All-Season Tires

Balancing tire performance with price

In tests, the Goodyear Assurance TripleTred (*Est. $140) is the standout among standard all-season tires, showing no significant weaknesses in any test. Its triple-tread pattern includes a reinforced dry-road zone on the outer edges for confident handling, a central rib with heavy siping (tiny cuts) to stick to snow and ice, and diagonal grooves in between to siphon rainwater away. TireRack.com says its dual steel belts and polyester cord body make the TripleTred strong, durable and smooth-riding.

The TripleTred tire takes first place in tests at TireRack.com, where experts find it provides "peace of mind in any driving condition." That includes winter conditions -- to an extent. The TripleTred grips well on both snow and ice in one test, and consumers who post reviews at TireRack.com rate it very good on winter roads and outstanding on wet or dry pavement.

However, some owners who post reviews at Epinions.com complain about the TripleTred's winter grip. Experts agree that dedicated snow tires are better for winter driving, but among all-season tires, the TripleTred gets better reviews than most for four-season use.

For less money, the Hankook Optimo H727 (*Est. $90) actually outperforms the Goodyear Assurance TripleTred in one top test, where experts find the Hankook delivers better grip on snow and ice and a more comfortable ride. Both tires also perform very well on dry and wet roads, with good rolling resistance (which can mean better gas mileage). Like the Goodyear tire, the Hankook tire is also a favorite among owners who post reviews at TireRack.com (in the all-season and touring all-season categories, respectively). Owners say the Goodyear tires grip slightly better on wet and dry roads, while the Hankook tires score better for snow and ice traction, ride comfort, noise and tread wear. Ultimately, both rate very well or outstanding on all measures.

Like the Goodyear Assurance TripleTred tires, the Hankook Optimo H727 is heavily siped for winter traction, with four circumferential grooves to channel water away. TireRack.com says the Hankook tire's dual steel belts and nylon cap ply make for a stable tread, good handling and a durable tire. Both tires include long tread-life warranties -- 80,000 miles for the Goodyear, and 100,000 miles for the Hankook -- and the tread holds up well in independent wear tests, although a few tires do last longer.

Fuel-saving tires

One of the longest-lasting all-season car tires, according to reviews, is a top-performing runner-up: the Michelin HydroEdge (*Est. $125). Michelin bills the HydroEdge as a tire that can "outlast the road" and backs it with a 90,000-mile tread-life warranty. The tread does last an incredibly long time in both government and independent tests -- longer than either the Goodyear Assurance TripleTred or Hankook Optimo H727 tires -- and owners at TireRack.com rate it outstanding for tread wear.

Performance-wise, the HydroEdge runs neck-and-neck with the Goodyear Assurance TripleTred tires. Despite its name, however, the HydroEdge falls slightly behind the TripleTred in a wet-road test at TireRack.com. The HydroEdge also gets a weaker grip on snow than the TripleTred in another top test, and owners at TireRack.com agree that the TripleTred tire is a better pick for winter roads.

The Michelin HydroEdge tires are designed to save fuel, with a rubber compound and specially shaped contact patch that are supposed to lower rolling resistance. It's not the only all-season tire that's trying this; there's also the Michelin Energy Saver A/S (*Est. $115), Continental ProContact EcoPlus (*Est. $90), Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max (*Est. $105) and more. Experts at TireRack.com test these lower-rolling-resistance tires to see if they really make a difference in gas mileage without sacrificing traction.

The result? Low-resistance tires really do save money, TireRack.com finds. Compared with regular tires like the Goodyear Assurance ComforTred (*Est. $100), the ultra-efficient Michelin Energy Saver A/S tires save a Toyota Prius driver about 21 gallons of gas per year.

"Multiply this difference by several years of driving and the value of using low rolling resistance tires steadily increases," TireRack.com concludes. Fit these tires onto less fuel-friendly cars and trucks, and "the fuel-saving dollar valueÉessentially doubles or quadruples."

In a more recent TireRack.com test, the Michelin HydroEdge tires save slightly less gas than the most efficient Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max tires -- but the difference is only about 8 gallons per year for the average driver, testers say. They prefer the HydroEdge tire for its better wet and dry grip and more responsive handling.

Still TireRack.com points out you won't get performance-tire grip out of a fuel-saving tire. After testing the low rolling-resistance tires on the Prius and also on a BMW 3 Series, one tester blogs, "The LRR tires showed considerably less grip on wet than their standard counterparts -- especially on the BimmerÉI would definitely recommend LRR tires to customers who drive hybrid cars and for whom fuel efficiency is the ultimate goal. Given the substantial differences in wet traction and braking distances on wet, LRR tires may not be suitable to be used on performance cars being driven in a more spirited manner."

ConsumerReports.org also weighs rolling resistance against traction. "We saw in our tests around 3 mpg difference on the highway between models that had the worst rolling resistance versus those that had the best," ConsumerReports.org says. "But we've also seen in our tests that sometimes rolling resistance is a compromise to other performance areas, which is why we recommend you pick performance first and use rolling resistance as a tiebreaker."