Best Tires for the Alfa Romeo 156 SW 1.9 JTD

Bought these to replace Kormoran UHP.

Wanted a "top 5" tire, but at the best price as possible. Came over Hankook ventus Evo, as a good allrounder option. Compared with the usual Ps5, Asymetric 6, and Premium contact 6/7, Pirelli C7 cf3, the hankook at least in norway came at a better price. I have not yet tested evo s1 or evo s3. I am not sure where the Ventus evo sits between the prime and S1 series performance wise. Maybe between those two.

I am not to say the Ventus Evos are better than any of the other mentioned options. But for what they replaced the difference is night and day! And for myself and 95% of other drivers, we wont be able to tell much difference betweens these evos and any of the other premium brands. This is how good the top tires are nowadays. I earlier have had premium contact 6 and primacy 4 on my cars for reference. The hankooks are more comfortable than both of those, but maybe not the same initial steering response than the contis. But at normal driving, you will never notice.

The upside are as mentioned; comfort, a solid, even handling caracteristic, maybe the best wet grip i have ever felt. The abs almost dont interfear anymore when panic-braking at wet surface! In norway with over 300 rain days per year, that means a lot!

The other positive are rolling resistance. The car glides like ive never felt before, better than contis and michelin, and heaps better than the kormoran, wich felt like driving with the brakes on.

The sidewall looks the best, on par with pilot sport series. And a nice, subtle rim protector also.

Have not tested wear yet, but normally in norway tires get changed because of age before wear, because of the extra winter set and the low speeds/cold clima. We dont wear out tires as fast as in the warm, high speed countries. I suspect wear will not be an issue for me.

All in all a great tire and i mabye have forund my go-to, allround tire in the Hankook Ventus Evo !

Strongly recommed this.

Stood on the car when i bought it. Drove theese for 1,5 summer season. Three words; Do Not Buy!

My background is a tire nerd. And experience from only the best tires. So this tire came as a shock.

- Wear, terrible. From 3mm to the cords at 8000km.

- Road noise, extremely hugh and boomy. Passangers thought wheel bearing where gone.

- wet grip. Borderline dangerous. A lot of understeer and terrible wet braking.

- dry grip. Ok. But the same time this is the only tire i've lost grip on spritited but controlled driving.

- driving feel. Not consistent. Sometimes good, and sometimes it feels like the sidewall desintegrates.

Later changed to Hankook Evo Prime. And the difference is night and day in every terms!

Dont save hundred dollars on the difference between safe and unsafe tires!

The only real downside to these tires is they wear very quickly, although that isn't surprising considering they are a soft compound. For this reason they probably wouldn't be suited to a round-town all the time car purely based on cost, but for anything that involves slightly spirited driving or good cornering, these are definitely a safe bet. I would have another set of these, although there are equally good tires out there for less.

TL;DR Fulda Kristall Montero 3 is better than Sava Eskimo S3+ and Tigar/Taurus/Kormoran winter tires. It is solid tire in every aspekt. It's good in dry braking and cornering. It's good in wet braking. Fulda had never let me down nor put me in risky situation. During the rain, at 80-90 km/h, I had never experienced aquaplaning. It's very good in snow, but Sava is better in this aspekt. In cold weather it's good tire, above 10°C is mediocre, but drivable. Above 15°C you should switch back to summer tires (because of COVID-19, I did change it in late March). I would rather drive summer tires (e.g. my Nexen N'blue HD plus @ 205/55/16) in the range of temperatures 5-7°C at dry road, and above 7°C in wet, than this winter tire. Tire started around 9-8 mm, and after 5 months of drive finished around 7-8 mm. To conclude, I would recommend Fulda tire if you live in some mitteleuropean city with lots of rain and dry periods, and of course snowy days. If you experience more snow, I would go for Sava Eskimo S3+. Fulda Kristall Montero 3 is better than Sava tire in the wet, dry, but just less good in snow. Additional information: 185/65/15 Fulda Kristall Montero is "Made in France", Sava Kristall Montero 3 is "Made in Poland", and Tigar/Taurus/Kormoran is "Made in Serbia".

Location of use: Croatia / Climate: warm summers with shower rains, rainy autumns with cold mornings and nights, warm springs with shower rains, rainy and snowy winters
After more than six months with this tires, all I can say about them are good words. Dry grip is just perfect, I had some really close breaking and Nexen hadn't let me down. Wet grip is also very good, I didn't experienced any aquaplaning at all. It endure even heavy rains very good. You can enter fast in turns on the road and handling is very reliable. The tires are soft with soft sides, so you can feel some squirm in fast and strong turns. If you don't like that feeling, I suggest XL version of this tire with stronger sides. But, at the end, they manage to control it easy. Because of its softness, I presume that they wear in some higher rate. So far, so good. They are very quiet.
All in all, definitely I would buy again this tire or some other from Nexen. Also I recommend this tires to everyone because they are excellent budget tires with some high performance premium characteristics.
Compare: better than Sava tires (Goodyear, Slovenia/Poland) in same price range, better than Tigar and Taurus (Michellin, Serbia/Hungary).