Best All Season Tires

Evan Williams
by Evan Williams

Tires designed to hold the road all year round

Tires, like donuts, are round with a hole in the middle. Unlike donuts, picking tires can be hard. You can’t just go back the next day and grab another one if you don’t like them. Rather than filling your hunger, tires keep you safe and secure on the road in all types of conditions, both wonderful and miserable. While there are tires designed for summer and tires for winter, for many people, the compromise of an all-season tire is a much better choice. Like a plain donut, the all-season tire is good every day, even if it isn’t your favorite.

Also like a donut, there are hundreds of all-season tires to pick from. Which one is right for you? We’re here to help with the best all-season tires for your car, crossover, or SUV. The pros and cons as well as the different features that make each of these tires ideal for your use, keeping you safe and secure in rain and light snow and giving you maximum enjoyment when the weather is warm and dry.

Lead photo by Proxima Studio/Shutterstock.com

1. Yokohama Avid Ascend LX

Yokohama calls the Avid Ascend LX its premium all-season touring tire. Wavy 3D sipes - the tiny grooves in the tire tread that actually do much of the work of providing traction in wet and dry - on the shoulders are there to increase traction in the winter on cold and icy roads. Wide circumferential grooves and Yokohama's L-2 compound are intended to help prevent hydroplaning as well as stick to the pavement in the wet. A staggered and offset tread design is meant to help reduce road noise by canceling out sounds instead of amplifying them. How long-lasting are they? Yokohama offers an up to 85,000-mile treadwear warranty.

Pros

  • Long life, excellent wet weather tread

Cons

  • Some users report poor traction in snow and ice

2. Vredestein HiTrac

Vredestein might not be a household name here, but the brand is well known in Europe. The company has sold there for more than 100 years. The Hitrac is meant for drivers of cars and crossovers who value a comfortable ride and long tread life. Vredestein says the Hitrac is designed to offer low noise and a smooth ride. The tires have a tread block contour and pitch meant to reduce noise and enhance comfort, while the shoulders of the tires have grooves to add cornering response and help move water out of the tread in tough weather conditions. A 700 treadwear rating means that the tire should offer plenty of tread life.

Pros

  • Meant for ride and long life

Cons

  • No mention of snow in design mandate

3. General AltiMax RT43

The General AltiMax RT43 is a solid all-season touring tire. It is designed with Stabilitread technology, which is meant to offer a flatter and larger tire footprint that reduces tire stress and extends tread life. It has a replacement tire monitor that appears on the tire's tread when it is time for a new set. It also has a visual alignment indicator, helping you to spot and solve suspension and tire wear issues before they destroy a set of tires or more expensive suspension components. Traction is important too, and the AltiMax RT43 offers peak anti-slip design technology that adds more biting edges for improved traction on slippery roads in all conditions.

Pros

  • Loaded with features like replacement and alignment indicators

Cons

  • Some owners in extremely wet locations report wet traction issues

4. Michelin Defender

The Michelin Defender is that brand's standard touring tire. It uses an all-season tread compound that is focused on durability and longevity. The second-generation Defender tire, then, should offer many miles of trouble-free driving. The asymmetric pattern is designed to make the tires smooth and quiet. InteilliSipe technology uses zigzag sipes that interlock below the surface of the tread. These increase tread block rigidity and that means better feel when you're taking tighter turns or making sudden lane changes. A high silica content helps wet traction, as do the lateral notches and circumferential grooves of the surface of the tire.

Pros

  • Great all-around grip, quiet, long-lasting

Cons

  • Trades excellence in heavy snow or in the dry for that all-around capability

5. Continental TrueContact Tour

The Continental TrueContact Tour is a standard all-season tire from that brand. That means it is for family sedans, small crossovers, and minivans, aimed at drivers looking for good traction in a wide range of conditions. The all-season tread design is symmetric, which helps with tire rotations for even wear. It has Comfort Ride Technology, a Continental tech that puts an underlay on the carcass of the tire meant to isolate the tread from the case for less noise and vibration. Lots of sipes offer grip in light snow and ice, while Continental's DWS-embossed tread blocks let you know when the tire has worn down so that it's no longer ideal for driving in Snow, Wet, and Dry conditions. This tire has a 800 treadwear rating, meaning that it should last for years of regular use, or many, many miles.

Pros

  • DWS tread indicator, 800 treadwear rating,

Cons

  • Less dry grip than performance tire, less snow grip than a four-season tire

6. Michelin CrossClimate2

There is no mistaking the unique tread design of the Michelin CrossClimate2. We know it looks like it might be on a toy car, but Michelin is a serious tire company, and it calls this its ultimate all-season tire. That means dry pavement stopping up to 15 feet shorter than the competition, Michelin says, but it also means 31 percent better snow traction in testing. These tires are designed to work in wet, dry, and snow, even when they're worn and that makes them safer and more economical to run on your vehicle. The thermal adaptive tread design is meant to stay soft and pliant in the winter without getting squirmy, soft, and fast-wearing in the summer, which is why it is so good in all seasons.

Pros

  • A four-season tire, advanced tread pattern, strong all-weather traction

Cons

  • Some users say the tire is hard-riding, will not match a true winter tire in snow or a standard all-season for top dry performance

7. Cooper Zeon RS3-G1

The Cooper Zeon RS3-G1 is the latest version of Cooper's RS3 tire. It's an all-season tire that is designed for drivers wanting a high-performance tire that will work in colder temperatures as well as being able to handle rain and standing water. 3D micro-siping, the small grooves in the tread rubber are a mix of full depth and variable biting. That helps you maintain traction in wet weather, while the rubber compound is designed to deliver grip and responsive handling in the dry. Cooper's Wear Square in the center of the tire helps you to monitor how much tread is remaining, letting you know with a quick look when you're nearing time for a replacement. A 500 treadwear rating combined with a 45,000-mile treadwear protection warranty should ensure plenty of life.

Pros

  • Tread indicator, high traction, good rain grip

Cons

  • A performance tire, so expect trade-offs in noise and cold-weather grip

8. Nokian Entyre 2.0

The Nokian Entyre 2.0 is the second generation of the brand's all-weather tire model. A premium all-season tire, it is designed to offer a smooth and quiet ride with good handling and grip in almost all conditions. It also offers low rolling resistance, which works to help improve fuel economy by requiring less energy to move the tire down the road. Polished grooves help to channel water away from the tire's tread more quickly. Silent sidewall technology works to help reduce noise when driving by creating a zone of isolation between the tire tread and the wheel and cutting road noise. The impressive treadwear indicators show you quickly and easily every 20% of tire wear, letting you know approximately how long until you'll need a replacement.

Pros

  • All-weather traction, noise quieting sidewalls, treadwear indicator

Cons

  • Doesn't offer the winter traction of it predecessor

9. Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady

The Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady is one of the brand's latest all-season tires. It uses a soy-based rubber compound that should help make it more sustainable. The tire also has Goodyear's reactive design tech with evolving traction grooves. The grooves and sipes in the tire change as the tire wears, helping to add traction to a worn tire that would otherwise disappear. Sweeping tread grooves move water from the tread to the tire's grooves for wet traction while zigzag biting edges increase traction in cold weather and snow. The same tread blocks that adjust as they wear for better traction also bind closely together to improve handling in the dry.

Pros

  • Evolving traction grooves, severe winter rated

Cons

  • Despite mountain snowflake logo, still can't match a dedicated winter tire

10. Pirelli P4 Plus

Pirelli's P4 Four Seasons Plus uses what the company has learned from the previous P4 to make a tire that is even better. Start with a high-silica compound meant to deliver optimal wet weather grip. The rest of the compound is designed to reduce rolling resistance and improve fuel economy. The continuous center rib design is meant to add stability and dry weather grip and confidence. Pirelli also says it helps improve on-center tire feel. An all-new tire casing with twin steel belts that are nylon-wrapped offers a more comfortable and more quiet ride. Pirelli offers a 90,000-mile treadwear warranty on this tire.

Pros

  • Improved traction wet and dry, strong on-center feel

Cons

  • Some users report sidewalls easily damaged in impacts

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Evan Williams
Evan Williams

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2 of 19 comments
  • Gmrn Gmrn on Sep 22, 2021

    Do I spy with my little eye...a WHITEWALL on number 5? Hope it's not 'shopped in.

  • LostInTransit LostInTransit on May 16, 2023
    Not sure where you're getting your info or who's testing these tires for you. But 3 out the tires you've listed failed out test while mounted on a 2020 Connect granted we're running a set of 19'' wheels. The issue is most if not all of these tires will have weak sidewalls which makes for dangerous driving. because these tire flex or overflex, when one takes a curves the tires fold under the vehicle cause the vehicle to slide into and through curves. This made from some very dangerous driving. The Nokain G4's with reinforced sidewalls handled these curves without overlfexing. Again we tested many of these tires on a 2020 Connect which has a tighter turning radius so results on your car or truck will vary.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
  • B-BodyBuick84 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport of course, a 7 seater, 2.4 turbo-diesel I4 BOF SUV with Super-Select 4WD, centre and rear locking diffs standard of course.
  • Corey Lewis Think how dated this 80s design was by 1995!
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