2017 Mercedes Benz AMG GLC 43 Luxury SUV with Luxury Tires

Best Tires

Best tires for luxury vehicles

There was a time when a vehicle with power windows and power locks was considered “luxurious” and loaded with options. Today, it’s hard to find even a low-end ride that doesn’t have power accessories as standard equipment. The bar for what qualifies as a luxury vehicle has changed a lot over the years, but there’s still a big, big difference between an entry-level sedan, SUV, truck, or crossover, and a luxury one.

Modern luxury vehicles are loaded with features like driver-assistance packages, heated/cooled seats, advanced infotainment systems, leather upholstery, special lighting, panoramic moonroofs, and on and on. And of course, when you get into the really high-end segments you’ll find things like chilled champagne flutes, rotating dashboards, aromatherapy, lambswool floor mats, and beyond.

Point is, a luxury vehicle needs a set of tires that will be the right complement. That means the kind of tires that can deliver a compliant, forgiving ride along with sharp, responsive handling, great straight-line road manners for long hours on the interstate, long tread life and low, low road noise. With those check-boxes in mind, we’ve put together a roundup of some of the best options for tires for luxury vehicles – we’re hoping this will serve as a handy buyer’s guide when it’s time for you to do your tire shopping.

Best Tires for Luxury Cars

Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus 3 - Best Performance tire for Luxury Cars

Here’s another standout performer for luxury sedans: the Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus 3 is a tire we’ve been impressed with enough to grant it a solid SimpleScore of 9.5. The Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus 3 is a tire that delivers a near-perfect balance of ride quality, handling, and year-round traction along with a long, dependable tread life. Specially-designed all-season tread blocks with large grooves and sipes work together with circumferential grooves to cut through standing water or snow and resist hydroplaning. Ride comfort and durability come from a variable-tension control nylon belt layer, and a stiffer shoulder block with a special sipe pattern helps to enhance cornering and handling acuity.

The 3D sipes of the Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus 3 are designed to retain their effectiveness and keep digging into snow and slush as the tire wears down, which is a nice plus if you’ve ever had the nerve-wracking experience of driving on wet pavement on worn tires. The P Zero All Season Plus 3 is covered by a 50,000 mile limited manufacturer life warranty from Pirelli; it’s just a great tire for anyone who loves spirited driving and loves pushing the performance envelope, but still seeks the kind of ride comfort and low noise you’d expect from a premium Grand Touring tire.

Best Tires for Luxury SUVs

Continental CrossContact LX25 - Best All-Season tire for Luxury SUVs

With a SimpleScore of 9.2, our pick for best all-season tire for a luxury SUV is the Continental CrossContact LX25. We love Continental’s EcoPlus Technology, a package of design elements that mean low rolling resistance for reduced CO2 emissions and better fuel economy. Plush ride quality comes from a polyester casing with two steel belts and a spiral wrapped polyamide cap layer, and Continental’s ComfortRide adds another layer that soaks up vibrations, bumps and road irregularities (as well as helping to suppress road noise). Handling is sharp and decisive, and Continental stands behind the CrossContact LX25 with a 65,000 or 70,000 mile limited manufacturer tread life warranty depending on the tire’s size. All in all, the CrossContact LX25 is an outstanding choice for any premium SUV.

Bridgestone Potenza RE980AS+ - Best Performance tire for Luxury SUVs

On the sporty side of things, we come to the Bridgestone Potenza RE980AS+. This is an all-season tire that offers ultra-high-performance levels of cornering, maneuverability and braking performance, without the inconvenience of having to change to a different set of tires as soon as the weather gets cold. The Potenza RE980AS+ is backed by a 50,000 mile limited manufacturer tread warranty, thanks to a long-wearing rubber compound and robust internal construction that also really boosts highway-speed stability. Cornering and braking performance come from specially-designed chamfered slots in the tread, wide outer shoulder blocks, and a semi-solid rib tread, making sure that your vehicle goes exactly where you’re pointing it (and right away). Weather isn’t a worry either, with a rubber compound that’s engineered to stay flexible year-round, circumferential grooves, a dense pattern of sipes, and open shoulder slots. This is a tire where you don’t have to trade off anything in terms of ride quality or all-season grip to get the kind of handling, cornering, road manners and braking performance you want.

Best Winter Tires for Luxury Vehicles

Goodyear Ultra Grip Performance Plus - Best Winter tire for Luxury Cars

If you ever wanted proof that a winter tire doesn’t have to be clumsy, noisy and sluggish, here’s the Goodyear Ultra Grip Performance Plus. Goodyear knows that there’s always going to be the kind of snow, ice, and slush where a regular all-season tire is just going to let you down, and the Ultra Grip Performance Plus is designed to get you through the bad winter weather dependably – without compromising in the kind of ride comfort, noise levels, and handling you value. An aggressive directional winter tread with intersecting cross-hatch grooves, lateral and circumferential grooves, and a dense network of sipes is what you need to get through the nasty snow and slush with shorter braking distances and great control. Durability is a real strong point too, with a sidewall and angled blocks that resist cuts and punctures. This is Goodyear’s flagship winter tire, and we give it a solid 9.5 SimpleScore overall.

Nokian Nordman 7 SUV Studded - Best Winter tire for Luxury SUVs

You might not have heard of Nokian before (yes, they share the same parent company with Nokia phones), but they’re a Finnish company that specializes in tires that are designed to get through the rough Scandinavian winters. When things are really nasty after an ice storm, there’s nothing other than studded tires that can safely get you down roads that are as slick as a hockey rink (remember studded tires aren’t legal in all states and are only legal in certain months in others, so check your state laws). The Nordman 7 SUV Studded from Nokian is, unsurprisingly, Three Peak Mountain Snowflake rated for severe winter service. It’s designed with a directional tread pattern and aggressive, thick pattern of sipes with deep tread grooves and open shoulders, delivering great traction and performance on icy, wet, snowy, or dry pavement. The Nordman 7 SUV Studded’s pattern is placed toward the outboard edge and shoulder of the tire, and staggered to deliver the best traction while helping to keep road noise down. All in all, we give the Nordman 7 SUV Studded from Nokian an average SimpleScore of 9.3. We have to remind everyone here that winter tires use a softer, stickier tread formulation that stays soft at subfreezing temperatures, but will wear quickly on warmer days. Winter tires should not be used if temperatures are above 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

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