Follow us today...
It won’t be long before drivers living above the Mason-Dixon line stop buying conventional all-season tires and start opting instead for four-season tires with the three-peak mountain snowflake symbol denoting severe snow duty. A promising new tire in this category is the Falken Aklimate. This tire offers improved winter performance with no downsides in other seasons. The tire is new, but initial reports have now begun to emerge. We spoke with one owner who has chosen the Falken Aklimate Tire (twice) to get a sense of how the tires work for owners.
Related Story: Falken Ziex CT60 A/S Tire Test Update - Thinking Outside The Box
Andrew MacLennan is not a professional tire tester and has no links to Falken or Torque News. He paid full price for his tires and had them mounted by our favorite on-site tire installer, Jay Condrick of Boston Mobile Tire (which is how we tracked down Andrew). Here is what Andrew told us.
TN: Please tell us about the vehicles on which you have mounted Falken Aklimate tires.
AM: The Falken Aklimate tires are mounted on my 2021 Lincoln Navigator Reserve and on my wife's 2020 Volvo XC90 T6.
TN: How did you first hear about the new Falken Aklimate four-season tire?
AM: Jay Condrick, owner of Boston Mobile Tire, mentioned that they were newly released and to give them a shot as they looked promising according to the specs and price point. Jay has supplied and installed tires on numerous vehicles that I have owned, like the Tesla Model Y Performance, Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing, Toyota Sequoia, F150, Jeep Cherokee, and a few others, so I take his expertise and advice seriously.
TN: What were you looking for in a tire that you felt Aklimate might offer?
AM: I was looking for a quality, mid-priced tire that had the potential to provide decent inlement winter traction with a smooth ride for year-round use.
TN: How many miles have you logged on the Aklimate tires now?
AM: On the XC 90, we have logged about 3,000 miles, and they have performed extremely well in a recent Northeast snowstorm. In addition, they are much quieter than the original Pirelli tires. The Navigator's Aklimates were mounted this week, and after my initial few drives, the noise level and smoothness were greatly improved over the factory Hankook tires.
TN: What are your impressions of the tires? Can you compare them to typical all-season touring tires and draw some comparisons and contrasts?
AM: The price point is extremely attractive, which is a major plus, and compared to others at much higher price points, they perform just as well on our SUVs. Those factors and a great warranty made these an easy choice for a budget-minded shopper who wants a quality tire.
TN: Did you consider any other specific tire models before you opted for the Falken Aklimates?
AM: I'm personally a big fan of the Michelin CrossClimate2 series of tires, but costing 30% more per tire, I don't see the need to waste extra money (unless you want to), especially in today's world of crazy high inflation on consumer goods.
Other Reviews
We checked out Tire Rack and Simple Tire to see if owners had started to post reviews. Simple Tire had none, and Tire Rack had just one review, a 4.1 out of 5 rating with very little detail. In order to bring our readers more details, Torque News hopes to test the new Aklimate tire from Falken in the coming months. Check back for more details.
Author Note: This story is not an advertisement. No product discounts, free services, or free products were provided in the creation of this story. Our thanks to Andrew and Jay for their help in creating this story.
Images of Falken Akimate tires by Andrew MacLennan and Jay Condrick.
John Goreham is an experienced New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can follow John on Twitter, and connect with him at Linkedin.
Follow us today...
