July 9, 2021
Grand Touring All-Season tires are one of the largest and most popular categories for consumer tires, at least partially because they’ve naturally mirrored vehicle trends in the marketplace. As vehicles have become more powerful, refined, and safe over the decades, tires have had to keep pace with more traction capabilities, ride and noise comfort, and tread life. Just as all cars and CUVs are not priced or optioned the same, tires have also positioned themselves smartly to meet the needs and wants of drivers while delivering more performance, luxury, and value than their previous generations.
The Advantage Control is BFGoodrich’s 2021 Grand Touring All-Season release designed to provide confidence in a variety of all-season driving conditions along with durable tread wear and pleasant ride and noise comfort. The tire features a new tread pattern and computer-optimized footprint engineered to reduce noise and promote even tread wear.
Vredestein’s Hitrac All Season is also a new release in the category and is built to satisfy drivers with a pleasant ride, durable tread life and dependable traction in dry, wet, and light snow conditions. Utilizing specially designed tread block contours and pitch sequencing, the tire focuses on quiet, comfortable operation along with its high-traction, all-season compound generating grip for variable road conditions.
To see how these two new offerings will stack up in the competitive Grand Touring All-Season space, we chose Yokohama’s AVID Ascend GT to help gauge what a successful tire needs to bring to the table to satisfy consumers. Our evaluation used 2020 BMW F36 430i Gran Coupes fitted with new, full tread depth 225/50R17 tires mounted on 17x7.5 wheels.
Our 6.0-mile loop of expressway, state highway and county roads provides a great variety of road conditions that include city and highway speeds, smooth and coarse concrete, as well as new and patched asphalt. This route allows our team to experience noise comfort, ride quality and everyday handling, just as you would during your drive to school or work.
With on-road ride and noise comfort being an important metric for touring tire drivers, our team had high expectations for the road portion of our testing. The Hitrac All Season managed to meet those expectations head-on thanks to a well-balanced mix of luxury and handling that many times is an elusive formula for manufactures. Our team enjoyed the firm, precise steering and praised the tire’s ability to naturally meter small steering inputs into the expected change in direction. While our drivers would have liked a little more return to center in the steering after a tight turn, the tire’s mid-corner resistance was a welcome addition to the route. Road noise from the Hitrac All Season was good, with slightly more intrusion from cross-cut concrete than expected, which might have been enhanced by the tire’s overall lower levels of tread noise. While not the most comfortable tire in absolute feel, the firm damping over impacts was concise and well-controlled, particularly over small cracks and bumps. The Yokohama AVID Ascend GT displayed excellent ride and noise characteristics and earned the highest scores from our test drivers in those categories thanks its plush ride over the harshest road imperfections. Noise comfort also just edged out the competition with a medium volume white noise over concrete that faded into the background on smoother stretches of pavement. Steering feel from the Yokohama could occasionally feel somewhat vague and non-linear and, while still category appropriate, at times it felt like this was a concession made for its large impact isolation. Rounding out the group on the road was the Advantage Control, with relatively firm impacts in comparison to the other tires in the test. The taut ride contributed to a well-connected feel to the road over smooth pavement but after experiencing the other tires in the test, the rougher segments of the route were noticeably more apparent. Tread noise was also the loudest in the group, however managing to blend pitches into a moderate-volume white noise commensurate with its touring category. The tire’s hefty steering feel was appreciated by our team, although, they would have liked a little more response and feel, particularly at lower speeds.
Our 1/3-mile per lap test track course includes 90-degree street corners, a five-cone slalom and simulated expressway ramps. Run in both dry and wet conditions, the test track allows our team to experience the traction, responsiveness, handling, and drivability normally only encountered during abrupt emergency avoidance maneuvers or competition events.
While quick lap times are not the primary function of a touring tire, pushing them to the limit around our handling course in the dry did let our team experience how each tire reacted at the limit of adhesion and in dynamic maneuvers. The Hitrac All Season proved itself once again as the well-balanced package, even when pushed to its threshold of grip, and essentially swept all objective dry traction metrics. The tire’s relative athleticism allowed our drivers to easily maximize grip levels with its nicely-balanced inputs and progressive transitions through tight corners, contributing to quick, drama-free laps. The AVID Ascend GT’s firm mid-corner steering feel provided satisfying initial turn in on-track. The tire could have benefited from an increase in overall traction to take full advantage of this, but overall, the Yokohama was happy to turn laps when driven inside its limits. Respectable objective scores found the Advantage Control just behind second place in braking and tied with the runner up in lateral traction. While matching the top time through the slalom, it finished a quick step behind the pack in lap times. Subjectively, the BFGoodrich felt loose to our team, perfectly content driving with the tail out rather than making forward progress. For the category, it was acceptable but unremarkable when compared to its peers.
On the wet track our team found similar results and traits magnified by the slick surface. The Vredestein Hitrac All Season found a solid advantage in braking distance and lateral traction that combined with easy to drive traits for substantially faster lap times. The tire didn’t seem to over index in any one metric, which resulted in predictable braking and handling traits around the course. While a little more responsiveness from the front end could have improved its performance through the slalom, our team was impressed by the Vredestein’s performance. The AVID Ascend GT displayed admirable wet traction in our objective testing but proved to be somewhat more unbalanced on the track. The tire’s ability to put the power down out of corners was contrasted by subjectively weaker braking. Similarly, in cornering, the good initial bite could overpromise lateral traction abilities, resulting in significant understeer. However, once calibrated the Yokohama rewarded drivers with a slow-in, fast-out approach. In comparison, the Advantage Control seemed to struggle in wet conditions against what was admittedly strong competition. The BFGoodrich managed to put power down in a straight line reasonably well, but any dynamic input in steering resulted in significant understeer. When it came time to brake again, our team found the stopping ability lacking and disproportionate to the tire’s acceleration capabilities.
The three tires in our test offered modest levels of outright traction in the snow, though they were mostly acceptable for all-season products. The AVID Ascend GT led the way across the board, with acceleration and braking figures that were 1-3 feet better than the next-closest competitor. Lap times were closely matched, as well, with only a .5-second gap between the Yokohama and second fastest Vredestein. Our drivers liked that the steering was relatively responsive and had decent grip at corner entry, though it did begin to understeer mid-corner. The HiTrac All Season was narrowly behind the Yokohama in our testing, taking second place in all categories. Subjectively, the front axle seemed to be more easily overwhelmed than the rear, resulting in noticeable understeer. Our drivers found they were able to use the easily accessible rotation at the rear to help overcome the push at the front, but in real-world use that wouldn’t be a practical solution. The Advantage Control trailed the group, posting 0-12 mph acceleration and 25-0 mph braking results that both were about six feet longer than the test-leading Yokohama. The gap widened where lap times were concerned, requiring a significant 3.5 seconds longer per lap than the leader. After driving the tire, our team noted the traction was just OK, and it dropped off very sharply, taking a significant amount of time to recover when the limits were exceeded. This required our drivers to take care not to overstep the available traction, which made it very difficult to maximize and hurt its subjective score.
On the ice, the rank order remained the same as in the snow, and all three tires struggled. The one bright spot was the Yokohama’s 0-60’ acceleration time of 5.31 seconds, which is commendable for an all-season tire. Aside from that, the acceleration and braking distances were about average for Grand Touring All-Season, which is to say they were a giant step back from the ice traction delivered by a dedicated winter tire.
The tires in this group seem to have earned their place in the Grand Touring All-Season category, with some striking a tighter balance of performance and practicality than others. However, each tire has the ability to satisfy savvy consumers.
The Vredestein Hitrac All Season positions itself as a capable addition for car and CUV drivers that want the blend of comfort, performance, and tread life the category is known for. Its sophistication on the road and powerful performance on the wet and dry track proves it’s a comprehensive package that would complement a variety of drivers and vehicles. We do wish it had slightly better traction in the snow, though. The Yokohama AVID Ascend GT once again provides a solid benchmark, serving as the example future tires need to follow to satisfy modern standards of luxury and performance. The BFGoodrich Advantage Control is the second unknown in this test, and finds itself in good company. While never being completely outclassed, the tire does struggle with the finer points of refinement and traction, particularly in the snow. However, it seems to offer a sporty and connected feel to every day driving while retaining touring levels of comfort, which many drivers should find satisfying.
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