Vredestein HiTrac Tire Review: All-Season All-Star Shines in the Rain

It's now been a couple of cold, rainy seasons and thousands of miles since fitting Vredestein HiTrac All-Season tires to my classic Mitsubishi. I've tested them rain or shine, taken road trips, and even gotten a little oversteer where I could. Through it all, my high esteem for them hasn't changed, though it has matured to acknowledge areas where the HiTrac isn't a standout.

As you've already gathered, these HiTracs are all-season tires, which Vredestein aims at family-friendly passenger cars with a pinch of performance. They're tailored to perform best in wet weather, so they're useful anywhere that gets significant rain, and with a high treadwear rating of 700, they'll endure long commutes. Yet with a speed rating of only 130 mph, they're not for cars with serious straight-line hauling. The ideal use case would be on a sport compact like a Honda Civic Si or Subaru WRX, driven somewhere that sees heavy rain for at least part of the year.

Fittingly, I tested the HiTracs over an Oregon winter in a car sometimes referred to as the Evo minivan. We'll skip the semantics; it has all-wheel drive, a legendary turbo engine, and a stick, so I can at least pretend it's an Evo. As for conditions, Oregon isn't ranked as one of the rainiest states in the country, but 41 percent of its rainfall arrives in the winter according to Climate Central, with another 27 percent coming in spring. Suffice it to say that between that and the ice storm that hit the Pacific Northwest in January, I've had a good spread of conditions for testing.

So, let's start with the mundane—commuting performance.

Because the HiTrac is more sporting-oriented than many all-seasons, it has stiffer sidewalls that might not give as supple a ride as some alternatives. I say this having tested them in a cushy 195/65R15 spec, on a car with a slight suspension lift on comfort coilovers. They're not harsh, but they're not especially plush either.

Road noise meanwhile is modest at all speeds, though fuel mileage has been unexceptional. That could be blamed on the aggressive tread pattern, winter gas, my car's low specified tire pressures, or my driving style, so I'll chalk it up as average on balance. Fortunately,