How To Choose The Best Tires For Your Car, Explained By An Engineer

Tires are annoying. They cost a lot of money, they wear out and need to be replaced, and figuring out which tire you should buy tends to be confusing at best. As long as you can afford it, you can't really go wrong with a set of Michelins (that's just my opinion), but not everyone has Michelin money. Plus, despite their brand cache, it's not like other tire companies are all automatically inferior to Michelin, even if you aren't constrained by finances. 

Beyond brand selection, what about all the different types of tires? Is there even a difference between all-season and all-weather tires? Or is it a distinction without a difference? There's a lot of information to sort through when you're shopping for tires, especially if you dare to dip your toe into modern tire science without an engineering degree. 

That's where our friend Jason Fenske at Engineering Explained comes in. He has an engineering degree he puts to good use, and in his latest video, he walks you through everything you need to know for the next time you buy tires. Once you better understand what you're buying, hopefully it'll make picking the right tire a little easier. 

If you read "engineer" or "tire science" and almost checked out, don't worry. You don't need to remember anything from that Differential Equations class you took 20 years ago in order to follow along with Jason's video. Heck, I don't even think a passing Calc 1 grade is required. Ultimately, as Fenske explains early on, "tires are about compromise," and picking the right tire is mostly about finding the right balance of what's important to you based on where you live, what you drive, and the kind of driving you do. 

And while tire science is a bit more nuanced than a 21-minute video can ever hope to cover, according to Fenske, you're mainly dealing with four factors in any tire — tread pattern, compound, construction, and contour. And no, we aren't talking about the kind of contouring the teens all teach each other on TikTok now. Beyond simply naming the four factors, Fenske then walks through the ways changing each factor impacts tire performance. 

Once you understand the basics of tire science, you'll also have a better grasp of the different types of tires out there, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each one. By the end, Jason doesn't declare a singular best tire, but this is a video focused on learning to understand tires, not deciding which one wins. If you're just looking for a quick shortcut, though, there's always Consumer Reports' top tire picks for 2026.