I’m on the fence about which all season tires I should purchase.
I live in Seattle and drive into the mountains regularly in the winter, and east of the mountains in the summer. That means extremes of hot and cold.
In the city my greatest concern is for the layer of ice that the streets get in the winter, particularly after it’s snowed.
I’m considering an all season tire and want to know if there are good reasons not to purchase any of these three?
Tourevo All Seasons - Les Schwab wants to sell me this one
Hankook Optimo 727 - Someone said it’s noisy - but is it any noisier than the others?
Goodyear Assurance Triple Tread - got a somewhat lesser rating for driving on Ice than the Hankook 727
Am I going to wear the tires down when driving in hot weather?
Am I compromising gas mileage?
Should I just invest in winter tires?
We’ve had all-season tires on my wife’s cars for the past 30 years. Never had a problem in winter or summer. I have no experience with any of the tires you’ve chosen, but I suspect they’ll all be fine.
If you haven’t already, take a look at the ratings in Consumer Reports, Nov 09. We lived in Tacoma, and all seasons is all we needed there.
May have needed winter tires two days in about four years, when we got some unplanned snowfall (was not running all seasons at the time). The rest of the time all seasons worked, even when we went into the mountains in the winter.
go to tirerack.com and check out the tire ratings…great prices.
I don’t know anything about these tires, but I’d go with what Les Schwab has. They have long history in Northwest and very good service. I wouldn’t second guess them on a tire. If Seattle ice is so bad you can’t handle it with all-seasons, then consider not driving. Winter tires don’t come to mind when I think ice - studded maybe. All seasons will wear well. Seattle rain says look for one with good water grooves. Ask Les Scwab about that. All-season is by far the most common tire on the road. MPG will not suffer. Don’t make saving a few bucks a priority.
You have already spent a fortune for AWD…Let that do the heavy lifting and price buy the four choices you listed…Any of them will be fine…Push hard for FREE mounting and balancing. In the tire business, EVERYTHING is negotiable…
We’ve been very satisfied with Goodyear Assurance Triple-treads on a couple of the family vehicles here in Michigan
Schwab wants to sell you the Tourevo because it’s a house brand. It will be difficult to find any test information since it’s all theirs. I suppose it might be possible to find another similar tire sin Les Schwab does not manufacture them.
The Goodyear tire is directional, ad you can only rotate them front to back. FWIW, they got the highest rating of all passenger all-season tires at Tire Rack. A non-direction tire is the Goodyear ComforTred. It ranked a close second to the TripleTred in a test by Tire Rack.
The Hankook H727 isn’t rated by Tire Rack or their customers. That doesn’t make it a bad tire, just untested at this place.
If there is a price difference between the TripleTred and ComforTred, I’d get the less expensive ones.
New England where you live put copious amount of salt/sand on the roads in short order after a storm. Roads are nearly black within hours.
Seattle does not have the sanding/salting capability like New England so roads are plain awful. Winter tires with ice traction(studless or studded design) are helpful.
Personally though I would stay off the roads until the roads in Seattle as majority of people don’t have experience or road traction to move about.
From Consumer Reports: the Hankook Optimo H727 came out very well on all counts (hydroplaning, snow, ice), and appears to have a pretty good price.
Personally I would have one set of all season tyres and a set of WINTER tyres. All season means three seasons. They are not very good on snow and ice. Seattle does get snow (not too much ice however) Winter tyres are far better than the old snow tyres. Buy an extra set of rims and you will be safer.
Note: while Seattle does not get a lot of snow, when it does snow, you will find yourself on roads that are not nice and flat. Even the buses can’t get through many streets in the snow and need to detour. If you can afford to just stay home for a couple of days occasionally you don’t need winter tyres, but if you want to be able to drive when you wish or plan trips to the mountains, you want Winter tyres and maybe chains.
Did CR rate the Goodyer TripleTred or ComforTred in the same test? Which issue? The issue is important becasue many public libraries carry CR. Anyone can get a look at the evaluation quickly. My county libraries carry one copy for circulation and one for reference (library use only).
Your description of driving into the mountains regularly in winter combined with your description of the roads getting a sheet layer of ice makes me suggest Blzzaks on all four wheels…a set of spare steel wheels. Ice is the absolute worst and you need all the help yuo can get. Blizzaks have an excellent reputation on ice.
They’'ll wear faster and may feel funny at first on dry pavement, but both of those things combined are better than getting killed or maimed in an accident.
By all means visit Tirerack as well as 1010tires.com. But I think for sheer ice you’ll find Blizzaks about the best there is.
CR Nov 09 (page 48) rated GY Assurance TripleTred as #4 in all season (S & T speed rated tires) category. #1 was Michelin Hydroedge, #2 Hankook Optimo H727, #3 Pirelli P4 Four Seasons (as apparently did CR because it was not check-rated OK as were the other two), and #4 was the Assurance TripleTred.
Given the comments about ice and snow traction being a desirable quality, I would eliminate the Pirelli, and the Hankook came in cheapest, based on CR’s estimate price. Of course, the real price for each of these tires can vary a lot by region and dealer.
For Winter tires, CR recommended Michelin X-Ice Xl 2, General Altimax Arctic and Nokian Hakkapelitta 5 in that order. Blizzak WS60 came in #7.