Every tire on TireGrades is evaluated using a consistent, data-driven methodology. Our goal is simple: help you find the best tire for your vehicle, your driving conditions, and your budget — backed by real performance data, not marketing claims.
If you’ve ever browsed tire reviews on a retailer’s website and felt like you still didn’t know which tire to actually buy, you’re not alone. Retailer data is valuable, but it’s presented with constraints. TireGrades exists to take that data further — to cut through the noise and tell you plainly which tires are actually the best and which ones aren’t worth the money.
This page explains exactly how we gather data, what makes our analysis different, how we score tires, and how we select the tires we recommend.
Where Our Data Comes From
TireGrades ratings are built on aggregated feedback from real-world drivers. Our primary data source is Tire Rack’s customer review database — one of the largest collections of verified tire owner feedback available anywhere. Each tire’s scores reflect owner-reported experience across thousands of miles of real driving, covering wet traction, dry handling, snow performance, ride comfort, road noise, and tread life.
We supplement this core data with manufacturer specifications (UTQG treadwear, traction, and temperature ratings), published warranty information (mileage guarantees, road hazard coverage), and independent testing data where available.
We also scour owner forums, enthusiast communities, and online feedback channels for recurring complaints and real-world issues that don’t always surface in structured review data. If a tire has a pattern of premature wear, unusual noise at highway speeds, or poor performance in specific conditions, we want to know about it — and we want you to know about it too.
What Makes TireGrades Different
This is the question we get asked most, and it deserves a direct answer.
Our primary data source — Tire Rack’s owner review database — is publicly available. Anyone can go to TireRack.com and read the same reviews we analyze. So what’s the point of TireGrades?
Three things:
The Tire Grade Score
The Tire Grade is our proprietary scoring formula, and it’s the core of what makes TireGrades different. It doesn’t just average owner ratings — it weighs performance scores against the confidence of review volume.
Here’s why that matters. A tire with five glowing reviews and a tire with five hundred consistent reviews are not equally trustworthy. New tires routinely shoot to the top of retailer rankings based on a handful of early reviews, only to settle significantly lower as more owners report in over time. We’ve seen it happen repeatedly.
Tire Rack addresses this with their own methodology, but in our experience their approach allows newer tires to climb the rankings too quickly. Our formula takes a more conservative stance. We hedge toward volume — actual owner experience accumulated over thousands of miles is a far more reliable indicator of real-world performance than a small sample of early impressions. The Tire Grade reflects what a tire actually delivers over time, not what it looks like in its honeymoon period.
No Obligation to Play It Safe
Tire Rack is a retailer. They sell the tires they review. That means they have to walk a fine line with how they present their data — they can’t appear to play favorites, and for good reasons. They have manufacturer relationships to manage and a business to run.
We don’t have that obligation.
TireGrades is an independent review site. We don’t sell tires. We don’t have manufacturer relationships to protect. That freedom allows us to present the data in a way that cuts to the chase: which tires are actually the best performers, which ones deliver the best value for the money, and which ones you should probably skip. No diplomatic hedging, no “all tires have their strengths” hand-waving. If a tire underperforms for its price, we say so.
Problems and Complaints — Surfaced, Not Buried
Every TireGrades review includes a dedicated “Problems” section where we highlight recurring complaints and potential concerns reported by real owners. Many of these issues — like gradual road noise increase after 20,000 miles or reduced wet grip as tread wears — are the kind of things that don’t show up in a quick star rating but matter enormously when you’re living with a tire for 40,000+ miles.
We’re transparent when complaints are typical (every tire gets some negative feedback) versus when they reveal a genuine pattern worth considering before you buy.
What We Measure
Every tire is scored on the following performance metrics, each rated on a scale of 1 to 10:
Wet Performance: Hydroplaning Resistance — how well the tire evacuates water at speed. Wet Traction — overall grip on wet pavement during braking, acceleration, and cornering.
Dry Performance: Corner Stability — how planted and predictable the tire feels in turns. Dry Traction — overall grip on dry pavement. Steering Response — how quickly and precisely the tire reacts to inputs.
Comfort: Ride Quality — how well the tire absorbs bumps and road imperfections. Noise — how quiet the tire is at highway speeds.
Treadwear: How long the tire lasts based on owner-reported mileage and UTQG treadwear ratings.
Winter Performance (where applicable): Light Snow Traction, Deep Snow Traction, and Ice Traction.
All-Terrain Performance (where applicable): Dirt Traction, Mud Traction, Sand Traction, and Rock Traction.
How the Tire Grade Works
The Tire Grade is a weighted composite of all applicable performance metrics, adjusted for review volume confidence. It represents a tire’s overall quality relative to other tires in its category.
As a general guide: a Tire Grade of 8 or higher is exceptional — a tire performing at the top of its class with strong data to back it up. A score of 6 to 7 is solid and dependable. Below 6 indicates significant weaknesses that buyers should be aware of before purchasing.
Tire Grades are always category-relative. A Grand Touring All-Season tire is compared against other Grand Touring All-Season tires, not against Ultra High Performance Summer tires. This ensures the score reflects how good a tire is at what it’s designed to do — not how it stacks up against tires built for a completely different purpose.
How We Select Recommended Alternatives
Every tire review includes a side-by-side comparison with three alternatives at different price points:
A premium alternative — typically the highest-rated tire in the category regardless of price. A mid-range alternative— the best performance-per-dollar option. A budget alternative — the best tire we’d genuinely recommend at the lowest reasonable price point. Not the cheapest tire available, but the cheapest tire we’d actually put on our own car.
We intentionally exclude tires that are no longer widely available, tires with too few owner reviews to score reliably, and tires we wouldn’t personally recommend at any price.
Our Relationship with Tire Rack
We believe in being straightforward about this: TireGrades is a Tire Rack affiliate. When you click a Tire Rack link on our site and purchase tires, we earn a commission. This is one of the primary ways TireGrades generates revenue.
However, we do not represent Tire Rack, and our affiliate relationship has zero influence on our ratings or recommendations. The Tire Grade is calculated from aggregated owner data — the math determines the score, not business relationships.
We feature Tire Rack as our top recommended retail resource for two reasons: they provide the most comprehensive owner review data available (which we depend on for our analysis), and they are genuinely one of the best places to buy tires — competitive pricing, excellent customer service, and a massive selection. We’d recommend them even without the affiliate relationship.
We also feature links to other retailers including Mavis, Big O Tires, and Priority Tire so you can comparison shop and find the best deal. For complete details on how TireGrades is funded, see our Disclosure page.
Video Reviews
Every tire review on TireGrades includes a companion video review on our YouTube channel. The video reviews walk through the same performance data in a visual format with additional commentary and context you won’t find in the written review.
If you prefer watching to reading — or just want to see and hear the analysis alongside the data — you can find our complete video library with over 300 reviews at [TireGrades on YouTube].
Questions?
If you have questions about how a specific tire was scored, want to suggest a tire for review, or think we got something wrong, I want to hear from you. Reach out at info@tiregrades.com.
— Will Creech, Founder of TireGrades