BFGoodrich Advantage T/A Tire Review - Modified Magazine

BFGoodrich Advantage T/A
Size 205/60R16
Type Grand touring all-season tire
UTQG 560 A A

Key Features

»Rigid shoulder blocks for crisper handling

»Interlocking sipe design increases traction in all kinds of weather

»Spirally wrapped nylon layer (that BFG calls ETEC) maintains the tread footprint for consistent high-speed control

»Non-directional tread designed for ease of maintenance and increased tread life

»Sidewall stabilizer increases the sidewall's strength for additional reinforcement and handlingcapabilities

Test Mule
'07 Honda Civic EX Sedan

Test Driver
David Pratte, contributor and columnist for Modified

Test Track
75 percent highway use, 25 percent city use

Test Condition
Everything from hot and dry to cold, wet, snowy and icy

Wait, what? We're reviewing a non-UHP all-season tire? Sure, we love to burn rubber and corner hard, but let's face it, not every car requires a tire with a super-sticky compound and super-stiff sidewalls. We know some of you save your highly tuned sport compact rides for the weekends and drive something a little more practical during the week, but you still want to have fun doing it, right? Well, here's a review aimed at the more practical end of the performance spectrum, but BFGoodrich's Advantage T/A still lets you have plenty of fun while rolling on practical and long-lasting, all-season rubber. Here's what our test driver had to say:

"My wife's '07 Honda Civic EX sedan is a serious road warrior. It's already got 80,000 miles on the clock thanks to her commute to work and our weekend travel. We burned off the stock Bridgestones pretty quickly, and when it came time for replacement rubber I found myself shopping for a high-quality, all-season tire that could handle the often wet and occasionally snowy environment we live in, provide enough dry grip that I could have some fun behind the wheel and give us better tread life than the OE rubber.

"After almost 20,000 miles of use, the BFGoodrich Advantage T/As have impressed me with their surprisingly high level of dry grip. Of course, these tires aren't able to generate the kind of cornering power or turn-in response of an ultra-high-performance summer tire, but for a grand touring class all-season tire they're very responsive. And once I go into cruising mode, what I appreciate most about the Advantage T/As is how smooth and quiet the ride quality is. There's noticeably less road noise from the BFGs than the OE tires and the ride quality is very civilized. We've literally seen improvements in just about every performance category you can think of, from dry and wet grip to road noise, ride quality and tread life.

"Speaking of tread life, the Advantage T/As start with 10/32nds of tread depth and after 20,000 miles (mostly highway, but a fair bit of city/country road stuff too) the fronts are showing 8 to 8.5/32nds and rears 9/32nds of depth. That's some seriously impressive durability for a tire with as much dry and wet grip as these have."