spooltime

Most Cayenne owners are happy with the appearance and performance of their 21" wheels/tires until the unhappy day arrives when it's necessary to replace worn tires. The Porsche N Spec rated tires in size 295/35/21 all start at about $1,400 or more and go up from there. For a set of Yokohamas or Michelins, you can easily drop $2,000 for a set, and that may not included installation.

Seizing on this market opportunity, two well known European tire manufacturers have jumped into the 295/35/21 tire space. The first was Vredestein, and now Nokian has followed. Nokian is best known for its extraordinary winter tires offerings - they know how to make good tires. Even better as I discovered, their new Nokian Z SUV tire in 295/35/21 can be purchased in a set of four, delivered to your doorstep, for only $916. I'm sorry, but given how the vast majority of Cayennes are used daily, you cannot convince me that I need to spend 50% to 100% more on tires for it. Capping off the easy financial decision were two highly favorable ratings in test results published in some German magazines (noted on Nokian website).

I've been driving on the Nokians now for a couple of weeks and wanted to provide my impressions of the tires. My previous set were Pirelli Rosso N specs, so any comparisons are against those tires.

When the tires arrived, I used an advanced GPS9700 procedure called "Matchmaker" to determine which tire went on which wheel. In a nutshell, this procedure entails measuring the bare rim lateral and radial runout of each wheel, then mounting the tires and measuring the radial force variation (RFV) of each tire, and then having the GSP9700 software determine which tire goes on which wheel and in which location on such wheel in order to minimize the overall RFV of the wheel/tire assembly. It's time consuming to do this since it involves and additional round of dismounts and mounts, but the final result is a glass smooth ride.

In doing this procedure with the Nokians, I noted that the overall RFVs obtained ended up being higher than those when I installed the Pirellis. I attribute this to Pirelli's likely higher quality control during the manufacturing process (expected for more than a 55% higher cost per tire). However, there was virtually no difference in the required amount of balancing weight. When mounted correctly, both the Nokians and the Pirellis required an average amount of balancing weight. In fact, on one wheel, the Nokian tire required zero balancing weight on the inner weight plane. So overall, the Nokians mounted up and balanced out quite well.

After driving on them for a couple of weeks to let them break in, I noted the ride comfort level was quite high, they feel very stable and controlled on aggressive turns, and they tracked very nicely through a torrential downpour one day. But I still wanted to retest the balance and RFVs following the break in period to see if the tires had slipped at all on the rims or whether the conditioning of the sidewalls affected the RFVs. To do this, I warmed the tires up by driving at highway speeds for about 20 minutes and then immediately lifted the Cayenne off the ground upon entry to the garage to avoid any temporary "flat-spotting" issues that could affect the measurements. I found only one tire had somewhat different readings and required an additional 15 grams of balancing weight. After confirming the correct tire inflation pressures, I located each wheel/tire assembly in its proper locations based on its absolute RFV measurement (lowest - LF, next lowest - RF, third lowest LR, and worst - RR), torqued the wheels to spec (160 Nm) and took another test spin. Smooth as glass. For the price, the Nokian Z SUV is a tremendous value. Definitely recommended for the budget conscious among us; means you can keep the great look of the 21's without having to break the bank on replacement tires.

I've attached some pictures showing the tire and its markings.

hahnmgh63

Great feedback. They'll probably be my next 21" tires when these Michelins go unless Michelin drastically reduces the price of the latitudes.

B.Kish

Nice post.

Had a set of these on order after posting queries here about them. Went with Tiresbyweb but they ended up having no release date on the back order. So I had to move on. After the Vredesteins and Contis and PZeros were all also on back order (and not wanting to pay the ridiculous prices for Advans or Latitudes) I went with replica turbo 2's with Continental DW's in 20's. Vastly improved ride over the Advans. My hope is the 20's wear out at the same rate as the snow tires on the stock GTS wheels and switch back to 21's for summer (Nokian or Vreds) and get 20" snow tires for the replicas.

ericstaup

Thanks for the review! I am presently running Michelins.

One question....are those tires as narrow as they appear in the rear view photo? There was a review on the Verdestines that said they were not as wide as other tires of the same size and the appearance suffered a little.
Eric

BlazinPond

Great review! Thanks.

Chris51080

Very interested to see what kind of tire life you get. It would be nice to see something in the 30k range.
With a tread wear rating of 400...its possible.

spooltime

No, they're not narrow at all; the picture from the rear with it up on the lift doesn't do them justice. They actually appeared to me to be slightly wider, with better shoulder structure, than the Pirelli Rosso tires they replaced (Pirelli on the right in photo below). They are sufficiently wide to provide a nice amount of rim flange protection. I'll take some additional pictures this weekend showing it on the ground.

I'm interested in this, too. I'll definitely be satisfied with total mileage in the 25K - 35K range. Since I'll drop down to 20's with winter-spec tires at the end of fall, it make take a few years to know the ultimate mileage the Nokians will provide, but I have no doubts whatsoever they'll do better than the Pirellis.

ericstaup

I don't think you mentioned where you purchased these. The dealer locate website is crashing my ipad and the tires by web site is saying they can't be found when I tried to add to cart.
Thx again
Eric

Chipster

I purchased a set on tiresbyweb.com - delivered about a week ago. So far so good. They seem to ride fine and they look great. They are just a little wider than the Continentals they replace (and a lot less expensive ($919 delivered).

spooltime

Ditto. That's where I sourced mine, too. Great service and tires were well packaged when they arrived.

Psup4s

Nokian makes the best snow tires, I'm glad to hear their summer tires perform well also. thanks for the review

ericstaup

Ok thx!
Eric

J'sWorld

I've tried every 21" tire and have been running the Vred's for quite while. Thanks for the writeup and looks like I know now what my next set will be! One thing I didn't like about the Vred's is that they have a lot of rubber cut out for the rain grooves. Looks like these have a bit more rubber in the tread. Do you think that traction is as good despite the higher treadwear rating?

spooltime

Saw the Micheline Latitude N1 is back in stock at Tire Rack. Only $2,290.20 delivered to my door (granted, I have to pay them GA sales tax). Hmmmmm . . . let's see. Nokian Z SUV - $916, Michelin $2,290. Really?

Chris51080

After collecting a few too many nails in my Michelins, I have just placed my order for the Nokians.
I also used tiresbyweb.com for my order.