The Nitto Motivo has always been one of our favorite all-season tires, we liked it for its great wet traction, and decent dry traction (for an all-season tire). We also liked it for its excellent wear and quiet road manners. The Motivo was not going to break track records or smoke a UHP summer tire in the canyons but it was actually close. It could easily outperform those types of tires in the rain and would wear at least 2x longer than a typical UHP summer tire, an important factor for daily drivers.
Now Nitto has come out with a new second-generation Motivo, the Motivo 365 which features a true 3PMSF-certified all-season mud and snow rating. Is the new Motivo worthy of bettering the first-generation Motivo, one of our favorite all-around tires? Read on and find out!
At an immediate first glance, the Motivo 365 has a very different tread pattern. Where the old Motivo was blocky for an all-season tire, the Motivo 365 has more grooves, and smaller tread blocks, and the tread blocks are divided by siping cuts. This is a totally new tire. To us, we feel that the new tread is designed more toward inclement conditions and less toward dry performance.
Siping is the small cuts that divide the tread blocks. Siping is intended to give more biting edges allowing the tread to find grip under less than ideal conditions. Siping can cause tread squirm and lifting which can make the tread run hotter and feel squishy and greasy under hard dry conditions but Nitto has used an interlocking multi-wave sipe design so the sipes come together and let the tread block act like a firmer bigger block under side load. This negates some of the negative dry weather traits of a heavily siped tread while still taking advantage of sipes under slippery conditions.
It is a little difficult to see but on the sides of the tread grooves, there are rows of staggered small holes. By counting the number of holes visible, it is very easy to ascertain if the tread is wearing evenly or not. This is handy for catching alignment or suspension problems before they can ruin your tires!
2 comments
Having the old Motivo’s on an e70 X5, they have been phenomenal in the snow, rain, etc. Never had an issue short of ice, which of course is the wrong application of tyre for the environment.
I can only imagine these new versions to be even better as a daily
I ended up replacing the old Motivo’s with the newer Continental DSW06, but when the time comes, I’ll keep my eye out for these.
Great write-up! The new Motivo 365’s move to a 3PMSF snow-rating, combined with an ultra-high-performance all-weather design, really stands out. It’s impressive how they’ve improved wet and winter traction (thanks to the multi-wave sipes and redesigned tread) without sacrificing too much dry performance. For a daily driver in a four-season climate, this looks like a smart choice.