Best Tires for the Honda Insight G1

I have been using these Nordman 7's for 4 years as dedicated winter tires for my 2000 Honda Insight Hybrid. This is a very unusual car, and driving it year round presents some challenges due to the narrow rear track relative to the front. It is easy for ruts or bumps in packed snow and ice to nudge the rear end out more than in a car with similar front and rear track widths. The car is also very lightweight, has a super short wheelbase and has very small diameter wheels at 14 inches. All of this conspires to make finding a good extreme condition, or Nordic, winter tire difficult but critical for winter driving. I tried the Nokian Nordman 7 and have found that their performance is excellent in the conditions they were intended for, cold temperatures and deep or packed snow and ice. I have yet to get stuck even when the snow is deeper than my front air dam, or the roads are covered in ice. The loud roar of the studs just reminds me that I have grip and am safer, so I don't mind it much. Sadly, I do not see this size for sale any longer, good thing they seem not to wear much!

The Hakka R3 has been phenomenal for my style of commute mostly straight lines and steady speed drives. I rated these tires as compared to Summer/all seasons as I haven't had a different set of winter tires for this tire size to have a better comparison. As far as dry and wet grip the tires will occasionally slip when starting from a stop, but I attribute that more to driver error with limited experience driving M/T. On roundabouts I can confidently go 40mph on a 25 advisory curve but can tell it's close to slipping. In my few experiences making an emergency stop from 20 or 40 mph stopping distance is about average for a winter tire maybe 1 car length more than on a standard all season in 45°f @40mph and about ½ that in 30°f(~0°c). In snow and ice the grip is excellent even for a winter tire and I had no issues at any point except for in some deep and wet slush while making a turn at intersections. Comfort/NVH (Noise vibration harshness) were very satisfactory even when compared to a touring A/S tire (subjectively) though slightly louder than my summer tires which I'd expect due to all the extra siping it wasnt by much and certainly not bothersome to me. Also of great importance to me is Rolling Resistance. My vehicle is meant for superb fuel economy and most people who drive them swear by using only the stock tire to maintain the 60mpg US the car is made for, however I have not noticed much of any difference (maybe 2-3mpg accounting for higher overall diameter of the Nokian).Lastly as far as wear is concerned I'm unsure so far. The tires are all about ⁷/³² from the original ¹⁰/³² with one rotation on them so far. I work in a tire shop and I've seen some sets last 40k miles before getting to ⁴/³² and I've seen some last around 25k as always YMMV based on alignment, air pressure and driving style. Absolutely plan to get more Nokian tires in the future and hope more people will give their products a try.