What tire fits your driving style best?
In Minnesota we see all four seasons, although it feels like three of those are winter lately. When choosing new tires for your vehicle it is best to plan for the weather.
For most passenger cars and mid-size suv's, tire options are broken into 3 categories. All season, All weather, and Winter.
An all season tire offers good traction through the warmer months as well as exceptional tread wear at 60,000-80,000 miles. This tread wear is accomplished by having a tighter tread pattern and very hard rubber compound. The trade off for the extended tread wear is a significant drop in cold weather/winter performance. This type of tire is the standard option for most of the country as they offer good traction in most weather conditions.
A winter tire offers the greatest traction in winter that a tire can offer. wide tread voids, ample siping, and a very soft rubber compound allow these tires to gain and hold traction through snow and ice. If winter driving is a daunting task then this is the tire for you. The downsides of this type of tire are worth mentioning. Due to the soft rubber compound the tread wear is significantly lower and very dependent on temperature. Because of this no tread wear guarantee is available. To avoid this trouble most customers purchase and swap between summer and winter tires with each season. This comes with the extra cost of a second set of tires as well as the annual labor to swap them.
All weather tires are the happy medium and the choice for my family. a harder rubber compound with siping and larger tread voids for better traction. These tires boast a 50,000-65,000 mile tread wear rating while maintaining robust winter traction. no need to swap tires with the seasons or store a second set in your garage. These are a fairly new addition in the world of tires but an obvious choice in the colder climates of the world. This is the type of tire i put on all of my vehicles as well as my families vehicles.
