Tire Review

Passenger tire types

Part of our three-part series on tires, this report covers all-season and three-season tires for passenger cars and minivans. We also have a separate report on SUV and light-truck tires, as well as a report on snow tires, which includes winter tires for all vehicle types.

Consumer Reports conducts more comprehensive, rigorous tire tests than any other reviewer we found. Not content to blindly believe the treadwear ratings manufacturers list on tires' sidewalls, Consumer Reports performs accelerated wear tests on 82 tire models -- all-season, performance all-season and ultra-high-performance summer and all-season -- to see how fast they really wear out. Road tests determine how well the tires handle on wet and dry roads (and wintry roads, for all-season tires), and testers judge the tires' ride comfort and noise. Consumer Reports evaluates one more thing that most reviewers don't: rolling resistance. Tires with low rolling resistance get better gas mileage.

A Canadian nonprofit association, the Automobile Protection Association, performs unbiased tests as well. The APA rates 39 all-season, performance and high-performance tires. We also found recent road-test comparisons at The Tire Rack, a retail site, and at Which? magazine. Although Which? is a British consumer testing organization, six of its Best Buy picks are U.S. models from Michelin, Bridgestone and other top brands.

"All-season" is often a misnomer, as tire experts and consumers find when they try to drive the tires on snow and ice. Few all-season tires really perform well in winter-driving tests. Some perform worse than most in tests on ice and snow, including the otherwise highly ratedPirelli P Zero Nero M+S (*Est. $130). In a Tire Rack comparison test on snow and ice involving four ultra-high-performance winter tires, the Pirelli finished last, even though it's considered an "all-season" tire. The other tires on test, including the top-finishing Goodyear Eagle F1 All Season (*Est. $125), performed better in winter conditions, though none was as good as a dedicated winter tire.

We found mixed reviews for other all-season tires in winter use as well, including the Hankook Ventus V4 ES H105 (*Est. $80), Sumitomo HTR T4 (*Est. $65),Toyo Proxes 4 (*Est. $130) and the otherwise highly rated Yokohama Avid H4s (*Est. $85) and V4s (*Est. $90). Several owners posting to The Tire Rack's forum report they got the Firestone FR690 tires (*Est. $95) as original equipment on their Honda Civics a few years ago, but were very disappointed in their performance on snow and ice.

Although most cars come with all-season tires, and 83 percent of the replacement tires sold are all-seasons, they can't match winter tires' grip on snow and ice, conclude editors at Consumer Reports and The Tire Rack. The Canadian Automobile Protection Association says all-season tires are the least expensive option, and "may provide adequate performance in winter when they are new." A few all-season tires perform decently in tests on ice and snow, including the Continental ContiExtremeContact (*Est. $90), Goodyear Assurance ComforTred (*Est. $115) and Sumitomo HTR+ (*Est. $70), although all of these sacrifice some performance on ordinary dry and wet roads.

Standard all-season tires strike a good balance between performance, ride quality, tread life and price. High-performance all-season tires provide better handling and grip, without giving up too much comfort and wear. Summer tires grip wet and dry roads tenaciously, but they cannot be driven in snow or ice, and they usually wear out quickly. For more help deciphering tire types and sizes, see "What to Look For."

Price estimates throughout this report are usually based on a 215/60R16 tire size, a popular size appropriate for such mid-sized cars as the 2008 Toyota Camry SE. For ultra-high-performance tires, we use a larger tire size of 225/55R16 (or similar) as the basis for estimates.