I too was pleasantly surprised with their performance. We've received 3"-4" in the last couple day here in Utah, and I've gone out searching for bad roads and have no problems at all with anything that I've come up against. Whether the ESP is on or off you just point it and go. I find them completely acceptable for an all-season tire, and will gladly buy them again when I need new tires.
Finally I can provide some feedback for anyone wondering how these tires perform in the winter snow and ice. Honestly, after reading a number of posts where people were critical of tires of this type I expected handling just a bit better than an ice-skate... (IMHO) these tires did a whole lot better than I expected. I had a number of unplowed side streets with 4-6" of snow depth to navigate in the early morning as well as a combination of slush and iced over roads and I had no problems to speak of.
i've put about 2000 miles on a set, and I like em a lot better than the Michelin Pilots that came stock... IMO, they are slightly nosier on the road, but not loud by any stretch. The noise may also be a side effect of siping the tires. Really good grip in the dry and the wet. They were OK in the one snow storm that left anything on the ground this year. Definately not a 'real' snow tire though.
FWIW, I had 225/45R17 Nokian Hakkas on my 2001 TT Roadster, and I had absolutely no problems on hard-packed snow or loose, slushy wet snow. I distinctly remember leaving a big, jacked-up Jeep with all-terrain tires in my wake at a stop light in about 8 inches of unplowed snow!
I tried both Golf GTI with 195/65-15 and the R32 with 225/40-18 last winter, and the R32 was much better to drive even if the tyres are wider. I have 225/45-17 today (winter tyres, without spikes of course!) and they are awesome. Quite, nice handling
I had some Hakka's on my 85 Vanagon, all four wheels, they were very good. Felt better in most cases on snow than the summer Dunlops did on dry pavement.
When I bought my 85 Vanagon used, it needed new tires, I went with some Dunlops that I wasn't very impressed with. Plus they were summer only. In 2000 I bought some Nokian snow tires that I was very impressed with. If I held on to the van I would have probably tried one of their summer or all season tires.
We have been running the Hakka 1's now for a few days and all I have to say about them is they are the best studded winter tire we have used to date. They drive awesome in dry weather and I notice they stick to the road in turns even with studs.
Personally, I think a Hakka 1 or Hakka 2 is too agressive a tire for an AWD NJ daily driver unless your commute is only a couple of miles. They'll corner like you have four gum-erasers mounted and at least double your road noise.
Now for tire noise, my Pirelli P7000 Supersports were quiet as could be. I read some posts about noise on them before buying them and thought "noise, what noise???" Well, after about 10k miles on them, they sound like monster truck tires roaring down the road.
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