Summer or All Season

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DanielinTheLions

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It's time for new tires on my prism. I have a set of Blizzak tires for winter use. So I'm trying to decide if I should stick with all season tires for summer use or switch to a summer tire.

Thoughts or recommendations?
 
Do you get "surprise" snowfalls or ice during the transition weeks into and out of winter, when temps are still relatively warm? If so, do you want to use the Blizzaks to handle those surprise conditions, or do you want to use your 3-season tires to handle those surprise conditions?

If your answer is "Blizzaks", then get summer tires.
If your answer is "3-season tires", then get some all-seasons, in standard, performance, or ultra high performance flavors.
 
Originally Posted By: rslifkin
With snow tires for winter, I see no reason not to get a true summer tire.

That's my plan this year for the Neon. I'm picking up some sumitomo HTR 200's next week. Until then the snows stay on.
 
Originally Posted By: rslifkin
With snow tires for winter, I see no reason not to get a true summer tire.

I see one: treadlife. A typical summer tire will have shorter treadlife than an all-season tire. And after all, it's just a Prizm, so whetever the extra grip or sidewall stiffness of a summer tire may be lost/unnecessary in this application.
 
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Originally Posted By: rslifkin
With snow tires for winter, I see no reason not to get a true summer tire.

That's my plan this year for the Neon. I'm picking up some sumitomo HTR 200's next week. Until then the snows stay on.


I'm planning on going even more radical (in the difference between the tires) than that.

How about Toyo 888s in the summer (once the BFG G-force Super Sport all seasons are toast), and Hakka Rs for the winter??!!
lol.gif
 
Originally Posted By: DanielinTheLions

It's time for new tires on my prism. I have a set of Blizzak tires for winter use. So I'm trying to decide if I should stick with all season tires for summer use or switch to a summer tire.

Thoughts or recommendations?


Depends. Need the ultimate grip that a summer tire tends to offer at the expense of NVH & Life?

Your needs in the tire: grip, noise, lifte, etc... will lead you to what type of tire you need
 
Well I've considered that it might be nice to be able to put all-seasons on during the transition weeks. But often I usually end up having the winter tires on during the surprise cold events. As far as the wear goes the car is driven in a low mileage situation, rarely more that 6 to 8 thousand miles per year. So I'm thinking wear is probably not an issue. My thoughts are I just wonder if summer tires will really add that much in benefit in handling. Like everyone is saying...it is a prism.
 
I think with some summer tires you can get far better wet traction than 3 season tires, as some have the AA wet traction rating. Not many or maybe no all season tires seem to have that rating.
Depending on how extreme you want to go, you can get tires that will get your car pulling G numbers that most performance cars won't see on OEM rubber, but like others have said, grip like that comes with compromises.
I've had toyo T1R's on the front of my Neon and average all seasons on the back, for an autocross when it started to rain. The T1R's held on far far better than the all-seasons but with 280 wear rating and AA wet traction, that's what you'd expect. I think with reasonable alignment they'd last quite a while on your car.
IMO, for street driving the only significant difference in most tires for accident avoidance is wet traction. In the dry, an alert driver trumps almost any deficit in tire performance.
 
You can get an AA rated all season. My Toyo Proxes 4's are so rated. An excellent all season but with summer tire traction.

But why? It's a Prizm. For a dedicated economy car the summer tire formula makes no sense.

Shop for a quality all season, then change to snows only when needed.
 
Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
For cryin' out loud - it's a Prizm. There probably aren't summer only tires in that size!


Sumitomo HTR 200

Have that on my mom's corolla. It is cheap, soft and comfortable, does reduce fuel economy a bit, and it makes the car more stable.

However you can get similar quality grip and comfort with the better all season tires for a bit more (i.e. $20 extra per tire). In the end it is so easy to make a decent tire that has enough everything for this size and speed rating, that most use the extra capability to make all season rather than taking the sacrifice to make it summer.
 
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Originally Posted By: DanielinTheLions
Well I've considered that it might be nice to be able to put all-seasons on during the transition weeks. But often I usually end up having the winter tires on during the surprise cold events. As far as the wear goes the car is driven in a low mileage situation, rarely more that 6 to 8 thousand miles per year. So I'm thinking wear is probably not an issue.................


Which model Blizzaks do you have?
Here we are having an extended transition out of winter, and I still have my Blizzak LM25s on the car (my other tires are Michelin summers). Drove through 8" of slush this morning, at 36 degF.
grin2.gif
 
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Originally Posted By: dailydriver
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Originally Posted By: rslifkin
With snow tires for winter, I see no reason not to get a true summer tire.

That's my plan this year for the Neon. I'm picking up some sumitomo HTR 200's next week. Until then the snows stay on.


I'm planning on going even more radical (in the difference between the tires) than that.

How about Toyo 888s in the summer (once the BFG G-force Super Sport all seasons are toast), and Hakka Rs for the winter??!!
lol.gif


The R888's will be a big change from the snows! Do some reading on the Nitto NT555R, I've heard they are the same compound as the R888's but usually much cheaper. A guy in my motorsports club has them for street and track use and they seem to holding up well and stick very well on the track. He has an old Fiero with an auto trans and a 3.5L V6 and was keeping up with an Elise with R888's on our lapping day.
 
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Originally Posted By: dailydriver
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Originally Posted By: rslifkin
With snow tires for winter, I see no reason not to get a true summer tire.

That's my plan this year for the Neon. I'm picking up some sumitomo HTR 200's next week. Until then the snows stay on.


I'm planning on going even more radical (in the difference between the tires) than that.

How about Toyo 888s in the summer (once the BFG G-force Super Sport all seasons are toast), and Hakka Rs for the winter??!!
lol.gif


The R888's will be a big change from the snows! Do some reading on the Nitto NT555R, I've heard they are the same compound as the R888's but usually much cheaper. A guy in my motorsports club has them for street and track use and they seem to holding up well and stick very well on the track. He has an old Fiero with an auto trans and a 3.5L V6 and was keeping up with an Elise with R888's on our lapping day.


Did you mean the Nitto NT01s above??

I've had the 555Rs on this very car and I was NOT overly impressed by them. They could NOT have been anywhere near as sticky a compound as the R888s are currently.

Now, I have heard some great things about the NT01s which are a much stickier compound than the 555Rs (according to Nitto techs).
The one thing that bothers me about Nitto's products is that for any given size they are always a good deal narrower on section/tread width than all of their 'DOT/R' compound competitors, whereas the Toyos always seem to be wider than the 'standard' in any given size.
 
It probably was the NT01's then, I do remember him saying that eventually they will go down to 2 grooves, which might draw some negative attention on the street. I guess if they are narrower you can just get the next size up?
 
Originally Posted By: dailydriver
The one thing that bothers me about Nitto's products is that for any given size they are always a good deal narrower on section/tread width than all of their 'DOT/R' compound competitors, whereas the Toyos always seem to be wider than the 'standard' in any given size.


This is not the first time I've heard this about Nittos. I'm not a fan due to extremely short life and ho-hum traction.

I get better 60 foot times at the strip with my Toyo Proxes 4's. And I set fast lap at a track event!

I've been shopping lately for a new set and it looks like I'll be buying Hankook Ventus V12's if they can get me a size. I normally run 275/40/20 on the rear and 245/45/20 on the front for that old school staggered look, but I may go to 275/40 all the way around due to the fact that my back tires seem to wear out fast!
 
Actually, the older road race Nitto tire was/is the 555R2, as the 555Rs were/are the drag radial (and the NT05R is the current, MUCH stickier drag radial, they claim it's just as sticky as the formidable Mickey Thompson drag radial!).
 
So now we're talkin' drag radials...for the Prism.
smile.gif
I assume this is a daily driver, and not track car.
 
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