All season/all weather M+S tires for my 2018 VW Golf R

[tball]

Dedicated winter tires will never be superfluous.

Have a look at this video showing how much faster winter tires stop on ice:


You really have to watch the video to appreciate the difference, but here's the punchline: It takes more than twice as long for the all-weather tire to stop on ice than the studded Hakkapalita:

All the tires tested are Nokians considered great for their class and all are Mountain Snowflake rated. The all-season tires are like lightweights fighting against a heavyweight. Fighting in the wrong class.

These are the tires tested in the video:

Note the Mountain Snowflake rating on the tires that, again, take twice as long to stop:
https://www.nokiantyres.com/winter-tyres/nokian-wr-a4/
https://www.nokiantyres.com/all-weather-tyres/nokian-weatherproof/

That's from 25mph. I'd love to see that test from 50mph and with all-season and high-performance all-season tires too.

 

[François Pugh]

Dedicated winter tires will never be superfluous.


That's from 25mph. I'd love to see that test from 50mph and with all-season and high-performance all-season tires.

Me too!

 

[4ster]

Never said I could stop !

I have had dedicated snow tires & I agree that they are superior but with care All Seasons can get the job done. In fact I will be surprised if these tires perform nearly as well a year from now. Even though I live in the mountains & drive to ski areas almost daily, only a fraction of my driving is in snow.

Kinda like skiing, drive the slow line fast. Slow down in the straightaway, accelerate through the turns.
Look way ahead, leave plenty of space.
Drive a vehicle with manual transmission.
Make it a rule/challenge to NEVER (well almost never) hit your brakes.

...& yes, keep your eye on your rearview mirror, trust no one.
I have been rear ended 3 times, one I wasn’t even in the car! Only accidents I have ever been involved in, none were my fault.

BTW, the white test car in that video looks an awful lot like mine

 

[François Pugh]

Always leave enough room in front of you for the guy behind you to stop.

 

[Tom K.]

I see it very differently. The performance of winter tires continues to improve as well.

Could be. I guess my point is that I see a time in the near future where tire tech and rubber chemistry will evolve to a point where I might be able to get say 95% of the performance of my UHP all-seasons AND 95% of the snow performance of my current Hokey-Pokeys.

I'd be thrilled with that combination!

And my personal driving situation will never warrant studded tires, so I don't really follow them anymore. Too dangerous on the dry and wet pavement where I spend 90% or more of my driving miles.

 

[4ster]

Always leave enough room in front of you for the guy behind you to stop.

I do that!
Especially when stopped for road construction, I will leave a big space in front of me and watch my rearview mirror. If I see someone coming up behind me too hot, I am ready to move forward or off the road.

 

[ScotsSkier]

Always leave enough room in front of you for the guy behind you to stop.

yes, especially when the idiot in front of you is driving too close to your front fender....

 

[Jed Peters]

@4ster I'm shocked and (somewhat) appalled that you didn't get Michelin Pilot sport All Seasons.

 

[tball]

Could be. I guess my point is that I see a time in the near future where tire tech and rubber chemistry will evolve to a point where I might be able to get say 95% of the performance of my UHP all-seasons AND 95% of the snow performance of my current Hokey-Pokeys.

I'd be thrilled with that combination!

And my personal driving situation will never warrant studded tires, so I don't really follow them anymore. Too dangerous on the dry and wet pavement where I spend 90% or more of my driving miles.

Tire design will always have tradeoffs. High-performance tires can't have the winter performance of dedicated winter tires and still be high performance. Never will. They'll both get better, but there will always be a gap in performance. Kinda like skinny and fat skis.

Studs are not dangerous on dry and wet pavement compared to studless winter tires. Check out these studded vs. studless test results on dry and wet:
https://vanha.tekniikanmaailma.fi/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/tm_17_2016_english.pdf

Studs are noisy and bad for mileage, but they are not dangerous. Can't say the same for all-season tires in the winter.

 

[Tom K.]

Tire design will always have tradeoffs. High-performance tires can't have the winter performance of dedicated winter tires and still be high performance. Never will. They'll both get better, but there will always be a gap in performance. Kinda like skinny and fat skis.

Studs are not dangerous on dry and wet pavement compared to studless winter tires. Check out these studded vs. studless test results on dry and wet:
https://vanha.tekniikanmaailma.fi/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/tm_17_2016_english.pdf

Studs are noisy and bad for mileage, but they are not dangerous. Can't say the same for all-season tires in the winter.

I'll make you a 10 year bet for a cold beer on the bolded statement above. That type of statement has been made about so many things over the decades (anybody remember Dick Tracy's "impossible" futuristic watch? Your current smart phone blows it away, and we pretty much take them for granted now).

And I've seen several tests on braking and traction on wet roads showing studs to be substantially inferior to unstudded winter tires. Not interested enough to dig around the interweb for them.

 

[PinnacleJim]

@4ster here are the CR ratings for the category complements of Continental:

http://www.continentaltire.com/sites/default/files/consumer-reports/Contintental ExtremeContact DWS06.pdf

Note that like most of the category the Continental doesn't do well in the winter while the super expensive BF Goodrich has "Very Good" winter ratings that are unmatched by any other tire in the category. Based on those ratings, that's the only tire I'd want anywhere near the mountains in the winter.

I've had the the BFG Comp-2 A/S on my BMW X1 for about 3 years now. They replaced the awful OE Goodyear LS-2 Runflats. Night and day difference with better handling AND ride. I picked them based on the snow performance in Tirerack.com tests. Nice to see that CR actually has them rated the best of the A/S tires. I spend a lot of time in Vermont in the winter and find them very good for an A/S tire in snow. And they are NOT super expensive. I think with mounting, balancing and tax the set of 4 was about $500 (after rebate). Size is 225/50-17 FWIW.