Best All-Season Tires for Winter Driving

Changing your all-season tires for winter/snow tires will provide the optimum grip in foul winter weather and at sub-freezing temperatures. These special tires provide optimum grip to stop, go, and take sharp turns on snow or on icy roads. But this strategy brings expense and inconvenience: Changing tires every winter means buying a set of tires, and likely wheels. Further, winter/snow tires don’t last as long as all-seasons, and they typically compromise grip on dry and wet roads.

To be clear: If you live in the snow belt and face harsh winter driving conditions, winter/snow tires are your best bet. But if you have the ability to wait until roads are cleared before traveling, there are some great choices in each all-season tire category for winter grip.

You could replace the current tires with the same make and model. But we found in our most recent survey of CR members who bought tires in the past year that most changed the make and model. By choosing a different tire model, you can select a tire that excels in the factors that matter most to you, using the CR tire ratings as a guide. Among the 15,945 members who reported on their tire purchase and/or installation experiences, all-weather grip was cited by 54 percent as the top feature they were looking for when shopping.

For the curated list below, we cast the spotlight on tires that excel for snow traction in five categories: all-season, performance all-season, ultra-high-performance all-season, SUV all-season, and truck all-season. (If winter/snow tires seem right for you, see our picks for the best winter/snow tires.)

Due to restrictions caused by the pandemic, we didn’t do an ice test for the SUV and truck all-season tires. All other selections factor ice braking in their selection.