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Testing Bridgestone winter tires vs all-season tires vs summer tires

Tires tested:
Bridgestone Blizzak REVO 1 Studless Ice & Snow
Bridgestone Blizzak LM-25 Performance Winter
Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position Ultra High Performance All-Season
Bridgestone Potenza RE050A Pole Position Max Performance Summer

Vehicles used:
2006 BMW 325i E90

Did you ever have to use a pair of pliers as a hammer? How about a screwdriver as a pry bar? While necessity sometimes requires us to make unusual tool selections, completing the task with the wrong tool is often very challenging. The same is true of tires. Tires are very important tools used by our vehicles.

Since today's technology can't produce a tire that is universally capable, each tire has to be tuned to deliver specific traits. Some tires are designed to maximize traction & cornering in warm, dry & wet conditions. Other tires attempt to blend their performance capabilities & ultimately become a "Jack of all trades, but master of none." Finally, some tires are designed to excel in winter's cold, snowy & icy conditions.

By design, summer tires are developed to emphasize dry & wet road traction at moderate to warm temperatures (best suited to the 45- to over 100-degree Fahrenheit range). Summer tires are not suitable for use in snow or on ice, & their dry & wet traction falls off when exposed to cold temperatures.

All-season tires are allowed to trade a little dry & wet road traction in moderate & warm temperatures to provide light snow traction in freezing temperatures (best suited to the 20- to 100-degree Fahrenheit range). When relatively new, these tires are a good choice for drivers who only encounter occasional light snow.

Winter tires are allowed to trade a little dry & wet road cornering in moderate & warm temperatures to emphasize wet, icy & snowy road traction in cold to moderate temperatures (best suited for 0- to 45-degree Fahrenheit range). Winter tires are not intended for use in summer conditions, & their dry cornering can't match that of all-season or summer tires.

However, since packed snow & ice are the slipperiest conditions faced, they are the most challenging to drivers & to their tires. In order to get a better understanding of how much ice traction is provided by summer, all-season & winter tire types, members of The Tire Rack team recently conducted an "Ice Rink Performance Drive" on the glare ice of a skating rink months before the first snowfall in South Bend, IN.

We compared Bridgestone's REVO 1 Studless Winter tire to their Blizzak LM-25 Performance Winter tire, the Potenza RE960AS Pole Position Ultra High Performance All-Season tire & the Potenza RE050A Pole Position Max Performance Summer tire. We used 205/55R16-sized tires mounted on 16"x7.5" wheels. The Tire & Wheel Packages were fitted to our 2006 model year BMW 325i E90 test cars with traction control engaged. We recorded the time it took for each vehicle to cover 60 feet (to the center of the rink) while accelerating as fast as tire traction will allow in order to quantify the traction provided by each tire.

What We Learned on the Ice

The look of dismay on the drivers' faces when they were coaxing the summer tires to accelerate on the ice was unmistakable. Their patience was put to the test as they slowly completed their runs in 7.4-seconds.

The all-season tires provided a noticeable improvement over the summer tires & a glimmer of hope. Their 6.1-second time (1.3-second improvement over the summer tires) was favorably received.

The H-speed rated performance winter tires again provided an improvement. Their 60-foot time dropped below the six-second mark.

However, those frowns were quickly replaced by smiles when driving on the dedicated winter tires. The Q-speed rated studless winter tires completing their run in just 4.6-seconds.

While not surprising, the results show the substantial advantage the studdless winter tires have over performance winter, all-season & summer tires on glare ice.

The right winter tires can reduce the challenge of driving your car, van or SUV in snow & on ice. Remember Dad's advice, "Nothing like using the right tool for the job!" It's your choice, make it a good one!

All Winter Tires