Review on MICHELIN X-Ice North 4 195/65 R15 95T winter by Micha Jwiak ᠌

Name: MICHELIN X-Ice North 4 195/65 R15 95T winter
Item: MICHELIN X-Ice North 4 195/65 R15 95T winter
Rating: 5

July 04, 2023

The quality is at the level, I am satisfied with everything.

An excellent option for winter tires for the middle lane. They do not sag during a thaw, they are quite rigid and steerable, they behave predictably on ice. For operation in severe frosts, they are less suitable than previous models of the line - the choice was clearly made in the direction of a tougher compound and handling, and not in the direction of low-temperature characteristics and all-terrain capability.

Pros

Excellent behavior on dry and wet pavement, both in winter and in the off-season. Moderately quiet, they steer perfectly on the pavement (the sidewalls are quite rigid even on the 65 profile, the thrust wheel does not break in corners), it does not sag at positive temperatures. Switching from summer tires (a Michelin PS4 to a 55 profile with an even higher load index and a very stiff sidewall) doesn't feel like you've moved from a car to a bog like it did on the XIN2. On ice, the grip is not as "anchor" as that of the 8 Hakkapelita, but the predictability of control is much better - skidding as the lateral load increases does not happen suddenly, but the car starts to be slightly dragged, and this happens long before the breakdown into a skid. On ice, it seems that the tires are not spiked, but coarse sandpaper, which makes the position of the car and the margin of the hold feel great.

Cons

Compared to the XIN2, due to the stiffer sidewalls, they “flatten” worse and row worse on soil or a yard littered with snow. Traditionally for the entire line of XIN - so-so directional stability in conditions of "track after a heavy snowfall", you constantly have to taxi, but on rolled snow it slows down better than XIN2. There are big doubts how this rubber will behave in -40, the rubber composition is quite hard.