Nokian isn’t a very big brand. The Finnish tire maker, known best for its peerless winter rubber, can’t hold a candle to behemoths like Michelin or Pirelli in terms of volume or range of products. Yet its new performance-oriented all-seasons can compete with the big dogs.
The tire, classified as an “ultra-high performance all-season,” is called the Surpass. It uses fancy tech like aramid—a tough fiber similar to Kevlar—to stiffen the sidewall, and silica beads in the rubber to improve handling, grip, and durability. It has rounded edges to better claw the pavement during hard cornering, and directional siping to direct water out and away from the tread. In short, these tires are nothing like the soft winter stuff you’d expect to see from Nokian.
Photo by: Brian Silvestro / Motor1
Photo by: Brian Silvestro / Motor1
Despite being well out of the company’s wheelhouse, the Surpass feels like a cohesive product. A few laps behind the wheel of a Toyota Supra equipped with the rubber revealed all the attributes you’d beg for in a sporty tire: Stability at high speeds, steady, predictable breakaway characteristics, and lots of noise when you push the tire past its limit.
The Surpass is no proper summer tire, obviously. This rubber wouldn’t feel at home in a 20-minute track session; it doesn’t have the ultimate sharpness or grip you’d want from a true performance compound. So if you’re hitting road courses a few times a year, you’ll want something more focused. But the Nokians deliver superior capability over your average all-season. They inspire confidence and allow for adjustment mid-corner, which I’d argue is more important than overall grip, at least in the case of a daily driver you might take to the twisties once in a while. In those cases, the stickiest tire doesn’t always generate the most smiles.
Nokian made a big deal about safety in its presentation at this tire’s launch event, going as far as to spray down parts of its test course with water to show us its wet-weather performance. While you lose the noise, the Surpass remained easy to predict in wet, translating body control as well as it did in the dry. The cherry on top: Nokian cuts wear markings into every tire, signifying when the rubber has 80 percent, 60 percent, and 40 percent life remaining on the tread. There’s even a little water droplet marking that, when it disappears, signifies when the tire can no longer perform optimally in the wet. Clever.
Photo by: Brian Silvestro / Motor1
I can’t say if the Nokians are better or worse than the comparable Michelin, Hankook, or Pirelli, since I didn’t drive the tires back to back. But first impressions are good. These tires feel perfectly suited to virtually any car that doesn’t see much snow throughout the year—though in true Nokian fashion, the Surpass can handle a light dusting in a pinch, says the brand.
Nokian is targeting markets where snow isn’t a huge factor, like the Sunbelt and the West Coast. It’s also looking to snag market share in places like Quebec, where winter tires are a requirement through certain months and, therefore, there’s more of a demand for tires not used in winter. Being such a small brand, Nokian very rarely supplies car manufacturers with tires for new cars, instead positioning itself as an OE-level replacement for consumers. In that space, it has serious appeal thanks to its lower price and impeccable warranty.
On average, the Surpass is about 10 percent cheaper versus the comparable Michelin, depending on size. The lower price might lead you to believe these tires don’t last very long. But Nokian’s robust 55,000-mile warranty means they’ll cover the difference in any replacement costs if your tires wear out before the warranty runs dry. That’s impressive, especially since most of the big-name competitors offer no treadwear warranty at all.
Photo by: Brian Silvestro / Motor1
The Surpass also gets Nokian’s pothole protection, which will replace any non-repairable tire free of charge. Nokian even throws in a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if you don’t like how the Surpass performs, you can return your set and get your money back. Tempting perks.
Nokian isn’t a household name in North America, and with our collective apathy for winter tires, it’s unlikely it’ll ever reach the same status as OEM-level brands on this side of the pond. But the Surpass is a signal that you don’t need to spend big money on top-level rubber to get the type of performance and durability expected from a tire in this segment.
