Best all season tire for quiet/smooth ride on stock 17 wheels?
 

Time for new tires---any suggestions on which 17 inch all season tires give a softer ride? My wife always is complaining that the ride is too hard.

You can try the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+. These seem to be getting good reviews around here from other members

All Season tires are just that. Terrible in all seasons.

Like any category of tire, some a/s tires are great, some not-so-great. Some all-season tires are trackable in summer and likely sacrifice some winter grip. Some all-season tires are good in snow and likely sacrifice trackability. Some all-season tires just suck all-around, but that's true in any category.

The idea that you can throw *all* all-season tires into the category of "terrible in all seasons" is IMO misguided... For I'd bet 50% of FT86 owners, getting the right all-season tires for their usage is probably the best way to go.

Personally, I live in New England and track on my street tires in the summer, so having two sets of tires is a necessity. If I lived where snow was rare and I didn't track the car, I'd run *good* all-season tires consistent with my wants/needs/usage and not have to deal with changeovers and storage.

They'll never be as good, or even close, to a tire dedicated for that specific season.

Correct. But that's not what's being asked, nor is this a thread that this needs to be debated.

If an owner doesn't have the means to have multiple sets of tires..no dedicated season tire will do as well in all of the seasons, as an all-season.

100%.

A/S3's are good tires. And though rated A/S, IMO, are really in a class by themselves. (They have decent grip and predictability for DD compared to MPSS) If you want/need an A/S tire; You can't really go wrong with the A/S3.

There are all-season tires that will outhandle many (not all of course) dedicated summer tires in warm-weather wet grip and even in some cases ultimate dry grip. I would put my money on Michelin PS A/S 3+ over most "summer" tires (which includes some pretty low-performance tires...) for warm-weather performance.

There probably are not many (any?) all-seasons that will grip in snowy/icy conditions as well as a good dedicated winter tire, though... BUT, for a large segment of the population, an all-season that gives decent grip in moderate snow or even just cold and cold/wet weather is all that is needed, and there are plenty of all-season tires out there that do.

Not everyone wants or needs to have two sets of tires...

Ew.

You may want to look at 17/50 too

Thanks to everyone above!

After reading about what you suggested I'm getting the Pilot A/S 3+. They are running a special at Costco until the end of the month---after all the discounts ( you have to use your Costco credit card) it comes to $112/ tire (plus tax and installation). Not bad.

Looks like OP has an answer but another suggestion for anyone else is Continental DWS. I had them on a different car and they give good performance with a soft sidewall.

That's a great choice and a good price for AS3s. I think whether all seasons are a good plan is really dependent on where you live. I grew up in the central midwest and that's definitely all-seasons territory, but in the north or south it's better to run dedicated seasonal tires.


Best of luck to you :)