Quote:
Originally Posted by Bdc101
There are not many good tests of winter tires vs all seasons in non-snowy conditions, but here is a good one that demonstrates that studless winter tires are often much better than all-seasons in wet conditions, as long as it is not super hot:
https://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/...vs-summer.html
It's not close either, the studless tire significantly outpaces the all-season in the dry. And in this test they use three tires of similar quality from the same manufacturer. For this reason I use both true summer tires and studless tires on my family car, though I have struggled to find a good summer tire for my X. |
1) That test is from a long, long time ago. The HX MXM4 was a pretty mediocre tire when it was new, and it was old even then. TireRack tested it in 2005, which implies a release date before then. (I'd guess 2004.) The Primacy Alpin that they tested it against was several years newer. (Yes, I've driven on it. And it barely outpaced the Goodyear RS-A in TR testing, and that tire SUCKED.)
2) All season tire development has moved a *lot* from the state of the art in 2009. (Or the state of the art in ~2004.)
3) Frankly, I don't think that studless winter tire technology has advanced nearly as much as A/S technology has in the limited number of really good A/S tires that are out there.
My gold standard for all seasons is the Continental DWS line, as well as the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S line. They are *nothing* like the shitty touring tires that most people define A/S tires by. Are there other equivalent tires? Maybe a few. Not many, though. These tires are proof that A/S tires can be usable in the snow, good in the wet, and good in the dry.