> Those look like summer only tires. The Vredestein Comtracs > have a similar tread pattern and definitely are summer tires > (for you in AZ, that's probably not a big deal...) > > Except for the 205/65R15 size, the load index on these seems > lower than the Comtracs.
I had a long discusion with a Vredestein engineer a couple of years back regarding "summer" versus "all season" tires. I believe I posted the exerpts here, so it's probably in the archives. He pointed out that the "all season" or M&S designation is not a standard that was determined by the U.S. government, but by the tire industry itself, which is also responsible for policing it. Therefore, as you might expect from a "self policed" industry standard, it is very lax. The Vredestein engineer told me that many major tire companies market the identical tire as "summer" in some markets and "all season" in others, depending on what they can get away with in that country. He said that the tread design on the Comtrac is quite similar to what some other manufacturers call "all season" in the U.S., but that Vredestein is a strong proponent of using dedicated snows on all four corners, and therefore would not consider that tire to be all-season. (They market a Comtrac Winter snow instead for winter use.) Therefore it wouldn't shock me if the Conti's have a similar tread design to the Comtracs but are claimed to be "all season." It just comes down to how conservative they are in using that designation. I have seen this myself with many tires over the years; there can be vast differences between various "all season" tires in terms of winter performance (and none are as good as a good dedicated snow tire, of course). - Ron Salmon The Bus Depot, Inc. www.busdepot.com (215) 234-VWVW _____________________________________________ Toll-Free for Orders by PART # : 1-866-BUS-DEPOT |
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