A new trend: winter-approved all-season tires
Finally, there has been talk in recent years of the growing popularity of "winter-approved" all-season tires. If your vehicle needs new tires, but you don't put a lot of mileage on your vehicle each year and you'd like to avoid changing tires for the winter, this may be the best solution.
Approved tires can be recognized by their "winter" tread design and the mountain silhouette with snowflake logo on the sidewall.
Some people do not recommend these tires in areas where it snows a lot. For our part, we've drivent on them in Quebec since last year on two cars: Michelin Cross Climate 2 on a Lincoln MKZ with front-wheel drive and Nokian WR G4 on a Mercedes-Benz C300 with all-wheel drive. We also drove a Cross Climate-equipped Buick Encore GS in the Montreal area where snowfall was deep and heavy in early 2023. The result? These tires proved very effective in the snow over the last few months.
They were also outstanding last summer. Both the Michelin and Nokian tires were more than satisfactory on dry pavement, on which they were very quiet despite their tread design, and very reassuring on wet pavement. They're getting ready to spend a second summer and so far, without any noticeable wear.
Here are a few winter-approved tires that we would recommend:
Michelin Cross-Climate 2
This tire has been touted by the European press, and it competes head-on with the Nokian WR G4. By the way, one of Michelin's "second" brands, BFGoodrich , has its own approved model, the Advantage T/A Sport .
Nokian WR G4
This Finnish Nokian tire competes with the Michelin Cross-Climate 2 and has proven to be effective in both winter and summer. What's more, for us, it remained very quiet on the Mercedes on which it was mounted. The test continues! By the way, the same manufacturer offers a similar tire but at a lower price, the Nordman Solstice .
Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady
Of course, you can expect this American tire to perform similarly to its competition. Perfect for those who don't travel much during storms and who want to avoid frequent tire changes. Note that Goodyear recently bought Cooper, company that itself offers the Discoverer A/T3 for trucks and SUVs.
Bridgestone WeatherPeak
Japanese tire giant Bridgestone recently launched a product that competes with Michelin and Goodyear, the WeatherPeak! At the same time, its "second" brand, Firestone , introduced the WeatherGrip .
General Altimax 365 AW
Continental's "second brand" makes the affordable Altimax 365 AW.
Toyo Celsius
The Japanese manufacturer offers the excellent Celsius for those who hate to have their tires changed twice a year.
Hankook Kynergy 4S2
This South Korean manufacturer offers the Kynergy 4S2 for all seasons.
Pirelli Weatheractive
The Italian manufacturer offers the Weatheractive line, which is also available for cars and SUVs of various sizes.
Sailun Arezzo
Of all the manufacturers of Chinese origin, Sailun is the one that seems to want to impose itself the most in Canada, by promoting tires that it pitches as being of very high quality. Its Arezzo for cars and small SUVs might be worth considering.
A quick note here for owners of delivery vans such as Ford Transit, Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, Ram Promaster and other such vehicles, they are not forgotten as some manufacturers have started to offer them tires for their vehicles including Continental's Vanco 4 Seasons, Toyo's Celsius Cargo and others.
There are a few other brands that are starting to offer approved tires such as Nexen with its N-Blue and others.
Again, for those who travel frequently in snow or ice, a good winter tire will always be superior to a winter-approved all-season tire. But for those who want a tire that is safe for winter use but won't melt on the pavement in summer, this is an option to consider.
As for us, we continue to analyze this area of the tire and continue our testing...