Pirelli Ice Friction

Mounted on a rwd Mercedes E class. This tire has convinced me that i will not buy studded tires in the future. These tires replaced Sailun studded tires that still had some life left in them and imidietly i felt like the change was worth it. The old tires would sometimes give me snap oversteer when going upp icy/snowy hills at around 50mph. This tire eliminated that and incriced my confidence alot driving in to an icelandic winter. Its extreamly smooth and quiet. More quiet than my goodyear summertires(19" rims). I just finished a 700mile roadtrip in a pretty sirious storm/blizzard and these tires were glued to the road with upp to a 70 to80 mph wind gust to the side of the car.
The only time i have ever wonderd that studs might have been better was on very thick smooth wet ice. Contitions that might be for 3 to 5 days here in iceland. Then i just drive slower...
The tires dont show any signs of wear. Never going back to studs.

I live in Sweden where winter tires is really important. I've tried Nokian Hakkapeliitta R5 in the past and thought they were great. But these new Pirelli Ice friction is something else! The snow grip is incredibly precise and the feedback you get from them makes the slides predicable even at higher speeds. The ice grip also is quite good, starts and braking are predictable which is nice (but nothing compared to a studded tire). The comfort aspect of it all is quite good in my initial impression. The noise level is quite low and the ride is also great! Changing conditions is not a problem for these tires in my experience, going down a twisty backroad with sections of ice, snow and dry ground in 70+kph being no problem at all! The wet is somewhat of a weakness of this tire with aquaplaining being a problem quite frequently (very common issue with these nordic winter tires though). Although it handles the wet better than the rival Nokian R5.

I bought my 2021 1.8 hybrid Toyota Corolla Touring Sports in summer 2025 and the previous owner gave me old winter tires - two Sunfull SF-982 (almost new) from China and two Bridgestone Blizzak LM005 (5 mm tread left). I live in Latvia and while previous winters were mild, January this year started with heavy snowfalls and cold up to -20 degrees celsius. When driving on the roads during snowfall, when the road is covered by a small layer of snow, I noticed that my car was slipping on almost every turn, even a slight one, so the mentioned tires were not good at all. I decided that I need to buy new winter tires and started looking at Nordic Friction tires. I read tests and reviews on Tirereviews and other websites and my choice narrowed to Goodyear Ultragrip Ice 3 and Pirelli Ice Friction. I saw several reports, both here and on other forums, that Goodyear wears very fast, with 2mm wearing for 5000-6000 km driven, so I was very sceptical about that and decided to go with Pirelli Ice Friction.

Dry and Wet Grip
I didn't have any issues at all when driving on dry and wet roads. I am a calm driver, so maybe I'm not the best person to comment on that. On dry and wet surface I did not ever have traction control going on, even in the moments of active acceleration.

Road feedback and handling
Steering is precise and crisp. No issues at all.

Ice and Snow grip
I had a trip to Warsaw, Poland and back to Latvia. On the way back I had an ice pellets (icy rain) and then in Lithuania closer to Latvia - heavy snowfall with the roads being covered in snow. I was driving like 70-80 km/h and didn't have any dangerous moments when the car was hard to handle. While it is a FWD car, I felt like I am driving an AWD car - no issues at all.
We had 15-20 cm of snow everywhere and I did not have any problems passing that kind of roads.
In regards to the ice - if it is a clear ice, then of course car starts slipping. These are not studded tires, so I think it is natural. However, once the car starts slipping, it is pretty easy to gain control back. I had some moments this winter when the cars in the front suddenly started to brake and the road was covered in so called black ice - of course those situations were a bit stressful, but the car did a good job stopping on time.

Wear
I have driven 5500 km since I installed Pirelli Ice Friction and there is no wear at all. I made measurements after installing the tires and the tread depth was about 7.8-8mm (depends on where on the tire to measure). I have measured the tread depth both on the front and the rear - nothing has really changed, so I am impressed. I thought that driving on Polish autobahn with speeds around 130-140 km/h would naturally eat some of the tread, but no - impressive.

Comfort
Before buying these tires I saw some reviews on different forums that the tires are loud. I checked Pirelli website and actually my size 225/45 R17 does not have Pirelli's noice reduction technology, so I was a bit sceptical, but decided to sort of ignore those reviews. I was right to do so - the tires are super quiet and comfortable. I do not feel the bumps on the road as much as with Sunfull/Bridgestone that were installed before, and Pirelli's are much more comfortable and quieter than Sunfull/Bridgestone and original summer Falken ZIEX ZE914 that were installed from the factory and had their last season in summer 2025.

To sum up, my experience with Pirelli Ice Friction was great and I recommend these tires to everyone who thinks of buying Nordic Friction studless tires. They were also cheaper than alternatives from other Premium manufacturers - I paid 592 euros for a set of 4.