I know, I know, not another tire thread. But I've been searching for a while and I can't seem to answer all of my questions....
A little background: I drive a Model Y LR, 19" wheels in Boston. Yeah it snows here but not as much as most people think it does. each year I might end up driving in the snow 3 or 4 times, max. Lately we rarely get snow in the city, and when we do I just don't drive. I work form home so driving in the snow is not critical but it is nice to be safe when I end up doing it. Usually the snow is completely melted after a snowstorm within a few days, a week max. So not looking for the same tires I'd buy if I lived in Vermont for example.
My car came with Continental ProContact RX All-Season tires. I'm at 16k miles and I've forecasted that I'll need new tires before next winter, maybe somewhere around 30k miles. I'm keeping an eye on the tread depth. I like to plan in advance so thinking about which tires I'll get next. I find that the ProContact RX is not so great in snow, otherwise I don't have big complaints about them.
Here's what I'm. looking for:
Tires I am considering are:
From some of the reviews I've seen (for example Tire Rack and TyreReviews), the Cross Climate should have LOWER rolling resistance than any of the other options, so despite the aggressive tread pattern they seem to paradoxically be potentially better at efficiency? Not sure if I should trust this or nor and curious what other peoples experiences are.
For example see the two screenshots below, the Wh/Mi seems better for CrossClimate (263) vs ProContact which I have now (274). Does that seem accurate?
I've read more people complaining that Pilot Sports resulted in lost efficiency than Cross Climate which seems weird excuse Pilot Sport appears to have a less aggressive tread pattern, and I can't find any test data backing that up, only anecdotal stories comparing to OEM tires (but which OEM tire at how many miles?). Does anybody know if that makes sense that the Sport Pilot would be the most likely result in lower efficiency?
To Contradict that last statement, Sullivan Tire says that efficiency should be identical with ProContact, ExtremeContact, and CrossClimate but Pilot Sport is rated one better for efficiency! That goes against most of the anecdotal stories I'ver read.
In the end I feel like I'm leaning towards the CrossClimate because its supposed to be hands down the best in snow, as good as my last tire in rain (or better according to Sullivan) and from the data above its at least the same, if not better than my current tires for efficiency. And the tread seems like it'll last longer, even in summer.
Does this sound like a reasonable decision? Does anybody have any other experiences that might help me choose one tire over the other here or pick a different one entirely?
Thanks in advance!
A little background: I drive a Model Y LR, 19" wheels in Boston. Yeah it snows here but not as much as most people think it does. each year I might end up driving in the snow 3 or 4 times, max. Lately we rarely get snow in the city, and when we do I just don't drive. I work form home so driving in the snow is not critical but it is nice to be safe when I end up doing it. Usually the snow is completely melted after a snowstorm within a few days, a week max. So not looking for the same tires I'd buy if I lived in Vermont for example.
My car came with Continental ProContact RX All-Season tires. I'm at 16k miles and I've forecasted that I'll need new tires before next winter, maybe somewhere around 30k miles. I'm keeping an eye on the tread depth. I like to plan in advance so thinking about which tires I'll get next. I find that the ProContact RX is not so great in snow, otherwise I don't have big complaints about them.
Here's what I'm. looking for:
- I want a tire that performs better in the snow, but it doesn't need to be fully snow optimized since I only drive in snow 3-4 times per year.
- I want all-season tires. I don't want to change my tires to snow tires just for those 3 or 4 snowy drives... so winter tires are out of the question. We can start another thread to discuss the merits of winter tires, I'm sure they have some benefits but the cost/benefit does not work for me.
- I want a new tire that also ideally maintains my current level of dry and wet braking, don't want to the new tires to be more dangerous during the 99% of time I spend driving in either dry or rainy conditions (again driving in snow happens but not often).
- I don't want to lose any range compared to what I have now. So the baseline is the ProContact RX on 19" wheels.
Tires I am considering are:
- Michelin Cross Climate
- Michelin Pilot Sport AS
- Continental ExtremeContact DWS
From some of the reviews I've seen (for example Tire Rack and TyreReviews), the Cross Climate should have LOWER rolling resistance than any of the other options, so despite the aggressive tread pattern they seem to paradoxically be potentially better at efficiency? Not sure if I should trust this or nor and curious what other peoples experiences are.
For example see the two screenshots below, the Wh/Mi seems better for CrossClimate (263) vs ProContact which I have now (274). Does that seem accurate?
I've read more people complaining that Pilot Sports resulted in lost efficiency than Cross Climate which seems weird excuse Pilot Sport appears to have a less aggressive tread pattern, and I can't find any test data backing that up, only anecdotal stories comparing to OEM tires (but which OEM tire at how many miles?). Does anybody know if that makes sense that the Sport Pilot would be the most likely result in lower efficiency?
To Contradict that last statement, Sullivan Tire says that efficiency should be identical with ProContact, ExtremeContact, and CrossClimate but Pilot Sport is rated one better for efficiency! That goes against most of the anecdotal stories I'ver read.
In the end I feel like I'm leaning towards the CrossClimate because its supposed to be hands down the best in snow, as good as my last tire in rain (or better according to Sullivan) and from the data above its at least the same, if not better than my current tires for efficiency. And the tread seems like it'll last longer, even in summer.
Does this sound like a reasonable decision? Does anybody have any other experiences that might help me choose one tire over the other here or pick a different one entirely?
Thanks in advance!