Thoughts? I recognize that some of the posters on this forum are using font color as their "signature" but it is hard to read.
Here's your original post in black:
As I alluded to earlier, in a different
thread, Car and Driver recently performed a winter tire test, up in upstate Michigan. I was as surprised at the outcome of their
test as I was some of the rankings in the most recent CR test. They
tested four Michelin tires, the ultra high performance (but still all-season)
Pilot Sport A/S, the Pilot HX MXM4 (as the all-season tire), thee Pilot Alpin
PA3 (as the performance winter tire), and the X-Ice Xi2 (as the standard winter
tire).
The results in snow were
predictable. The Pilot Sport A/S was the worst performer, with a 30-0 MPH
braking distance of 123 ft. The best tire, the X-Ice Xi2, cut that down
to 83 ft, which represents a dramatic difference. The acceleration times
were similarly much better with the winter tires, on snow.
But that's where the predictability
ended. Their other testing was done on wet pavement and dry pavement,
both noted by the article as 23*F. Both the Pilot Sport A/S and Pilot HX
MXM4 performed very close together in both of these non-snow conditions.
Braking from 60-0 MPH came in 128-130 ft between the two on dry pavement, and
in 139-140 ft on wet pavement. But the Pilot Alpin PA3 trailed both tires
by non-trivial amounts (141 ft on dry and 145 ft on wet). And the X-Ice
Xi2 is even less impressive, posting a 158 ft braking distance on dry pavement
and 174 ft on wet. That's a 25% increase over the Pilot Sport A/S on cold
wet pavement, and near that on cold dry pavement.
All this seems to fly in the face of
all the advertisements that claim that winter tires are safer than all-seasons
below 45*F. It's not just this article either, but CR has mentioned
before that they've found similar results from earlier testing. Not only
that, but the highest-performing warm weather tire here, the Pilot Sport A/S,
is still the best performer well below freezing, as long as there's no
snow. Ironically, the article states that Michelin insists that these
tires not be called "snow tires", that they're "winter
tires", designed to be superior to all-season tires under a variety of
conditions. The data appears to suggest that the amount of snow one gets
should play a pretty heavy role in the decision to use winter tires, because
even on dry/wet conditions at well below freezing, not only do they appear to
have no advantage, but they seem to have a disadvantage when compared against
their warmer weather cousins.
Thoughts? Comments?
See what I mean?
Edited Nov-3 by Cale_Johnson
