I've recently shopped for new tires and ended up buy Hankook Ventus V12 based on reviews as mentiioned by JO060. I love these tires and the positive reviews are true to my experience so far. I've never driven them in hard rain or snow yet. Reviews and the tech that installed my tires (who had owned them) both said they are great in the rain. They are supposed to be terrible in the snow but I don't think you get the white stuff in Oregon do you?
I had previously driven on the Proxes 4 which is inferior by comparison. The Proxes 4 are alright if you don't compare them to something really good. Prior to the Proxies 4, I had the Proxes T1R which were really good and surpassed the Proxes 4 and was just a bit less good than the V12.
If you are looking for something good for truly all seasons (including snow), I would recommend Nokian Hakappeleta WR but thats a totally different tire. I have those on my Mazda 5 a month after I bought the car, to take the family to the ski slopes and not need to worry about switching tires between seasons. Wear life has been reasonable and it is safe, but not a really fun performance tire.
Now i'll gripe about the Proxes 4 - Its an all season because I'm told it was based on the % of groove to rubber contact ratio, not based on actual performance performance. It drives like it too. While I can understand a bit of sacrifice on dry pavement performance for an all season, but it couldn't handle snow any better than my T1R's. So lesser dry performance, same wet pavement, and same snow performance as T1R and V12. why would anyone buy the Proxes 4?
