YAT Season Appropriate Tyres + (AWD vs FWD)
- Thread starter SirWanker
- Start date
Chris_Top_Her
Contributor
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- San Antonio, Texas
- :
- '15 CX-5 Miata AWD
Nice videos.
Our cars come with all season tires, which at best, should be called 3 season tires.
Summer tires are only good for low, high horsepower cars during the summer.
Informed opinion suggests that all season tyres are a decent year round compromise ie not as good as a summer tyre in summer but better in winter and not as good as a winter tyre in winter but better in the summer. They are as the name suggests a compromise. Guess it depends upon how severe (and long) the winters are where you are.
Not sure how it works in US but in Europe all cars would usually be supplied with summer tyres though in some cases as SUV might come with all season tyres.
Informed opinion suggests you are not that informed. They are a good compromise spring trough fall. As soon as temperature falls below 7C (45F), the rubber becomes hard as plastic (well, slight exageration but you get the point) and they become useless. As with the statement that it depends upon how severe the winters are where you are, I agree if your winters are above 7C, but I would not call this winter...
True. And yet, the Toyo A/S OEM tire is considerably better than most other manufacturers' tires, so I've elected to keep them through the winter. (One of our other cars is AWD, and the 3rd, FWD, has new winter rubber.)
The Toyo tires do get hard and slippery -- I'd call it driving on twin belts of fiberglass. If this was our only driving option, I'd probably get whatever winter tire that tirerack's promoting this week. (If I had to get steelies too, I'd get a smaller than 19" diameter to save on tire costs.) But in the first year of use, there may be enough tread depth to deal with light/occasional snow. The 8 1/2" ground clearance shouldn't be underestimated -- this could make a Jeep-like AWD vehicle with a set of four Blizzaks.
EDIT: Looking at tirerack with 17" rims, you get a stock size of 225/65-R17, and 3 of the 4 choices are Bridgestone Blizzaks. The 4th is Michelin Latitude, priced in the middle of the 3 Blizzak models. Of the Blizzaks, ranging from $476 to $700, I'd opt for the cheapest, the WS-70. Reasons: (1) Aggressive sipe pattern. (2) Tire only used 3-5 months a year. (3) The other Blizzak models (and the Michelin) are "light truck" category, not winter/performance.
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TreyP
2018 Soul Red AWD Touring CX-5
I'm not sure where you got your information, but the WS-70 is simply an older/discontinued Blizzak model. They did have a higher speed rating than the DM-V1, but a speed rating on a snow tire is kind of pointless really. They are a good choice, but be aware that they will be in diminishing supply.
The Blizzak DM-V1 is most definitely a snow tire, and not a light truck specific tire. I have this model, and they perform brilliantly on the CX-5.
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The Toyo tyres fitted to UK cars are summer tyres.
http://www.tyres-pneus-online.co.uk/car-tyres/TOYO/PROXES,R36/
While according to a auto bild test a good all season tyre is as good as some winter tyres.
"The big surprise this year wasn't the summers poor performance in the snow, that's expected, but that an "all season tyre" out performed a pure winter tyre in the snow tests"
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2013-Auto-Bild-All-Season-Tyre-Test.htm
http://www.tyres-pneus-online.co.uk/car-tyres/TOYO/PROXES,R36/
While according to a auto bild test a good all season tyre is as good as some winter tyres.
"The big surprise this year wasn't the summers poor performance in the snow, that's expected, but that an "all season tyre" out performed a pure winter tyre in the snow tests"
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2013-Auto-Bild-All-Season-Tyre-Test.htm
