Quote:
Originally Posted by churchx
When i googled up winter temperatures in southern california/San Diego .. i simply don't get why one would ever need there all season tire
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Two main reasons - Americans weirdly believe that summer tires are for dry warm weather, despite half the landmass of the US having more rain in the summer then in the winter (where it snows instead); and people like to road trip, so even if your daily commute is in SoCal, you might want to go up the mountains or to a state with lower temperatures and snow. I guess cars in Rome seldom go crossing the Alps in winter, but in the states such trips are common enough.
My impression is that modern UHP all season tires are very good in anything other than ice and deep snow, even when compared to dedicated summer/winter tires. It's not even a matter of price, since good UHP all season are fairly cheap, probably due to high volume of sale.
Sure, a good summer tire will marginally outperform an all season in the dry and in the wet, but the difference isn't as big as people remember from 10-20-30 years ago, and they still work well enough for the casual driver in light winter weather.
The biggest downside of all season tires is ice and heavy snow, which is why our friends up north in Canada scoff at them as 3 season tires. Ice traction (which Tire Rack tests for both winter and all season tires) is shockingly bad for all seasons, with stopping distances over twice as long!