Dunlop SP31 A/S

Brand: Dunlop
Tire: SP31 A/S
Category: Passenger All-Season
UTQG (treadwear): 320 A A / 320 A B

This particular tire from Dunlop was developed to be an all season original equipment (OE) tire to suit the needs of the fuel efficient segment of the automotive market. The SP31 A/S has been used in this respect, and can be found oftentimes on the Honda Civic Hybrid, Honda Fit, and Honda Insight models and has the primary purpose of being designed to maintain the vehicle's originally stated fuel economy. Given that, one would not expect that this tire would display great traction abilities. The SP31 A/A instead was built with an efficient tread compound, narrow width, and a reduced tread depth to maximize efficiency...this all sacrifices traction in the process.

I rank this tire in the bottom five for the segment. While it will keep your vehicle running at a high efficient, you'll end up giving up too much traction in the process, and it's just not worth the extra 0.5 mpg (or whatever) to have such a hard time in wet weather and snow. With that in mind, most drivers seem to get about 60,000 miles out of a set, which is very good for an OE tire.  I don't find that many drivers replace these with the same model, most end up moving on to a higher quality, and better gripping tire and I can't blame them. I've had many reports of these tires getting much louder after 40,000 miles and that their snow traction is almost nonexistent at that point as well. I think for your money, there are much better alternatives out there.