# Nexen Winguard Sport 2 Winter Tires



## Mulletchild2 (Mar 26, 2019)

Has anyone had any experience running these for winter tires? Any thoughts? The good? The bad?


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## Jonathan Shefftz (May 19, 2019)

Mulletchild2 said:


> Has anyone had any experience running these for winter tires? Any thoughts? The good? The bad?



I'd never heard of these before I saw the latest Consumer Reports ratings on-line for performance winter tires.
Did quite well too, just barely behind the tried-and-true Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4, although was also behind the new-ish Vredestein Wintrac Pro, which is even more obscure than the Nexen.
(Trying to decide for my Arteon between the Wintrac Pro on separate 18" wheels vs just replacing the mediocre OEM tires on the 19" OEM wheels with the new Vredestein Quatrac Pro.)


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## Mulletchild2 (Mar 26, 2019)

Good to hear they got good ratings. I couldn't pass on them for the price. I will update this post once I get a chance to run them this winter.


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## Mulletchild2 (Mar 26, 2019)

Jonathan Shefftz said:


> I'd never heard of these before I saw the latest Consumer Reports ratings on-line for performance winter tires.
> Did quite well too, just barely behind the tried-and-true Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4, although was also behind the new-ish Vredestein Wintrac Pro, which is even more obscure than the Nexen.
> (Trying to decide for my Arteon between the Wintrac Pro on separate 18" wheels vs just replacing the mediocre OEM tires on the 19" OEM wheels with the new Vredestein Quatrac Pro.)


Are you able to share those ratings? I can't seem to find them anywhere.


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## Jonathan Shefftz (May 19, 2019)

This is the link:
https://www.consumerreports.org/products/tires/ratings/?type=performance-winter-snow-tire
... though requires a subscription to view.
(And note that the order on that preview is not the ranking order.)

Copied below is how I entered all the ratings into a spreadsheet.
The respective column headers are:
Overall score	Dry braking	Wet braking	Handling	Hydroplaning	Snow traction	Ice braking	Ride comfort	Noise	Rolling resistance
... which fits in my spreadsheet since I changed the text orientation.

Note the overall score is some unspecified weighting across the individual categories.
And the weighting varies by tire category.
So the overall score does not have any meaning when comparing tires across categories.

Vredestein	Wintrac Pro 78	4	3	4	5	5	5	4	3	2
Michelin	Pilot Alpin PA4 72	4	4	4	5	4	5	3	3	2
Nexen	Winguard Sport 2 71	3	3	3	5	4	5	3	5	2
Yokohama	Blue Earth Winter V905	70	4	3	3	5	4	5	3	3	3
Hankook	Winter i*cept evo2 70	3	3	3	5	5	4	3	5	3
Bridgestone	Blizzak LM001 67	3	3	3	5	4	4	3	4	3
Toyo	Observe GSi-6 HP 66	3	1	2	4	5	5	4	3	3
Pirelli Winter Sottozero 3 66	4	3	3	5	4	4	3	3	3

Also:
5 = Excellent
4 = Very Good
3 = Good
2 = Fair
1 = Poor

Test tire size = 225/40R18, so not too far off the 245/45R18 that would probably be the best winter size for the Arteon (unless you go down to 222/55R17).

My overall take:
Ironic that the top-ranked tire is currently not carried by anyone, although perhaps that will change for this coming winter.
Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 deserves its reputation, and is also confirmed by Tire Rack testing too (https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=181).
With the exception of the Toyo model in the wet, all these models manage the tradeoffs really well across the range of winter conditions likely to be encountered in relatively moderate winter climates (i.e., not Calgary, not Tahoe) with decent road maintenance (i.e., not isolated rural areas with minimal plowing and salting).
Ironic that the lowest-rated model is the most widely available, but even that would still be a great choice overall, given the relatively narrow range of the rankings (which is very unlike all the other tire categories rated by CR).[/LIST]


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## Jonathan Shefftz (May 19, 2019)

Also, thinking back to my post here:
https://forums.vwvortex.com/showthr...0-quot-s&p=113762187&viewfull=1#post113762187
... comparing the above Performance Winter Tire reviews to what CR calls "Winter/snow tires" and what are usually termed Studless Winter Tires, of the 17 essentially just plain-old winter tires reviewed:

All 17 models received an Excellent score for Snow Traction (perhaps the first time that every tested model in any CR review has received an Excellent rating for any attribute?).
All but 3 models were Excellent for Ice Breaking, and those others were still Very Good.
Noise, Ride Comfort, and Rolling Resistance varied widely, so shows some progress in addressing those traditional tradeoffs for winter tires.
Three models scored Good for Handling, but the others were either Fair or Poor, so not much progress there.
All but one model was Fair for Dry Braking, and even that model managed only Good.
Even worse, all but one model was Poor for Wet Braking, and even that model managed only Good.
For all the other categories of tires, all the scores are all the over the place just as would be expected.


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## Mulletchild2 (Mar 26, 2019)

Jonathan Shefftz said:


> Also, thinking back to my post here:
> https://forums.vwvortex.com/showthr...0-quot-s&p=113762187&viewfull=1#post113762187
> ... comparing the above Performance Winter Tire reviews to what CR calls "Winter/snow tires" and what are usually termed Studless Winter Tires, of the 17 essentially just plain-old winter tires reviewed:
> 
> ...


This is awesome, thanks for posting! Totally agree with everything you said. I'm excited to try the Winguard Sports this winter. Here in Pittsburgh, PA we get snow, but most of the time it's wet, slushy road conditions. I'll take the improved wet/dry handling/breaking any day over the excellent ice breaking. For the price ($100/tire), these seem like a steal so far, but we'll see how it goes this winter.


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## BsickPassat (May 10, 2010)

I've only used the original winguard sports. Can't complain for the price and it's purpose. They never let me down in a blizzard... Just climbing steep hills where physics team up against you

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk


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## j604 (Mar 25, 2016)

I know this is an old post, but I'm searching for winter tires for my new car and found this thread. I had a set of Nexen Winguard Sport 2 on my Golf R and had no issues with them in Vancouver, BC winter. Might pickup a set for my Audi RS3


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