Owners generally rate the Hankook Kinergy 4S2 as a strong all-weather all-rounder, with most praise focused on dependable wet and dry grip (mentioned by around half of reviewers) and reassuring snow traction. Longevity is often reported as good, and a notable minority also highlight the comfortable ride and strong value for money. The most consistent drawback is road noise, raised by over a third of owners, while a smaller group report higher fuel consumption/rolling resistance.
What owners mention most counted across 66 reviews
They grip fairly well for an All Season tire and they will be fine for mildly spirited driving.
They have quite a light feel to them which doesn't instil confidence as it can be difficult to tell if they are actually gripping or if it's the car's electronics kicking in and saving the day. However, when cornering hard you can feel them start to break away and start to loose grip, giving you a change to correct. Also, when coming out of a corner and accelerating hard you can feel them "lift" so to speak. Basically, losing traction.
They are also very noisy on the motorway. I've not had a chance to test them in the snow or ice as it's been a mild winter, nor check the wear rate yet. I'll come back in a year and revise the review.
Ultimately, I would say if you drive calmly with the odd bit of moderate spirited driving they are fine and hopefully also provide good traction when the weather gets cold and bad. But if you like to push it hard when the weather is above 7°C then stick with a decent set of summer tires.
Excellent tire.
I am a track day enthusiast but this tire was fitted to my Golf Bluemotion daily hack.
I previously had the latest Goodyear Efficient Grips and fitted these going into the cold snap in December 2020.
Dry grip is good but compared to the Goodyears previously they do have a slower initial response
But this is an all season v a summer tire, so what do you expect.
In the wet, it is simply fantastic. Often you hear the cliche that "you can drive your car in the wet like you can in the dry!" - but with this you really can.
Incredible confidence in all conditions and have not aquaplained at all.
Snow/Ice - obviously not a full winter tire but they're excellent all round. Can certainly keep you moving while other cars are stuck spinning their wheels and give you lots of confidence.
Obviously not an enthusiast tire - but they're an excellent tire for all conditions and for people who have to do a lot of driving (my commute is 110 miles a day, 5/6 days a week) and have also fitted them to my Partners car too.
Economy wise, i have not noticed any difference in economy between the Goodyears and these Hankook (still over 70mpg)
Have done approx 4000 miles and no visible or appreciable wear. I did also have a fresh alignment carried out when fitted.
10/10 would recommend these.
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
I'm satisfied with its performance, grip levels and handling it is very nice to drive. I knew that it will not last as long as competing option but I believed that price difference justifies that. But still, I am dissapointed with the wear rate, 20.000 km and fronts are gone.
Before these I had Crossclimate+ and they lasted for 35.000 km.
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Switched to the hankooks in Sptember 2021 just in time for winter. They replaced ageing gy as3 on the front and as5 on the rear. Comfort noticeably improved after switching to the hankooks. They inspire confidence in the wet and as the temperatures plummet I treat driving as if it is a normal day and don't feel I need to be overly cautious.
Fast forward to summer 2022 and a fully loaded car plus roofbox and tire pressures at a higher setting tires still did a great job smoothing off bumps on our long trip to Cornwall.
Seem to be wearing well as reports at this year's MOT stated 6.5mm on the front and 7mm on the rear. Great tires able to cope with our wetter autumn winters inspiring confidence in treacherous conditions just as easily as when it's warmer. Plus their ability to cope with cold winters means they are worthy winners of tire reviews mild winter weighting.
Excellent tire and far outperformed the OEM tires (ContiProContact), especially in the snow. Very good in the snow and dry with slight weakness in wet breaking (subjective, not measured). Got me through a very bad snowstorm when they were new and passed many vehicles that had slid off the road. Even had good traction uphill. Tread depth after about 9,000 miles is at 7/32" (starting depth at 10/32") on the North American compound (warranty is 60,000 miles to 2/32"). Looking forward to see how it performs this winter provided there is adequate snow to drive through.
I'm also writing this review because it seems that the tire is either discontinued entirely in the US or Tire Rack is electing not to carry it anymore. Further, I have noticed that many reviews on the tire appear to have been scrubbed from the Tire Rack website (I wrote one and was able to find it a week ago and now it is gone now that they no longer carry my tire size). I think it is a shame that this tire will no longer be offered as an option because it was a good buy compared to the more expensive Cross Climate 2. I know you can get tires from other places than Tire Rack but it is a major distributor and I use their website as a reference on what tires are available. Regardless, they should not be deleting or hiding reviews.
Dry: good dry performance for an all season tire, I have not had to do any emergency stops but have done some fast cornering and the tire does lean onto the sidewall but is good for an AS tire and feels fairly rigid although this may be because I have a tire with a higher load and speed index than the car requires.
Wet: performance here is very good and stays very good when it gets cold as you would expect from an AS tire, handling in the wet is also very good.
Snow: these tires *almost* feel like a full winter tire in the snow, amazing traction on fresh and compacted snow, I was able to climb steep hills in a front wheel drive car with these following my brother driving will full winter tires and neither of us had any slip and I was also able to stop fully on a snow covered hill.
Ice: ice performance is good but here is when you see the tire lose out to a full winter tire. You can stop on ice covered hills and not slide which is amazing as when i got out of the car I almost fell over as it was so icy. But when trying to climb hills on ice they aren't amazing as my front wheel drive open differential car couldn't climb even a few feet up an ice covered hill. Granted it was basically sheet ice so I wasn't expecting it to get up but I suspect a full winter tire would have done better.
Wear: This is the main reason I won't be buying this tire again. They have been on for only 8000 miles and are approaching 4mm which is where their snow performance will drop off and as I'm using them as a winter tire this is quite important. I will be switching to something like the Goodyear Vector 4 seasons Gen-3 to get better wear.
Comfort: very comfortable tires but sill offer good feedback for an AS tire
Noise: very quiet in this size, much more so than my summer set with UHP tires but that is to be expected.
Fitted these to our family car a 2015 vw tiguan 4 motion, and they transformed the handling for the better really making the most for vws 4 motion system particularly in bad weather i.e rain/snow it never spun a wheel just gripped and got on with business which for me was piece of mind knowing my wife and kids were in safe hands what ever the weather, dry grip was also impressive as to was the tread life will certainly recommend.
Have previously used similar on a MK5 Golf, and was very impressed, so I figured it would be worth a try on my ZS.
So far, snow performance hasn't been measured because I just missed it in 2021, and 2022 has been unusually snow free in my part of Scotland.
Life has been longer than on my Golf, even with the extra few hundred kg in the ZS. Tread depth is still above 4mm despite now covering around 20k miles, and with 1 tire rotation. For me, 4mm is about as far as I'd want to take them into winter, so they'll likely be replaced by autumn.
Overall grip has been good in most situations, but it does start to understeer when pushing on in some sharp corners, especially in the wet. The Golf did the same, and there's enough warning that you can ease off a bit before disaster ensues.
For £100 a corner, I'll be sticking with these for quite a while
My first time buying Hankook tires, I used the 4S2 as my winter tires because I cannot tolerate the soft sidewall of studless winter tires. The Michelin Pilot Sport 4 was my summer setup.
Overall I am very happy about my 4S2.
Dry (9/10): A step down from the PS4 but that is to be expected. Steering response is a little bit slower and ultimate traction is lower, but I am still very satisfied given the type of tire the 4S2 is. Still far better than the Michelin Xice Xi3.
Wet (10/10): I live in the PNW and we have lots of rain, these tires have strong hydroplane resistance and strong lateral traction in the wet. Braking is confident, too. Virtually no compromise compared to the Pilot Sport 4.
Comfort (9/10): The ride is good, the tire smooths out impacts well, but the noise on the rough surfaces at a high speed is relatively pronounced.
Winter (10/10): My BRZ is an RWD coupe, which is supposed to be very weak in the snow. These tires provide more than adequate traction on snow, no problem to get off the line whatsoever in 2-3 inches of snow. Handling is pretty stable and predictable. On the ice, it is noticeably weaker than the Studless Xi3, but that is to be expected.
Overall I am very happy with them in the first winter. Jonathan was right, this is a very balanced all-weather tire with no real weaknesses. I will report back if there are any updates.
Hi there,
I've been driving the tires for 6 thousand kilometers and they are the first all-season tires I've ever driven.
All in all, I find this tire to be a great compromise in relation to price and performance/driving characteristics.
When it comes to dry and wet grip (even when cornering) I can't find any serious weaknesses.
The tires are quiet, but unfortunately, between 120-140 km/h, I hear a slight, minimal howl (can be heard when the radio is switched off). This was not the case with the summer tires (also Hankook).
When you're driving faster, i.e. from 170 km/h, there is a bit of a lack of feeling for the road, but you can deal with that.
The Hankook behaves safely in the snow, it also depends on the driving style. In my opinion, with a reasonable driving style/speed, there are no major weaknesses.
I haven't ridden the tire with aquaplaning & ice yet.
All in all, I can recommend the tire.
