Consumer Reports tests dozens of tire models every year across all types of weather and road conditions. Our expert evaluations cover key performance factors like grip, handling, braking, comfort, and tread life. In this episode, we explain everything you need to know before buying new tires—when to replace them, how to choose the best tires, and whether electric vehicles need special tires. You’ll learn how climate and driving style affect tire performance, and get insider insight into how our engineers test tires for safety and durability. We’ll also answer your top tire questions, from whether small rocks in the tread really matter to how all-wheel drive impacts winter traction.
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SHOW NOTES
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00:00 – Introduction
00:36 – When to Buy Tires
02:29 – How to Inspect Tires
04:10 – All-Weather vs. All-Season Tires
08:47 – EV Tires
12:19 – Best Tire Shopping Advice
17:36 – How CR Works With Tire Manufacturers
18:31 – How We Test and Rate Tires
23:15 – 2026 Tire Top Picks
24:31 – What Are We Testing Next?
26:54 – Question #1: Do small rocks lodged in tire treads affect performance?
29:52 – Question #2: How do AWD systems affect tire performance?
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CR Tire Ratings
Choose the Right Tires for Your Vehicle
Top Pick Tires: The Best Car, SUV, and Truck Tires
Best All-Weather Tires
Best Tire Brands of 2026
Best Car Tires of 2026
Best SUV and Truck Tires if 2026
Best All-Season Tires
Best Winter/Snow Tires
Most and Least Satisfying Tire Retailers
How to Save Money When Buying Tires
How to Read a Tire Sidewall
When to Replace Your Tires
Do Electric Vehicles Need Special Tires?
Just replaced the tires on my F150, oddly enough with “SUV” tires rather than truck tires because I wanted to prioritize mileage and dry traction on roads in a dry temperate climate. Do wish there had been more truck tire reviews but as you have a new test cycle coming up that makes sense I had trouble finding much on the site a few months ago. However tirerack also does a great job benchmarking performance and their opinion of the Pirelli Scorpion A/S was similar to yours. Ryan briefly touched on the fact that people seem to aspire to needing A/T tires on their trucks, or maybe even more simply just want a tire that looks tough and don’t consider how a particular tire will perform in the conditions they travel on most. Sure, many all terrains will do fine on road, and maybe that’s worth it if you do a pretty substantial amount of off roading. However, I think people fail to consider that any tire modifications that make it look tougher or grip off road will almost without fail make that tire perform less capably on roads and probably also in wet/winter weather. I don’t think people will make a different choice knowing that, however, I do wish it seemed like more people understood that! Just hope it comes up when you discuss those results, looking forward to them. Also agree with the size change, 275/60/20 is what came on my truck.
He never said he was using snow tires on his Tesla, only that he was going to try the cross climate , not a snow tire. ???????
Great timing! My wife’s Outback needs new tires. I feel like the holiday season and Sam’s Club would be the best time to buy them.
Costco carries the Michelin CrossClimate2 and now has a save $80 on a set of 4 Michelin tires until October 19. They also have free tire repair if you buy from them.
The new CrossClimate 3 offers a Sport model in Europe. They are not available in the USA yet. Similar with Pirelli.
I switch between summer and winter wheels and tires (PS4S and Alpin P5 respectively). My wife’s car has all weather tires.
I am a tire nerd thanks to car racing.
I’ve had a set of Michelin Cross Climate 2 tires on our AWD Ioniq 5 for the past 15,000 miles. We live in Colorado and experience some winter weather. We don’t drive in snow on a daily basis but often enough that the CC2 improved snow traction is very helpful. Definitely better than then OEM tires they replaced.
I put the Michelin CrossClimate on my 2019 Forester in Seattle. It’s the perfect mountain snow, city, and highway tire. I’ve driven from Seattle to Florida several times with zero problems. It’s a popular tire in Florida because it is so good during the heavy thunderstorms.
I love TireRack. I also hate dealing with tire salespeople. I will call around locally to see if anyone will match or beat TireRack prices and it’s never happened. I’ve owned a Toyota Corolla, Mazda Protege, Scion xB and currently a Honda Fit. For all 4 cars, when I called to check prices and size availability at the big local tire chain, I have been told my vehicle has an odd sized tire that requires a special order and an uncharge of $20 per tire. I’ve gotten the best deals at TireRack and I have had some really good tires. I’m currently running VREDESTEIN QUATRAC tires on the Fit and in terms of wet and snow traction, I have never owned a better tire.
Winter is here in colorado already where we live and soon to other locations but not a word on snow tires?
Despite their aggressive treads not all A/T tires have 3PMS certification. I believe it is because the tire rubber compound is not particularly formulated for performance in below freezing temperatures.
I got a 5,100 lb PHEV about ~13 months ago, & within 11 mo. my OEM tires had 17,500 miles on them & needed replacement! I got 50,000-mile all-weather tires (I live in rural Colorado) that will last past my trade-in. When I told a friend about my experience (he has a Volvo EV), he said he was on his 3rd set of tires in 3 years of owning his EV
Useless GAB as opposed to proper tire reviews!
I’ve put the Michelin CC2 on 2 cars so far & will put them on a third shortly. Expensive tire but it performs respectably in all situations. Better, over all, than any all season tires I’ve had. Not as good a s a performance tire in summer or a winter tire in snow but I don’t miss swapping tires with the seasons.
Edit: The viewer is right about the CC2 picking up small rocks.
My state has yearly inspection. They fail you for bad tires. Even better are police crash reports where they sigh people for bad equipment as causing a crash.,
In my Tesla vehicles I noticed a few things. In snow and ice using Chill mode to reduce acceleration helps and using one pedal driving allows the motors to slow the car down so you don’t engage the brakes. Both of those things reduce slipping. Also, I was told EVs wear out tires faster but I had just the opposite experience. My Cadillac ATS wore out tires in 20k miles, they wore nice and even with not cupping or edge wear but the tread would just be gone in 20k miles. I had the same make model and size tire on my Tesla model 3 and they lasted over 30k miles. The only difference is the PSI requirement on the Tesla is 42PSI while the Cadillac was 32PSI.
You could test hybrid vs ice tread wear . I would recommend buying a high quality tire with a a mileage warranty for any ev or hybrid. Chances are, if you keep the car for a while, you will be cashing in on that mileage warranty
Will you rate the all-weather tires ?
Thx u 3!! Running Conti viking 7s on my rwd 2020 stinger and they work ok for stopping and cornering…Not so good getting started on ice. Living in Reno NV I had no need to even switch them out last year. We just got 10″ up in the sierras so I need to switch them out for my Pirelli A/S fairly soon! Tire Rack is an easy and cheap source since I just drive 30 miles to the warehouse just east of us!
Great video and very informative. I was considering for the first time getting a dedicated winter tire but I’m having a hard time deciding whether I should get a wheel along with it. It seems like overtime it would save me money by not having to reinstall and balance the same tires over and over. What would you recommend?
Nice
Thanks for the Video. I’m planning to swap my wife’s Tires over to winters on her Lexus in the next couple of weeks, as soon as the daily high temperature is below 7 Celsius. I understand that Winter Tires wear significantly more if the temperature is above that. Similarly in the Spring I do the reverse. I put 4 Michelin ICE-X winters on her car even though we only get 2 or 3 days of snow on average per winter. Her Michelin All Seasons would probably be fine with her AWD SUV year round, but she wanted piece of mind. My Mazda CX-9 AWD still runs the stock Falken all season tires it came with it when new year round. When they are done I’m planning to install the recently released Michelin CrossClimate 3s which are only currently available in the European market.
I live in Northern Michigan, so winter performance is important. Last year I got all weather tires for the first time (Vredestein Quatrac) on my AWD sedan. I would say they were 90%+ of the winter performance of dedicated snow tires (still amazing, to be honest) but were also very quiet in dry conditions and grippy on dry roads. Add in the benefit of not having to store and swap tires twice a year and I am sold. I am a believer in winter tires but the trade off in a harsh ride and noise when the roads are dry no longer seems to need to be made.