Hankook New Englander 4S Review: Ultimate Test Drive & Highlights

Test Drive

It can be that tires play a significant role in vehicle operation, especially when going through unstable terrain.

We need to know the information about the tire’s performance in many different conditions to make an accurate judgment about that product. 

In addition, you also need to consider some other but equally important factors such as smoothness or noise and product durability.

Maintenance indicators

Like many other tire models from the Hankook brand, the product has a tread depth minimum of 2/32 inches. After this is exceeded, you can see that these details are entirely flat against the tire surface. 

At the same time, the manufacturer also guarantees that they will provide a warranty for any product that fails before reaching the minimum level of wear. 

During the first year or 2/32″ of wear, the tire will be free of charge. New tire changes are prorated based on the price, limited to six years from the purchase.

However, you do not need to worry about these signs because the longevity of this product from the Hankook brand is not a fragile one.

According to many users sharing, they can move stably for a distance of 40,000 to 50,000 miles without too many problems.

Dry traction

As a product suitable for many different terrains and weather, it is difficult to understand that Hankook New Englander 4S can work well on the dry surface. 

To get such outstanding performance, the manufacturer has added many impressive features to this model.

The biggest influence on a tire’s performance is the amazing traction ability from the modern materials that Hankook uses to create this tire model. Unlike conventional compounds, plastic products are made with an added amount of silica to help increase friction.

If you do not know, silica is a chemical that appears a lot in high-hardness glasses thanks to its roughness and high stability. 

With a higher grip traction, we can confidently control the car on wet or dry surfaces without worrying about  skidding in case some brakes are urgent.

Not just at grip performance, the performance and safety on this terrain type are also much stable with the increased grip ability and enhanced braking efficiency. 

Usually, one of the problems on the dry surface is obstructions, especially sand and rocks. These agents can prevent the wheel from going further due to its characteristic nature and make braking much more difficult.

But luckily, thanks to the primary side grooves with diagonal cuts, you won’t have to worry too much about this anymore.

Wet & Slippery

The Hankook New Englander 4S’s wet handling performance is enough to ensure we can move safely in these unstable conditions. 

However, compared with some other products in the same segment, the ability to operate in this condition of the product from the Hankook brand is not too impressive. Because the New Englander 4S encounters two pretty big problems, you need to take care of considerable slippage and slow response time.

With step braces and water skewers formed based on wide side grooves, it helps to reduce the amount of water that collects on the tires, so there is no need to worry about hydration. 

However, not experiencing hydration does not mean that the tire will be completely dry, and it is these molecules that will significantly reduce the grip.

With the most extraordinary slippage on an unstable surface like water, you’ll need to make quick and accurate judgments if you don’t want to run into serious problems.

Similar to the problem of sliding brakes, the responsiveness of the tires on wet surfaces is not too good. There are many causes to this problem, but whatever the reason, you need to learn how to act quickly to deal with the considerable weakness.

Of course, if you are a person who has experienced driving a car for many years, these two problems will not be complex for you.

But these two problems are a challenge for those who are just starting or do not have a certain amount of experience.

Snow & Low Temperature

To obtain the iconic 3 snowflakes that demonstrate outstanding performance on snowy roads, Hankook has applied advanced technology to give their products an impressive performance quality.

With the perfect combination of high-grip tread material, along with side and tread braces, the tire has the ability to both grip thin layers of snow or ice and dig deep into heavy snow. 

In addition, larger shoulder blocks and summer compounds help optimize the handling of complex maneuvers on this type of terrain.

Changes to the 3D-designed grooves and small slots in the tire compound give the tire more grip in snowy conditions, a surface that is never too stable.

Comfort

There is not too much to say about the comfort of the Hankook New Englander 4S because compared to other products in the same segment. This tire model does not provide users with too impressive comfort.

Instead, you will get the same smoothness and noise level as when driving a vehicle equipped with other tire models on the market.

Is It Worth Money?

There will be a lot of controversies when we evaluate whether the Hankook New Englander 4S is worth your money. So we have to consider many issues before coming to a final answer.

If you don’t like changing tires too much through the seasons or simply do not travel on wet terrain, the New Englander 4S can be a suitable choice.

Conversely, if the area you live in has or often has to travel to have a lot of rain during the year, this is probably not the tire you are looking for.