Nexen Tyres Review & Buying Guide 2023

Tyres are some of the most important consumable items on your vehicle - probably the biggest thing you could do to improve the ride, comfort, safety and handling of your vehicle is to put a good set of tyres on it.

However, there are a lot of different manufacturers out there - and while most people have heard of most of the premium manufacturers like Goodyear, Michelin and Pirelli, there are some brilliant tyres being made by lesser known brands such as Nexen.

I’m a mechanic who has fitted tyres to vehicles for over ten years. In that time I’ve fitted some of the very best Michelin tyres and some of the very worst budget tyres to almost any car you could think of. 

If you are looking to put Nexen tyres on your vehicle in 2023, we’ve done a full review of Nexen tyres and presented you with all the data you’ll ever need to make an informed decision on whether they are safe and suitable for your car.

Who are Nexen?

Many motorists steer clear of any tyres they’ve not heard of, but given how expensive tyres can be for your car, it’s often necessary to move away from some of the more premium brands given the cost, and therefore you need to research the tyres you plan to put on your vehicle.

You don’t, for example, want to cheap out on some of the most budget “ditch-finders” and put yourself in danger when it’s very wet or icy.

Nexen is a Korean company who, despite most people not having heard of them, have been around longer than most other tyre manufacturers. They have been making tyres, originally for bicycles, since 1942. Originally named Heung-a-tyre, they started tyre production for cars and commercial vehicles in the mid-1950s.

Nexen has manufacturing facilities in Korea, China and in Europe and has worldwide sales over $2bn, so they are a major player in the market. Nexen invests huge sums into research and development and has innovation centres in the US and Europe.

Nexen is not some cheap off-brand without any kind of heritage in the industry - they have been around a long time and this shows in the quality of their product, with around a 26% market share in their native Korea. 

If you want to read more about Nexen’s products and innovations in the industry, you can read more at their website.

Our picks for the best Nexen Tyres

Of course, the exact Nexen tyre you go for will be dependent on the vehicle you have and your tyre size, but we’ve picked out some of the best performing Nexen tyres on the market relative to other brands.

You can purchase any of these tyres from Amazon where you can either fit them yourself, or for peace of mind, you can purchase them through our tyre partner, ProTyre. ProTyre have over 160 locations across the UK and 8 out of 10 of their customers would recommend them to a friend. 

How do Nexen tyres perform?

Handling and safety

In the dry

Like all other tyres, Nexen tyres perform best in the dry. Across the range of CP and N series tyres, Nexen tyres show strong dry braking performance, excellent ride comfort, good handling and low road noise. In fact, they're some of the quietest tyres out there, with some tyres only outputting around 68 decibels of noise.

Our recommendation for a summer tyre that performs well in dry conditions is the N'Blue HD Plus. In the 2021 Auto Bild 53 summer tyre test, the N'Blue scored a grade of "satisfactory" with praise given to the safe driving characteristics and low price of the tyre, as well as the short braking distances on wet roads.

In the wet

This in my experience is where Nexen tyres start to fall apart. Across hundreds of different tests and comparisons to other tyres, Nexen tyres are consistently criticised for their poor performance in the wet. In fact, in the 2020 Teknikens 17 inch Summer Tyre Test, the N'Fera SU1 was criticised harshly for its performance on wet surfaces for both poor braking and handling performance.

As mentioned, this seems to be a common complaint across Nexen's range of tyres, including the more premium-grade N'Blue and N'Fera ranges as well as the cheaper ranges such as the CP series.

However, what's important to remember is that this is a mid-range tyre - it isn't a Pirelli or a Continental, and so you can't expect premium performance out of it. A Nexen will be significantly better in the wet than a cheap, budget tyre, even if the Nexen's dry and snow performance is noticeably better.

In the snow

Nexen's WinGuard range of snow and ice capable tyres are the choice if you live in a snowy or icy climate. Of course, we don't get much of this in the UK, but if you're in a position where you need a performant winter tyre, this is the one. The Winguard series is made of softer rubber compounds than Nexen's other tyres, meaning they excel in deep snow, ice or slushy conditions. 

We recommend the Nexen WinGuard Sport 2 for performance in snow and ice. In the 2021 Auto Bild Winter Tyre Test it scored 10th out of 14 tyres, with positive comments made about stability in the dry and the low road noise. However, concerns were raised about long braking distances in the wet (as we've discussed.) 

In the 2021 ADAC Winter Tyre Test it performed much better, with a position of 5th out of 18 tyres, with positive comments made about good rolling resistance and dry braking but concerns raised about wear. Overall the WinGuard Snow is a great tyre for SUVs and larger vehicles that need to drive in snowy and icy conditions, but be aware it's not a premium tyre and shouldn't be judged as such.

Wear and longevity

One of the common complaints about Nexen tyres is that the tread wears quite poorly. Exactly why this is is not clear - whether it is due to softer rubber compounds or simply due to the design of the tyre, it does seem that across the range of Nexen tyres, the most common negative comment aside from poor wet braking performance, is high wear.

For example, if we take the Nexen N'Fera SU4, based on reviews and data online, these are only likely to last 20,000 miles. Of course, it's very dependent on the type of driving you do, but given the price of these tyres you would likely expect around 30,000 miles out of them before they needed changing.

If we look at the Nexen N8000 tyre, it was remarked by both Auto Bild and the European Summer Sports Tyre Test that this tyre wore very poorly compared to competitors. The 2019 ADAC C Tyre Test remarked that the Nexen Roadian CT8 wore relatively highly compared to other tyres in the test. This seems to be a very common thing across the entire range of Nexen tyres and isn't localised to one particular series or model of tyre. Similar comments have been made about N'Blue, N'Fera (particularly the N'Fera RU1) and Roadian ranges.

When you look up reviews for the individual tyre you would like to purchase, you will likely find that high wear is one of the most common issues. Of course, your mileage will vary, and you may find that if you do mostly motorway mileage that your tyres will wear less than if your driving was more aggressive. 

This is one you are going to have to try for yourself - but be aware, I would not expect a set of Nexens to last as long as a set of Pirellis, Continentals or even Yokohamas. 

Ride comfort

This is an area where Nexen seems to excel, particularly above some of the other brands in it's price range. This is probably due to the softness of the rubber compounds used to manufacture the tyre, particularly due to Nexen's patent of silicone rubber nanocomposites in 2005.

There have been comments around Nexen's CP series and N series tyres, particularly from the likes of Auto Bild and Teknikens around the exceptional ride quality that Nexen tyres provide - and this is by far one of their strongest features.

This is why we think Nexen tyres are a good choice for anyone who does a lot of motorway driving. At motorway speeds wear will be a minimal consideration, but comfort will be very important - and as we've mentioned, this is where Nexen excels.

Cost

Nexen tyres are mid-range tyres. As such they are expected to be more expensive than cheaper, budget brands such as Runway or Landsail, but cheaper than premium brands such as Dunlop and Pirelli.

In order to give you a rough idea of what it might cost to fit Nexen tyres to your vehicle we've picked some common makes and model of car and calculated what it costs for a full set of tyres, as well as on a per-tyre basis.

This data has come from a number of different tyre providers across the internet, including BlackCircles, mytyres.co.uk and Asda Tyres. and is correct at the time of writing, but this may have changed by the time you read this.

Road noise

This is another area where Nexen does very well. The vast majority of tyres that we looked at to put this review together scored between 68 - 69 decibels for general road noise. To put this in perspective, the minimum road noise you are realistically going to get from a tyre is 67 decibels - so Nexen tyres perform excellently in this respect.

I would even go as far as to say Nexen tyres perform better than some premium brands in this respect - we have tested Pirellis, Goodyears, Michelins and Continentals that were noisier than Nexen tyres. If road noise is a concern of yours, Nexen should definitely be a brand on your shopping list.

How are Nexen tyres compared to other manufacturers?

As many will know, there are three main groups of manufacturers when looking at tyres.

Budget

Budget tyres are at the absolute cheapest end of the market - when you just need a tyre. They often suffer from poor wet weather performance, poor braking performance and limited grip - but you do pay much less for them, in some instances around half or less for what you'd pay per tyre for a premium model.

Brands - HiFly, Landsail, Prestivo, Runway (and others)

Nexen tyres will offer better performance and value compared to budget tyres, but you will pay more for them.

Mid-Range

Mid-range tyres, as the name suggests, sit in the middle of the market. They offer better performance and longevity compared to budget tyres. You will find that they perform far better than budget tyres, but often fall short of performance figures given by some of the premium brands.

Brands - Toyo, Yokohama, Hankook, Falken, Nexen (and others)

Nexen tyres sit squarely in the mid-range category. In our view they are some of the better mid-range tyres you can get (although in our view a better choice would be Avon or Falken)

Premium

Premium tyres are made by the brands everyone has heard of. While they are the most expensive tyres you can buy, they often provide significantly better wet weather performance, grip and longevity. 

Brands - Michelin, Pirelli, Dunlop, Goodyear, Continental, Bridgestone (and others)

Nexen tyres are not as good as any of the manufacturers named above - although in some instances Nexen make tyres that are nearly as good. You will pay much more for premium tyres than you will for Nexen tyres, however.

Will Nexen tyres fit my vehicle?

Nexen tyres are made in a huge variety of shapes and sizes to fit almost any vehicle on UK roads. If you have a particularly large or small set of wheels, you may struggle to find a tyre that fits, but this is likely to not be the case for at least 95% of road users in the UK.

If you are struggling to find a Nexen tyre that fits, I would recommend looking at similar brands such as Yokohama, Sumitomo and Toyo - across these three comparable manufacturers, you are likely to find a tyre that fits your car.

Where can I buy Nexen tyres?

Nexen are a huge tyre brand, and will available nearly everywhere in the country that fits tyres. That being said, general availability of Nexen tyres in the UK seems to be less than that of similar brands such as Toyo. 

We would highly recommend ProTyre, as they stock a large range of Nexen tyres. However, any fast fit garage or tyre fitter will be able to get hold of Nexen tyres for you.

Alternatively you can order them on Amazon and have them fitted by a trusted fitter or fit them yourself.

Summary

And there we have it - everything you need to know about Nexen tyres.

We've written about a number of tyre manufacturers, so if you're comparing tyres, you should check out some of the following reviews.