Summer vs All-seasons vs Winter tire comparison

[RawrImAMonster]

Edmunds did a useful comparison of the three types of tires in winter temperatures on various road conditions. The results are somewhat surprising for summer tires.

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The very condensed version is that summer tires perform the best (even in cold temps) of the three types on dry and wet surfaces. However, they completely fall on their face in the snow.

All-seasons do alright at everything, as is expected.

Winter tires do well in the snow and worse than the other two at everything else. Again, fairly expected.

The take-away is that you're fine to run summer tires in the winter as long as you aren't going to be touching snow/ice. :thumbup:


Obviously these results will vary depending on the exact tires used.

[nismosam]

Yeah man, I've always run summer tires on my Nismo, and it was a beast in previous winters. Hopefully it won't have to see winter duty anymore though!

[SlimKlim]

Unless I'm missing something that's the most retarded test I've ever seen.

They drove back to Southern California to do the dry test, obviously the summer tires are going to perform better there. They also went to Arizona to do the wet test. No shit that a summer tire is going to out perform a snow tire in those situations.

What they need to do is do a test on snow at 32*, on dry pavement at 32*, and on wet pavement at 33*. Speaking from personal experience I'd be willing to bet the winter tires would win in every category, followed by the all seasons, then the summers. I had the M3 on summers my senior year and I did a power slide onto Harrison St. everyday just because I could, it was like driving a power wheels car with plastic tires.

[JustinG]

So snow tires are good in snow, summer tires are good in warm dry/wet situations, and all seasons suck.

Yep....

After driving with winter tires for the first time last winter, I will stick with them in the cold months. I don't have to deal with the wob wob wob and brick tires in sub 40 degree temps. If you can store a spare set of wheels, I don't see the point in going all seasons, not like they are any cheaper than dedicated winter tires.

[fiveoh2go]

All I know is 500+hp on rock hard summer tires in sub 45 degree weather is a baaad idea.

[Senor_Taylor]

What's this about changing tires for the winter?