All-weather tires versus a winter set

Three different tires, often confused

• All-season: made for a mild year. Legal in Ontario through winter. It is not a winter tire, and grip fades near 7°C.
• All-weather: a year-round tire that has passed the severe-snow test, so it carries the 3PMSF mark. It is a compromise compound.
• Winter: a cold-weather tire, also 3PMSF, meant to come off in spring. Softer in the cold, and it wears faster on hot pavement.

If a tire has no snowflake, it is not the product this page is comparing, even if the sidewall says M+S. The Kanata winter tire guide explains what the snowflake means.

Which one fits an Ottawa year

Choose all-weather if the car does short trips, sits through the worst storms, and you will not store a second set. The snowflake makes it a real winter-capable tire, and you skip the October queue for a changeover.

Choose a dedicated winter set if you commute in the dark on Highway 417, drive before the plows, or want the colder compound on ice. You will change tires twice a year and you need somewhere indoors for the idle set. That is the usual recommendation for a Kanata household with one car that goes out every weekday.

Either way, replace the tire on tread and age, not on the season printed on an invoice. A six-year-old all-weather tire with shallow tread is not ready for another January. See replacing tires before winter.