Tires Tire Reviews

Last year was an unusually mild winter. There was hardly any snow to speak of. Although great for summer sunshine aficionados, it’s not so great when trying to accomplish a year-long, four season, all-weather tire test.

Being a car enthusiast on a budget can be tough. I know as I’ve firmly been a member of the limited funds for automotive fun camp since I got my license. But not having endless cash to throw at a weekend toy doesn’t mean it’s impossible to have fun.

BFGoodrich’s All-Terrain T/A KO2 has been a dominant force in the all-terrain tire game since its launch. It carries the torch once lit by the original BFG A/T which helped develop the category and made its mark by becoming one of the most popular and easily recognizable choices in the off-road, truck, and SUV tire world. To see if the KO2 is worth the hype, BFG sent us a set to test on our ongoing Lexus GX460 daily-driver-meets-off-roader build.

The biggest difference between Michelin's most sustainable tire yet and its more conventional rubber is that there's no difference. That's the lesson I'm learning while braking hard into the notorious turn 11 at Sonoma Raceway in Northern California in the fastest track machine ever made: A rental Ford Explorer.

The BFGoodrich HD-Terrain T/A KT tire is designed to be a durable tire for towing/hauling not just on the road but in off-road conditions as well. Dual purpose commercial type tires like these have been around for years from various companies, Toyo, Firestone and Bridgestone to name a few. To see how the BFGoodrich HD-Terrain T/A KT tires stack up, I was sent a set for a full, extensive evaluation.

When it was time to replace the budget off-brand all-terrain tires on my 2008 Ford F-150, I decided to go with a set of BFGoodrich T/A KO2s. It’s a decision I should have made years ago, but I found a deal on a set of budget tires and regretted it as soon as I pulled out of the shop. They were squishy, loud and the shop had challenges balancing them.

Not all tire tests are equal.

It's 10 pm instead of 10 am thanks to flight delays, I'm headed two hours out and seven thousand feet up into the San Bernadino Mountains, and the temperature display on the dashboard of this Ford Bronco Raptor is quickly dropping toward the low 30s. My tires are a set of big and chunky Xtreme All-terrains from a brand I've never heard of. Hit it? Or is this going to be a very hairy drive?

As the garage door rises from the floor revealing just how much snow has fallen overnight my first thought is how bad my back is going to feel after I finish shoveling. My second thought is if I’m about to regret my all-weather tires.

The Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus 3 UHP is the Italian tire company’s latest entrant in the Ultra High Performance all-season tire category.

The latest entry in Pirelli’s Scorpion line of crossover and SUV tires is the Pirelli Scorpion All Season Plus 3.

A Value Tire for the Budget Enthusiast

Over the past few years, our northern editors have tested tires from all the major brands, but it’s been quite a while since we ran a set of Michelin X-Ice snow tires (“X-Ice Snow” is the tire name). Industry-wide shortages meant Michelin wasn’t able to get them into our hands until mid-November, which is later than we like to put them on; but because of  a very mild fall in the East we didn’t have any early winter weather to contend with.

Earlier this year Sailun launched the latest evolution of the brand’s Ice Blazer line of tires. As it’s the first new winter tire from the manufacturer in quite some time, the new Sailun Ice Blazer WSTX is a big deal. It’s also the perfect opportunity for us at AutoGuide to perform another in-depth, winter-long tire test.

If you own a high-performance car or are performing upgrades to your vehicle, you may want to look at getting some ultra high performance tires.

Editor’s Note: Sailun arranged for Mike Schlee to test out the Sailun TerraMax HLT tire by flying him to Homestead Miami Speedway. Mike was not directly compensated for his review.

Editor’s Note: Sailun arranged for Mike Schlee to test out the Sailun Inspire All-Season tire by flying him to Homestead Miami Speedway. Mike was not directly compensated for his review.

*Final Update Posted May 4th, 2022*

Editor’s Note: AutoGuide arranged for Colum Wood to test out the Hankook Kinergy 4S2 four season tire over several months. Colum was not directly compensated for his review.

Toyo Tires are arguably some of the the best tires on the market. For those who are passionate about the great outdoors and venturing off the beaten path, these tires will get you there and back, regardless of terrain and weather.

With sizes ranging from a mild 32” LT Metric to a wild 37” tall Flotation for wheels ranging from 16” – 22”, the Atturo Trail Blade M/T is a performance tire for your truck, Jeep, or SUV that’s built for off-road duty. Proven through Atturo’s motorsports efforts, the Trail Blade M/T is an affordable replacement tire, delivering superior performance, be it for daily driving or fun in the mud.

Good Tires are One of the Most Important Parts of Your Car

Sailun’s Terramax A/T has always been a shockingly good performer from a relatively unknown brand. Now, there’s a new winter-rated version of the Terramax A/T that’s putting the whole industry on notice.

A good set of winter tires engineered to provide dependable, solid performance no matter the conditions is hard to come by – unless you’re willing to spend an arm and a leg. But with the Blackhawk Iceprey HW06, developed specifically for SUVs and light trucks, you don’t have to.

Sailun’s Iceblazer has always been a shockingly good performer from a relatively unknown brand. The  WST2 is putting the whole industry on notice.

Living in Vermont, I’ve gone through snow tires like some people eat mints. Even a decade ago, there were only a few snow tires that I’d have been willing to call “serious” winter tires—Bridgestone Blizzaks, Nokian Hakkapeliittas, Michelin X-Ice, a few others. And I stuck with them, buying them (usually Blizzak tires) generation after generation, and for every car.

See if all-season tires or winter tires are right for you.

You can still get the most out of your performance car during the winter with the proper tires.

Designed to carry families in comfort, minivans provide an abundance of space for multiple passengers. That means if you’re shopping for new tires for your minivan, you’ll likely want to focus on comfort, road noise, and tread life, unless you really plan on doing some spirited driving. That doesn’t mean, however, you shouldn’t pick a set of tires that offers good performance based on your weather conditions.

If it rains a lot where you live, you may want to pick a set of tires that excel in the wet.

As their name suggests, all-season tires are designed to be used all-year round. These tires normally feature a quiet ride with good tread life and are often outfitted on vehicles straight from the factory. They basically combine the benefits of summer and winter tires, but there are some compromises, as you can imagine. All-season tires won’t provide the same sharping handling and aggressive grip that a summer tire offers, nor will it handle extreme weather conditions like heavy snow or ice that a dedicated winter tire will. What they will do, however, is provide versatile performance in a variety of weather conditions, including rain and light snow. Essentially, all-season tires are ideal for car owners who don’t experience extreme weather conditions such as heavy snow, ice, or cold in the winter months.

In a business where a few companies are experts at calling in the locksmith after the horse has fled, Nokian is one of the tire brands keeping ahead of themselves and the industry. Best known for its admittedly excellent series of winter tires, the company could easily rest on their laurels and continue to sling round rubber hoops best deployed in winter’s worst. After all, it’s brought Nokian success both now and in the past.

Tires are HUGELY important.

Generally, when the words “budget-friendly tire” come up, it’s hard to not assume that there’s some compromise on the horizon. Will they be loud? Will they have poor grip? Will they wear out faster than their competition? Historically speaking these are all fair questions, so when the time came to start reviewing the  Sailun Terramax HLT—the brand’s top-selling all-season crossover, SUV and Light Truck tire—the initial wonder was where any obvious shortcomings would be found. Of course, we’re looking at something geared toward daily drivers and not an Ultra High Performance tire (they make those too), so I didn’t hit a skidpad or a slalom course. If you’re curious as to what kind of lateral Gs your Tacoma can pull, you’ve definitely got different priorities than the drivers that Sailun is targeting with this rubber.

Drivers who have experience with winter weather already know most of the tricks when it comes to driving on cold pavement, ice patches, snow, and slush, but if you’ve never driven on anything like that, winter conditions can be quite intimidating.

Updated January 2019

Cooper Tire has overhauled its truck, SUV and crossover tires.

Car ownership comes with the added responsibility of tire maintenance. Some owners are pretty good at keeping tabs on maintaining their tires, while others end up choosing the path of neglect.

Cooper Tires has been expanding its crossover tire offerings, which makes a ton of sense since everyone’s buying crossovers.

With the advances in tire technology, the lines separating different tire types are now razor thin. We have all-terrain tires with incredible off-road performance and dedicated mudders that can still be run on the road without too much compromise.

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In the past, all-season tires have been described as no-season tires due to their relative ineffectiveness compared to true winter tires, and their reduced grip compared to summer tires. But for those who see a wide variety of weather, Cooper has an all-season tire that would be  perfect for sports car owners.

When faced with the prospect of testing vehicles, we always try to put the vehicle in situations that it is likely to encounter in real life with its owners.

When it comes time to replace tires, drivers usually stick to the brands and products they know or just get the same tires that originally came with the car.

Cold weather rubber technology has come a long way in the past decade.