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Nexen Nblue HD

Competitively priced Nexen makes a great debut. This tyre seems to love wet roads.

Competitively priced Nexen makes a great debut. This tyre seems to love wet roads.

A strong debut in our tyre tests from Nexen, which is making a big effort to get established in Europe. On this performance, the Nblue should succeed – especially at the price we’ve estimated, which is based on the V-rated version, rather than the H-rated tyre we tested.

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Wet track tests account for half of our marks, so it was no great shock that the Nexen did well overall as it was second only to our champion in these assessments. It felt strong on the wet circuit – while the nose pushed wide at the limit, that limit was high. There was no movement at the rear of the car and the tyre gave a secure feel overall.

Unlike the Nokian, it worked well in the deep water of the aquaplaning assessments, especially the curve. It also took a podium in the critical wet braking test.

The Nblue was less successful in the dry, where it finished last for braking and handling. It felt soft on the handling track, loading up quickly, requiring plenty of lock and not feeling sharp. Given its wet road prowess, we weren’t surprised that the tyre wasn’t a top performer on rolling resistance – here it trailed Michelin and Continental by some margin.

 RatingPosition
Dry braking95.7%8th
Dry handling98.3%=7th
Wet cornering98.0%5th
Wet braking96.9%3rd
Wet handling99.7%2nd
Straight aqua96.0%4th
Curved aqua91.3%2nd
Cabin noise99.0%4th
Rolling resistance76.9%=5th
Overall99.4%3rd
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