Tire: HTR A/S P01 (H- or V-Speed Rated)
Category: High Performance All-Season
UTQG (treadwear): 360 AA A / 480 A A
Sumitomo is not well known to produce high performance tires in the United States, sorry to say. With their HTR A/S P01 being the first attempt by the company to move into this high performance all-season segment. These tires were developed to provide year round traction with a performance tilt. Sumitomo put some time, effort, and energy into making a tire that would work well in all four seasons, including snow. They utilized a silica tread compound and a five rib tire pattern. You'll also notice that the tire has four wide circumferential grooves to help wet and snow traction. Overall I'd say this is a decently designed tire, but not groundbreaking in any particular way.
Among tires in this performance category, the HTR A/S P01 is midpack. Not the best, but far from the worst. The snow traction is particularly lacking when compared to other competitor tires, which causes me a little bit of concern. Most drivers get about 50,000 miles out of a set, which is probably about average, but since this tire usually costs less than others in the segment, I'd say it's a good value for the money. Other things to think about are that they get pretty noisy as they age. At the end of the day, what you have here is a good first attempt at a budget high performance all-season tire. I think there are a number of things they could have improved on the tire, but considering how far they went the first time, you have to applaud their efforts. That doesn't mean I would buy them, though, as I think there are better tires on the market for the money.
