure that we checked the tyre pressure before leaving when the car was fully loaded to ensure that we had the correct tyre pressure, this probably also added to the fact that the we didn’t consume so much fuel.  Next year’s ski trip is already planned and these tyres will last another winter before I buy a new set of same tyres.

For more information regarding Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3, visit: www.nokiantyres.com

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