Can a New Budget Tire Beat a Worn Premium Tire in the Dry, Wet and Snow?

In this tire test, we compare a new budget tire VS worn premium tire in the dry, wet and snow to see if you're better off fitting new cheap tires as your tires wear and get close to the legal limit, or whether sticking with your worn premium is the best option.

We also look at the rolling resistance (fuel use) of the new budget tire and worn premium tire, as well as touching on the wear, handling and environmental impact of the tires.

Both tires are classified as all season tires in Europe, or all weather tires in North America.

Can the new budget tire beat the worn premium tire? Only one way to find out!

[ondro]

Great test (as usual!), but one note though - it is not always only about thread depth. I have had tyres which were fine for their depth, but the compound got degraded after 4-5 years (yes, I don't drive like mad when not driving my M240i). So last tyres I had to change were changed due to the compound degradation, not due to the thread depth. So having 4-5 years old tyre with low thread is not the same as having the "new" (relatively) tyre machined down to the same thread height. This is not a critisim, just my observation. Thanks for the review!

[emmamitchell]

I love the testing of worn tires! Anyone can optimize for the testing of brand new tires. What happens when they get worn is the important metric that can rarely get tested

[Bhargav]

The time spent watching this channel is well invested, not wasted!

[law]

As a guy who works with tyres I love this channel haha I'd be interested to see this same test with summer tyres as so many people have summer tyres all year round so the wet test would be interesting

[itftcomputers]

Do the same test with a 5 year old worn tyre and the brand new budget -) I think the age of the tyres makes HUGE difference!

[nigelcampbell]

Great test! More worn tire tests!! Your channel is the best I've found for honest tire comparisons

[HumperMKB]

This channel has officially turn me into a tyre junkie. And I love it.
First video to watch on a Sunday morning 😅 before coffee no less 😂

[waffle]

I know 3mm (4/32") tread depth is usually where the steepest drop off in wet weather performance occurs, and 4mm (5/32") is the limit for winter.

The fact the CC2 arrived with just 2.2mm (3/32") and still did this well is truly astonishing.

[jamiefrangos]

Incredible detail when testing, nobody out there at this level. Any future All Terrain tyre testing in the future would be greatly appreciated as these are incredibly popular here in Australia.

[Leopard]

Thank you for your great videos! I work in sales for a tyre dealer. Some people just won’t accept good advice. I often refer to your channel when people think I’m just trying to sell higher priced tyres.

[lasseblomqvist]

Thanks for producing this kind of tests. 👍 This aspect has been in my head for some time and I have been among the people who asked you to try to do it, really interesting to see the results. So thanks also for listening to your "fan club". 🙏😄

[Waybeyond]

Another great vid! Thanks!
Regarding the snow handling - some close ups show that the worn CC2 still grabs quite a bit of snow and the area of the tire covered with snow is greater than on the Tomket. So it's the snow gripping to snow, hence better handling (that also proves that CC2 thread design is really awesome) :) If the tire would we warm, straight from the garage on the snowy road, it'd probably skid until it would cool down enough. While cooling, it could cover itself with lots of snow, like a ski with no wax on, when taken from a warm room and put on the snow.
My concern would be more in city snow-salt-sand-mud pulp, where little thread would struggle to push this crap out, as the throughput of these thread 'channels' would be significantly lower. Aquaplanning quite similar, however at higher speed, as water has better density than such winter crap-pulp ;)
Great test, good to know etc. However, I'd still stick to 3-4 mm before the winter for CC2 and then maybe still use it in the summer and get new ones before the next winter, for such conditions, where CC2 is great (mild, mid-European winters with occasional snow and terrible 'love' of the road maintainence teams to use salt for no good reason on each and every small street in the city... Salt ruins everything (from cars, through clothes to environment, also creating a troublesome waste category) and does not increase road safety at all. Quite the opposite actually, as it makes people drive faster than they would on the compacted snow.
Oh, BTW - yes, I agree that dry grip improves with wear. But (there's always a but ;)) we need to keep againg in mind. 20 y.o. tire may not give us such great grip anymore ;) Yet within 5-8 years I do agree. I had Sportmaxx RT, not used much, after 8 years they were still amazing in the dry, however the thread compound was significantly less elastic than before and in the wet it wasn't the same tire anymore. I've noticed that any sand on the edge of the road was also a bigger challenge compared to the same tire a year earlier, with pretty much the same thread depth (really not used much - it had almost 6 mm when I left them for recycling, after 8 seasons). I had the same observations with bicycle tires. With age they still grip in the try, but any surface imperfections, sand and dust on the road becomes more challenging. Wet becomes a disaster. As with car tyres :)

[epic]

It is amazing how hard it is to find any comparisons on truck tires in the winter. I find dozens of All Season and other reviews and everyone is driving small SUV's or little compacts. All of the AT tire reviews are in the spring and summer. Would be great to see a review using pickups in the snow and ice.

[BusterKitten]

I've watches more than a few reviews/tests on the CC2s and it seems your channel is the best at these tests and reviews. I'm convinced the CC2 is the tire I'd be happiest with for my Subaru Forester. Thank you for your excellent channel.

[HallKevinA]

Again thank you for developing this channel and making your testing results available for our benefit.
Extremely valuable information

[Doc]

Great review !
We have Michelin Cross Climate 2 on both our Outback and Forester.
I’m glad we don’t have to put winter tires anymore.
The Cross Climate 2 is perfect for our needs. Especially with our 5-6 feet of snow every winter.

[nealewalter]

Fantastic review. Have on order a set of cross climate 2 to replace my 9 year old x-ice 3 on my 17” wheels. I live in Southern Ohio, so limited snow in winter, few people drive on winter tires here. Being Canadian I’m used to winters and also gave me opportunity to run summers (pilot sport) on my 18” wheels. Note the x-ice 3s have always been mounted on same wheels, no degradation seen (stored inside). But at 9 years felt they were overdue for replacement even with lots of tread left.

[tomasmalasauskas]

Thanks, one of the best tyre reviews over the years I have watched, strong arguments, and I will think twice now about getting new cheap tyres...

[MichaelJordan-whmk]

Can't wait to find out the quality of life a tire has. Most appreciate the effort you and the team's are putting in.

[chachalaca]

Great test. It would be interesting to test an old tyre and a new tyre with the same level of wear to test what happens when the rubber gets old. I replaced 7 year old tyres which had awful cold weather grip.