The Unsung Heroes of the Daily Driver

The Unsung Heroes of the Daily Driver 2024 Test 4 - With Winter Update

Published July 22, 2024

Methodology

Our Testing Formula

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Custom Test Track

Located adjacent to our South Bend headquarters, our test track allows our team to discover how each tire will behave under the extremes of emergency situations on the road or the limits of performance in competition.

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Dedicated Fleet

Our fleet of test cars, an SUV, and a pickup truck are specially selected to give the best and most consistent results when testing tires.

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Post-Test Ratings

Each tire model is tested and independently scored 1-10 on comfort and performance. We are the only retailer performing in-house, independent tire tests.

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Test Result Video

The Unsung Heroes of the Daily Driver – 2024 Test 4 With Winter Update

Length: (29:18)

Tires Tested

Vehicle(s) Used

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Test Report

Introduction

Odds are that no matter what kind of driver you are, you've driven on, or are driving on, Grand Touring All-Season (GTAS) tires. Whether you're a weekend racer, a tuner, a parent, a first-time driver, or you drive once a week, whether you have one car or a whole collection, these tires are the lifeblood that flows through the veins of our highways and byways. They get us to work, to school, and to everything in between, and we count on them to do it safely.

That's one of the reasons we chose the new 2025 Toyota Camry to join our test vehicles - it's a badge and a nameplate nearly universally recognizable, a dependable daily workhorse of the automotive world. It's Front-Wheel Drive (FWD) - like most commuter vehicles, and the behavior and characteristics we find on a Camry should align with what most of us expect to get from our regular grocery-getters. This is its first official test, and we're excited to share our findings on a platform that mirrors how most of us drive.

We'll introduce each, break down our experiences with them on our real-world road ride, then discuss their traction and subjective behavior on both a wet and dry track to understand how these tires act when pushed to their limits, mimicking the kind of high-speed emergency maneuvers you might need to deal with in a sudden crisis.

While they don't have the characteristics of more performance-tuned tires, that isn't to say we can't (and won't) have a little fun with them. Pushing these tires to their limits helps us find their best and worst qualities.

In addition to the limit-pushing data and experience we gather from running laps, this and future tests of non-performance tires will reference our new "emergency lane change" maneuver. On a dry surface, from a target speed of 45 miles per hour, our drivers will pass through 3 sets of cones. Each point is designed to illustrate how the tires handle the sudden, reactive swerves a person might make in an emergency situation. The 1st set indicates how a person would react to the presence of an obstacle ahead, such as a stopped car or pedestrian, leaving the "lane." The 2nd set is the target placement to avoid the obstacle, indicating the lane change has succeeded, the obstacle was avoided, but maybe the vehicle isn't where it's supposed to be now, so it acts as the trigger to suddenly recorrect and swerve back to the 3rd set of cones, returning to the "lane." We aim to look beyond "one size fits all" testing and better represent the kind of real-world concerns drivers deal with.

Let's get into it!

Test Summary

Trying to pick the best touring tire for yourself can be a daunting proposition. There are a ton of options on the market, and outside of simply being limited by size, many of them are pretty darn good. There just wasn't a vast gulf between the absolute best and worst tires in this test for the most part, but finding the nuance that separates them is a big part of why testing matters because, particularly for the kind of tires you'll be driving on every day, finding the "just right" fit can be the difference between loving your commute or slowly letting it drive you insane.

General's AltiMAX 365 AW is an interesting case - it was reasonably comfortable on road in the grand scheme of things, even if it wasn't one of the best in this group, but it was not happy to be stressed during dry testing, or during the Emergency Lane Change. However, it was absolutely alive and at home in the wet and a practical rock star during winter testing - leading every other tire by a significant margin that it arguably makes up for any deficiencies in the dry. Vredestein's HiTrac All Season is another tire that is easily deserving of being mentioned in the same breath - it's easily on par in most respects, with a particularly stellar showing in the wet. It's equally as well-balanced and comfortable on the road as it is being stressed on our test track or swinging into a sudden lane change, and led every other tire below it during winter testing in every respect. The Falken Sincera SN250 A/S, while not a tire with a great deal of fanfare around it and generally sitting in the shadow of Falken's more specialized options, deserves its time in the limelight here. It was handily our favorite tire on-road, leading the others in pretty much every regard that mattered. It was easy to drive over every surface or condition we test for, even if it was just a bit behind in overall traction, its pleasant, balanced character made it a true all-season option.

Goodyear's Assurance ComfortDrive, despite the name, wasn't our top pick for comfort on the road, but it wasn't far from it, and the overall agile, balanced performance of the tire, particularly in the wet, make it an extremely easy choice to field as a daily driver for most of the year. That does come with some tradeoffs in winter performance, and drivers should be aware of that if they drive in cold weather. The Solus TA51a from Kumho might be named like an inkjet printer from the 90s, and its performance was just as memorable - sporting middling wet and dry track behavior and a struggle to clear the Emergency Lane Change. It wouldn't be worth much consideration if it weren't for its slightly above-average on-road comfort and better-than-average winter performance. It's just a pleasant "point A to point B" tire, and as long as it's not asked to do more than that, it's pretty good. General's AltiMAX RT45 is in a similar position: its tonal variety made it less than ideal for uneven surfaces, but it's a step above some of the competition in the winter, and a step up from its all-weather sibling on the road. It still suffers in the wet, but it's a decent tire in the right circumstances.

The Michelin Defender2 might be the top option in the Standard Touring All-Season category, but it struggled to compete with some of its Grand Touring brethren and just never found a niche where it could really excel here. It was far from the worst tire in the test, and its ability to mitigate noise and handle emergency maneuvers were reasonable, as long as drivers are willing to slow down to work within its lower limits. Its handling in the snow might have drivers looking for a winter set of tires however. The Majesty 9 Solus TA91 from Kumho is a lively tire for the category, and one of the best in the group during dry testing - it handled the Emergency Lane Change well; it was planted, stable and competent. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite as pleasant in the wet, or the snow, or on the road, and the noise might be distracting on a daily commute, but on the whole, it's a worthy touring option.

The Cooper ProControl is not particularly enjoyable on the road, but it has pretty strong traction capabilities, in warm or wet weather at least, that give it the ability to perform reasonably well. Unfortunately, its handling just isn't as well-matched as some of the other tires in this test with similar levels of grip and that makes it a bit of bear to handle in an emergency. Vogue's Custom Built Radial, for our first time out testing, remains what it was designed to be - a stylish and attractive blend of whitewall and color to augment the look of a vehicle, but it's just not an ideal tire for anything else but looking good. The actual on-road experience isn't bad, and even its ability to maneuver and avoid obstacles in the dry was reasonable - but its ability to handle driving in wet or wintry conditions was frankly on the lower end for this category.

There was a lot to cover in this report, and outside of a couple of notable exceptions, the range of noise, comfort, and just plain ability of these tires to hold traction and track true in a bad situation was a pretty narrow band. That comes with a caveat for drivers in climates that experience winter: the spread between the most capable tires in the test and the least was very significant for snowy conditions, and if you aren't running a set of dedicated winter tires, pay particular attention to those aspects of the report. Still, strong competition is ultimately great news for drivers overall - naturally, some of these will be a better fit your own personal preferences than others, but to know that you have more than a few good options to pick from is never a bad place to be.

Other Tire Tests

We can't help ourselves, we're always testing more tires out on the track. It's a good thing too, because with so many different categories and so many different features to evaluate, there aren't many places you're going to find this type of in-depth analysis. It's not a stretch to say with each tire test we do, you're going to learn something new - and maybe even find your next set of tires.

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