So I - together with the vast majority of people in central and northern Europe - have always mocked all-season tires, always kept 2 sets of tires for all my cars and basically considered all-season tire users irresponsible gamblers (no offense).
However I've recently done some research (prompted by my low yearly mileage and milder and milder winters) on how far the all-season industry has progressed and was quite impressed.
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/Is-there-a-true-all-season-tyre-We-find-out.htm
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Goodyear/Vector-4-Seasons-Gen-2.htm
Of course neither the CrossClimate nor the 4Seasons will ever be as good as a good winter rubber but I was amazed by how close the performance of the two tires was to the winter one. And people who run those tires say on forums they are surprised by how good they are. I currently have all season rubber but only use it as a summer tire and I always considered all-season tires "very good summer tires with some bonuses and very good marketing".
So my question for those of you living in areas with "proper winters" and not having a set of wheels with dedicated winter tires would be: do you use high-end all-seasons (actually the 4Seasons are available with my dimensions, CrossClimates sadly aren't) or do you go with AT tires and not mind the road noise increase and MPG decrease? BFG ATs? Discoverers? General Grabber AT2s?
I'm not saying I'm prepared to go all-season / AT right now, I'm just mapping the territory and doing research on rubber compound advances. So I'll understand if you feel like hating on me for wanting to go all-season
However I've recently done some research (prompted by my low yearly mileage and milder and milder winters) on how far the all-season industry has progressed and was quite impressed.
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Goodyear/Vector-4-Seasons-Gen-2.htm
Of course neither the CrossClimate nor the 4Seasons will ever be as good as a good winter rubber but I was amazed by how close the performance of the two tires was to the winter one. And people who run those tires say on forums they are surprised by how good they are. I currently have all season rubber but only use it as a summer tire and I always considered all-season tires "very good summer tires with some bonuses and very good marketing".
So my question for those of you living in areas with "proper winters" and not having a set of wheels with dedicated winter tires would be: do you use high-end all-seasons (actually the 4Seasons are available with my dimensions, CrossClimates sadly aren't) or do you go with AT tires and not mind the road noise increase and MPG decrease? BFG ATs? Discoverers? General Grabber AT2s?
I'm not saying I'm prepared to go all-season / AT right now, I'm just mapping the territory and doing research on rubber compound advances. So I'll understand if you feel like hating on me for wanting to go all-season
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