Comparing Passenger All-Season Tires

Vehicles used:
2006 BMW E90 325i Sedan

While today's high performance tires add spark & sizzle, & touring tires blend style & sophistication, the most popular type of tire in the United States (based on how many are sold) is from the Passenger All-Season tire category. Passenger All-Season tires are for the drivers of everyday passenger cars & minivans, as well as some small SUVs & pickup trucks who want dependable tires that provide all-season versatility, including traction in light snow. While a Passenger All-Season tire's steering response & cornering capabilities won't match that of high performance or touring tires, Passenger All-Season tires emphasize good wear, a comfortable ride, & predictable cornering.

In order to better appreciate our highest rated tires in this popular category, The Tire Rack team conducted a Real World Road Ride & Performance Track Drive with the top four tires in the Passenger All-Season category identified by our consumer survey results (as of July, 2006). The tires included the Goodyear Assurance ComforTred & Goodyear Assurance TripleTred, as well as the Michelin Harmony & Michelin HydroEdge.

The other factor of these long wearing tires is they confirm the old adage of "you get what you pay for." While they are all on the top of our consumer survey results, they are also among the most costly of the Passenger All-Season tires as well.

Our evaluation used four identically equipped 2006 BMW 325i sedans, with new, full tread depth 205/55R16 sized tires mounted on 16x7.0" wheels.

What We Learned on the Road

Our 5.6-mile loop of expressway, state highway & county roads provides a great variety of road conditions that include city & highway speeds, smooth & coarse concrete, as well as new & patched asphalt. This route allows our team to experience noise comfort, ride quality & everyday cornering, just as you would during your drive to school or work.

Ride comfort was the first thing our team noticed when driving on all four of the tires in this test. All delivered a smooth ride with the Goodyear ComforTred having a slight advantage over the Michelin Harmony. The Goodyear TripleTred also provided a comfortable ride, but allowed some road imperfections to find their way to the driver. The Michelin HydroEdge ride was found to be the firmest of the group, but was still plenty smooth over all but the worst road surfaces.

Each tire seemed to produce its own unique blend of tread noise, with the Goodyear ComforTred being found to produce the least of the group. The Michelin Harmony was a close second, producing a faint but distinct pitch at speeds above 40 mph. The more aggressive, directional tread patterns of the Goodyear TripleTred & Michelin HydroEdge both generated somewhat more noise, having a noticeable growl across both asphalt & concrete surfaces.

All four tires delivered cornering appropriate for the category with some subtle differences felt when we compared them side-by-side. The Michelin HydroEdge & Goodyear TripleTred, found to ride slightly firmer than the other two tires, paid back with better cornering, feeling responsive & connected to the road. The comfort-oriented Goodyear ComforTred & Michelin Harmony both displayed somewhat softer cornering & slower steering response, creating more separation of the driver from the road.

What We Learned on the Test Track

Our 1/3-mile per lap test track course includes 90-degree street corners, lane changes & simulated expressway ramps. The test track allows our team to experience the traction, responsiveness, cornering & drivability normally only encountered during abrupt emergency avoidance maneuvers or competition events. Mid-60 degree ambient temperatures & overcast skies provided near perfect test conditions for us to run these highly thought of tires.

The influence of relatively low profile sizes (55-series aspect ratios), now used on a wide range of imported & domestic passenger cars, helped all four tires to display predictable cornering & produce good average lap times, with less than 0.5 second separating the group in dry conditions.

The steering response combined with good dry traction allowed the Michelin HydroEdge to produce the fastest average lap time of this test, with the Goodyear TripleTred nipping at its heels. The Goodyear ComforTred was next, followed by Michelin's Harmony rounding out the group.

The differences between the tires were more noticeable in the wet, however. The Assurance TripleTred had enough wet traction & cornering to post the fastest average lap time & highest average cornering g's in this test. In the wet, it was the Michelin HydroEdge nipping at the Assurance TripleTred's heels, with the HydroEdge running average laps just 0.1 of a second slower. The Assurance ComforTred was about half a second back in third with the Michelin Harmony feeling somewhat slippery, lapping our track about one second behind in fourth.

Winter Traction Consumer Survey Results

One area of performance we couldn't compare during this test was the tires' winter traction capabilities. Reviewing the subjective survey scores from our consumer survey data (as of July, 2006) owners have rated the Goodyear Assurance TripleTred highest for winter traction, followed by the Goodyear Assurance ComforTred, Michelin Harmony & Michelin HydroEdge, with the biggest differences experienced while driving in deep snow & on ice.