Nokian has produced a dedicated summer tyre the iLine which I considered buying for weekend summer driving in France plus the annual European trip. I did purchase all seasons recently (Goodyear Vector 4 seasons G2) which still retain plenty of tread.
How many drivers purchase a dedicated summer tyre and why? For longevity of all tyres or do you find a summer gives better grip than a season tyre in hotter climate?
Late August/ early September driving to Italy (north) Genoa, Nice, Route Napolean, Nabonne, Barcelona, Paris, UK.
You might find very little difference between summer and all season tyres unless you intend to regularly drive to the limits of tyre adhesion, which most folk obviously don’t do on the road.
I have “all season” tyres on the standard alloy wheels of my Mk2 (they were on the car when I bought it and had less than 200 miles on them) but I fitted steel wheels equipped with dedicated “winter tyres” late last year. I’ve put the alloys back on now but was tempted to leave the winter tyres on all year (as I have done on other cars in the past) because the grip they provided was superb in milder spring temperatures, too! The only down side is that the winter tyres are a softer compound and would probably wear more quickly.
In any case, the UK weather seems to be ever more unpredictable; it can be cold and wet anytime!
Sounds a great trip! We did Route Napoleon last year on a bike and did an overnight stop at Sisteron… Don’t forget you’ll need the ‘Crit’Air’ sticker if you’re visiting Paris and presumably Grenoble if you do the whole R.N.
In regard to the tyres - On a previous car I put the Michelin Cross Climates (M & S rated) on, not a bad tyre but certainly nosier and didn’t handle as well as the previous 4x4 summer tyre. I wouldn’t use them on an MX, and would prefer a dedicated winter tyre but have yet to find a set of 17" wheels for sale close to us.
This question is far more about what you want from your driving experience. As have been posted before, we used to just have “tyres” now we are getting to the point where we need, in motorsport terms, slicks, wets and intermediates, throw in hardness and “heavy wet” and the list is endless and that the general public is now asking this type of question, and a host of others such as “I like driving in the mountains, how many heat cycles can I go through?” Shows that the marketing and Internet are working.
The definition summer tyre is very liberal and is as technical as saying a summer coat. Most tyres are “summer tyres” and while the marketing from tyre manufactures in the last few years has been all about we must change to winter tyres the moment the temperature goes below 7 degrees we were not all dying the Monday before the bank holiday when it went from a rather lovely mild weekend to frost and cold on Monday and Tuesday.
While you could pick 20 “summer tyres” and they would have difering handling charicteristics, All Season tyres and Winter tyres have different consructions and properties. Winter tyres usually have a higher natural rubber content making the rubber softer in general and retaining this property better at lower temperatures, All Season tyres may not have this, but with both or these tyres you will find that the tread blocks are punctuated with more sipes, the cuts in the tread. The purpose of these is to allow more movement in the tread. The act of movement causes friction in the rubber which results in heat. This is not a bad thing in the right circumstances, however the more you push a tyre, the more heat it will build and excess heat will lead to rapid wear and certainly in the case of winter tyres on hot dry roads the tyre going greasy.
So the question comes back to what you want and need from the car and tyre. An All Season or winter tyre will, by virtue of it’s design, not be able to deliver the precision and finesse of a Summer Tyre when pushed, so things like steering feel and turn in. However for normal driveing, this is not likely to be an issue apart from greater wear in normal use. Winter tyres will likely get understeer or push at relatively low speeds and while great on snow and ice, (relative to “normal” tyres) rarely come close to the performance, in particular braking, to summer tyres, even in the dry.
So given that you are considering Summer Tyres for your trip, which suggests you normally have All Season tyres then that also suggests the upper limits of handling precision are not your main criterion and driving is going to be touring and not speed, in which case either All Season or Summer tyres are going to be fine for the conditions you expect to meet.