zig@tr

We at The Tire Rack have recently tested summer, all-season and winter tires on one of the worst winter driving conditions......ice. We know summer tires are not intended to be driven on ice, however, we still receive a large number of questions inquiring about summer tires for all-season use. Watch as we compare the distinct differences between each of these tires by evaluating acceleration, stopping and cornering capabilities. The vehicles used are 3 identical 2010 BMW 328i, these test results will be very similar to the driving dynamics of the Lexus IS350/250 rear wheel drive models. I thought these simulations would be helpful with the winter months soon upon us.

The Tire Rack - Tire Testing on Ice Video

embolism

I'm very surprised the car with summer tires was still in the picture and the all season's only gave a marginal benefit of half a car length over summers.

edit: just followed the link and saw that this was at 10mph. Now it makes sense. The cars wouldn't all be in that first picture if you used normal driving speeds.... hahaha

ghwanee

this information is very useful. only thing I don't like is changing tires from winter to summer and back to winter. All season would do fine for me I guess... hopefully my new AWD does better than my old FWD

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

It's worth changing the tires.

Seriously.

All-seasons suck... in all seasons.

Winter tires are significantly better at everything in snow/ice.

Summer tires are significantly better at everything in all other conditions.


Is skipping 2 wheel swaps a year worth having significantly longer stopping distances and inferior handling every day of the year?

Amund0

any downside to using winter tires all year?

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

Several-

1) In wet (non freezing) conditions braking distance is significantly worse than summer tires.... not as bad as all-seasons mind you, but still a good 10% or so longer distance to stop... ditto the handling difference in wet...not as bad as all-seasons, but measurably worse than summer tires.

2) In dry (non-freezing) conditions they come in 3rd place for braking and handling... and they'll tend not to wear out significantly faster as well.

3) They also tend to be noisier... this is worth it for much better snow/ice performance a couple months a year... but would get a bit tiresome year-round.

waffle231

After much deliberation...I am going with snow tires on my awd stock rims, and I am getting summer rims & tires. I have driven with winter tires before and they rock

ddhleigh

Good choice. That's what I did with my oem rims, mount winter tires.