All-Season Tires?
 

I'm looking to get all-season tires for my FR-S and I've narrowed it down two brands. Bridgestone Potenza RE970 AS Pole Position or Goodyear F1 Asymmetric All Season. I'm mounting on stock rims. Any thoughts?

all season tires
 

Which tire did you choose? I'm looking at the same two.

Thanks

Michelin Pilot Sports A/S also a quiete grippy great tire to consider.

Our Primacy HPs are fun during summer! Get a nice set of winter tires to go along with them and you'll be set.

DWSes. :thumbsup:

Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3

Are you sure you'll be fine with all season in jersey?

I recently put Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 and it's really nice. Quiet, great dry/wet traction. It came out in this past summer, so there's no actual test on snow yet. I think this one should do better on snow than the Pilot Sport Plus, which is the latest UHP all season from Michelin.

Drove with Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires on my previous RWD cars in Chicago winters no problem, have the same tires on the FRS now.

+1

Got these also. I also like them.

Buy dedicated snows for December through March. All season tires don't do anything well. You give up grip and braking in all situations (dry, wet & snow).

Tire Survey Results - Ultra High Performance All-Season
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...jsp?type=UHPAS

Tire Test Results - Premium Ultra High Performance All-Season Tires
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=177

Tire Test Results - Value-Priced Ultra High Performance All-Season Tires
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=173

From all the reading I've done, here's my subjective rating of Ultra High Performance All-Season Tires, from a performance/price perspective.

1. Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus 3
2. Continental ExtremeContact DWS
3. Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric All-Season
4. Bridgestone Potenza RE970AS Pole Position
5. Hankook Ventus S1 noble2
6. General G-MAX AS-03

Speaking from experience, the Eagle F1 Asymetric's are great as long as you don't plan on driving in the snow. The DWS's worked pretty well on some snowy mountain roads while mounted to an RX-8.

My 255 width dws dont work in more than a couple inches of snow.

Had anyone used Cooper Zeon RS3-A all seaon tire?

Not that exact tire but friends of mine really like their Cooper tires.

Sixth biggest tire company and bought Avon UK a decade or so ago and merged the technology.

Avon has always made industry leading tires.

If you do decide to give them a try post your views after you try them out in some snow.

I agree, will be trying a set in serious snow this weekend and will post my views.

The newest version of this tire is the Pilot A/S 3 which is rumoured to be spectacular. As good in the warm and dry as the Pilot Sport 2 and still works in the cold, so Michelin claims.

Edit

Well, am I impressed with these tires in wet and icy snow. Drove my SAAB Aero at normal speeds today on awful roads: 4 inches of wet slushy and icy snow. Wet roads were no problem either. Fantastic tires.

For many locations fitting a set of these Michelin Pilot A/S Plus, or the newer A/S 3, could very well satisfy summer and winter driving requirements.

I'm quite blown away by this tire. And to think five years ago I wouldn't buy any all season tire for any of my cars.

I put on some 205 section cheap Kumo tires. The amount of grip I have is scary, literally no grip in the dry at all haha. Should be awesome for the winter though. I can honestly drift my damn car going like 20mph, so much fun. I don't think I will ever buy expensive tires again.

i have the bridgestone potenzas on my frs staggered 265/35 rear and 235/40 fronts... i dont know if its just the sidewall but they definitely arent the most comfortable ride lol kind of loud but a shit load of grip for sure. i have a dedicated set of winter tires on the stock rims but i got the all seasons because i want to continue with my summer wheels up until late november early december. i think ill be going with a 265/40 or a 275/40 next time around to get a bit more comfort as well as to fill in that nasty gap

I got the A/S 3 as well about a month ago. I haven't seen snow here yet, but so far dry/wet traction is awesome. I tried doing a fast corner/launch, but no tire noise. Grips every bit of the road. Looking forward for this winter!

255 is way too wide for an all-season tire to work well in the snow, especially on cars as light as our's.

I had the DWSs on my 04 wrx. I would highly recommend instead the Pilot Sport AS/3 (which I also had on that car).

The single greatest feature of the DWS is wet traction. And they are amazing. They were still amazing (if a little less so) at the wear bars.

But the AS/3 is a much nicer handling tire with subjectively higher limits, crisper turn in, better on center feel and nearly as good in the rain. Stiffer sidewall (I liked that). *Quiet*. They are on the short list for my BRZ. Probably most practical for me. Super Sports are tempting....

Edit: I have never driven the AS/3 or DWS in serious snow (more than an inch or so) -- I mount real snows for my real Winter.

Didn't want to go with having to get 4 snow tires, so change the OEM HPs with Michelin Primacy All Season MXM4. So far, ride is slightly softer going over road imperfections (which I find as an improvement over the OEM HPs), with the same handling around town.

We'll see how they do in the snow and ice.

I have driven A/S plus in real winter conditions. They are freakin amazing. DWS were previous champion all season tires in winter. Dunno about A/S 3 they're pretty new.

I agree there's no substitute for proper winter tires though.

You will be amazed at the winter performance. I was and I have driven on full winters every winter for 40+ years. These newest michelins are nothing short of miraculous.

Such an amazing tire!

Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 Review
http://www.thesmokingtire.com/2013/r...l-season-tire/

"Next up was a dry autocross course and as we rounded the clubhouse I saw the cars: 6-speed Subaru WRX STis. This would be fun. The real twist here was the competition. In what I thought was a pretty ballsy move, Michelin pitted the A/S 3 against its competitor’s Max Performance Summer Y rated tires, not their all-season rubber. These included the Continental ExtremeContact DW, Pirelli P-Zero and Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Position.

The Michelin was the big eye-opener with overall grip and predictability as good or better than the others..."

I can vouch for this tire performing well, especially for the price. I haven't driven in the snow with it, but the dry/wet performance so far has been really nice. I also like the look of the sidewall compared to the stock tires. I had the Bridgestone's on my frs and even though its the same size, it looks like a meatier tire.

Pleasantly surprised. I purchased them out of desperation, as I had an unrepairable rear flat, and was 120+ miles of interstate driving away from home and didn't want to run the spare for that long at speed. Was the only decent All Season in my size that was in stock. Small shop on the weekend narrows down my options.

When I burn through these, I will probably switch to a wider spec tire in the Summer version of this RS3 Zeon tire.

my OEM tires are finally getting close to bald.. guess its time to try the A/S 3 too!

I put a set of A/S3s on the car last week and love them so far. We only get a few snow storms a year here though.

Another option, Nitto Neo Gen. I run them on my MR2 Spyder and will put them on the FRS when the time comes. We have a fair amount of rain here in the NW so good wet performance is a must. Dry performance is good as well. Reasonable wear and comfort. Best of all great price. Just a touch more than a hundred bucks each.

All-Season Tires?
 

+2
Michelin pilot AS 3 are wonderful. I paid the extra bucks to upgrade after trying Yokohama YK580s for a couple days. The Yokohamas had awesome grip on light snow, but spooky handling in dry, specifically during high speed cornering.


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Taken from my recent post in BRZ thread...

To those All-Season tire haters, and there's a lot of them. The revolutionary new Ultra High Performance All-Season Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 is considered by many in the industry as the holy grail of tire technology. In countless tests it out performs all other All-season tires, and all Max Performance summer tires aside from Michelin's own Pilot Sports. No longer do you have to sacrifice summer performance for year round drive-ability.

I'm picking up a set in a couple of weeks for my new wheels. This is my DD, not because racecar. It snows where I live, 5 inches yesterday, and the stock Primacy summers are all around terrible. Plus the Michelin's are 500 AA A rated, so you'll get 2-3 times the tread-life with these, compared to Max Summers.

I have to say, I run Pilot Super Sports right now, but I'd be curious to see a side by side test between them and the A/S 3. I'd be fairly tempted to switch over given the reviews I've seen so far. The PSS grip astonishingly well in the dry and in the wet, but in the cold/slush/ice, you might as well be driving with wooden tires. If the A/S 3 give almost as much grip in the dry and wet, but perform adequately in the snow and last 50% longer, that is a compelling argument for an all season tire.

(I do love the PSS though - I'll probably end up just sticking with them, since I absolutely love the way they perform, especially on autocrosses and I assume on the track [I haven't been to a track day yet, but I plan to next summer])

You are so lucky. Mine have tread left. My tire guy is looking for a Prius driver wanting something sporty to upgrade to....really!

When he sells my stock tires (only 1,000 gentle miles, honestly, barely scrubbed in) he knows he can sell me wheels and tires.

http://www.europeancarweb.com/tech/1...ot_sport_as_3/


http://michelinmedia.com/news/michel...er-conditions/

http://tires.about.com/od/Tire_Revie...port-A-S-3.htm

http://flatsixes.com/porsche-product...ot-sport-as-3/

But you're right Michelin won't compare it to their own SS. Wonder why?

Those are the reviews I'd read that make me really wonder about the A/S 3. As for comparing it to the SS? I have no doubt that the SS is better in both dry and warm wet conditions, but I would like to know by what margin. It's really impressive how the A/S 3 competes with a lot of the competition's summer tires in the dry and wet, so I doubt the gap from A/S 3 to PSS is very large.

I'm pretty sure Michelin would not undermine their premium summer tire. Also, everybody who tries the SS raves about them and nobody who tries them ever says anything bad about them. About the only deficiency in the SS is Michelin's usual rumble noise level, different from say Pirelli P Zero which is quieter but less grippy especially in the dry. Michelin top summer tires are optimized for the dry. The new A/S 3 might just pip the SS in the wet.

Michelin isn't going to back to back test them and publish the results so we'll have to wait for a journalist to do so. Won't be long I predict.

Head to head in measured and subjective tests at Michelin's proving ground in New Orleans, the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 out performed #2, #5, and #14 on TireRack's Max Performance Summer Tire Survey Results chart. I'd say that's an amazing feat for an All-Season Tire.

#2 - Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Position
#5 - Continental ExtremeContact DW
#14 - Pirelli P-Zero and

Max Performance Summer Tire Survey Results
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...ay.jsp?type=MP

As for measurable comparisons, look to TireRack's Tire Test Results. You can directly compare the results, because they were performed on the same courses with that same car, a 2012 BMW F30 328i Sedan.

The competitors:

1. Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Position
2. Dunlop Sport Maxx RT
3. Michelin Pilot Super Sport
4. Yokohama ADVAN Sport V105

The results:

1. In the Slalom Time test the A/S 3 was faster than all the the Max summers, including the Pilot Super Sport.
2. The A/S 3's Lap Times were comparable or better than the Max Summer tires.
3. In the Stopping Distance test, all the Max Summers beat the A/S 3 by 4 or more feet.
4. In the Average Cornering tests, only the Pilot Super Sport beat it in both wet and dry.

Ultra High Performance All-Seasons
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=177

Max Performance Summer
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=174

I'm not sure the tests can be cross compared because ambient temperature can have a big effect. However, the numbers do support what you say if they can be cross compared.

Awaiting a direct comparison test on the same day, same track conditions.