Optics76

I posted this over in the e-class forum as well, but seems like there's more action on this kind of stuff over here....

And I know I know...lots of threads from over the years, but I haven't seen this specific thing discussed.

Has anyone had personal experience with both the Hakka R3 and the PA4?

I've had the R3's on my last 3 cars and loved them, but those were all range rovers and they were such big fat boats...hard to even notice a handling trade-off since they bob and weave so much anyway.

The PA's look like they would have much better dry road manners, and 90% of my driving is dry road - but that other 10% is often really bad storm driving through some remote-ish areas and it's hard to say how much snow performance you're really giving up with the PA.

If anyone has owned both, I'd appreciate hearing your experience!

gooter80

I haven't owned the Hakka but can say that I loved my PA4s on my wagon. To me, they were the second best winter tire I've ever owned (new Michelin X-Ice #1). I live in an area with a lot of heavy snow and our roads are pretty much snow packed cover all winter and the PA4s were awesome.

signes

I have used both on different cars PA4 on the E63 wagon and Hakkas on a number of cars. The R3 is much more of a pure winter snow/ice tire and will not handle as well dry as the PA4 (which a performance winter), but will have much better snow and ice traction. Depends on where you are and what you want, they are fairly different.

bobblehead

For 90% of winter dry road conditions, I would go with pA4/5, it’s going to be less noisy and better handling (Incl. Stopping)

b0rderman

If I still lived back in CO, heading up to the mountains every Friday night, I'd do what I always did and fit Nokians.

If you're just daily driving/commuting, the PA4 will be plenty and as others have said...more enjoyable for 90% of the weather you will encounter.

signes

Agree. I actually used my PA4s for ski season as I didn’t find any nokians w the right sizes. They did great even in dicey conditions on 70.

rage2

I have the PA5s on my E53 coupe in Canada. Great cold dry traction, solid snow performance like the PA4, huge step up in ice performance compared to PA4s. I’d say it’s finally close to a non studded winter tire in snow and ice with none of the dry cold traction drawbacks. Most balanced and usable performance winter tire I’ve used.

Optics76

Thanks guys. It seems like the answer is probably 'no wrong answer' and both would work great, just a matter of prioritizing the 90% dry driving time or the 10% extreme storm time.

And I'm guessing that 10% is probably more like 1%, despite my dreams of hitting every big western storm for first chair...lol...in which case the PA seems like the call.