Owners rate the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen 3 highly overall (average 79.9%), with most praising its dependable all-round grip, particularly in the wet, where over half of reviewers comment positively. Dry grip, snow traction and cold-weather performance are also frequently highlighted, and around a third of owners report strong tread life. The main recurring downsides are a noticeably weaker dry braking performance and slightly vague steering feel, raised by around one in five and around one in six owners respectively, while road noise feedback is mixed but leans positive.
What owners mention most counted across 76 reviews
Initially I got massive feedback and vibrations through the steering wheel. This got better after 500 miles or so but still some vibrations remained at highway speeds.
Never had that issue before with my previous Vredestein Quatrac pro's..... The tires seems to struggle with the weight of the car.
Increased the tire pressures to max. as indicated in car's manual. (High speed, full load setting instead of the comfort pressures I normally run)
Now they seem fine.
Compared to the Vredesteins they are a bit quieter at highway speeds. (But that might be because they are new...)
No experience in snow yet, tires seem to do well in dry and wet conditions. require a bit less steering input than previous tyres.
Some info beforehand: bought them for ~290 EUR for all 4 corners. 205 55 R16 on a Focus 2 estate. I live in Romania and temperatures range and have ranged from -10 to 35+ C. I've done more than 12K kms on them. Tread is at 7 from 8 mm. Bought December 2020. Haven't rotated them yet.
I've previously had: Bridgestone Turanza T001 / Michelin Primacy 3 for summer and Kumho iCept RS2 for winter
By no means am I a racing driver or anything so with the city and occasional out of the city driving that I do, they've done well for me.
Here's my take:
The good:
- Fuel economy. Getting a better average overall than my summer + winter ones combined;
- The fact that one doesn't have to change them every single time so you can say you're always ready if the bad weather suddenly appears; which in these weird times has happened... it can be an issue;
- Road noise and comfort is decent, can't say I've felt any difference compared to either previous summer or winter tires.
- Personally, I found aquaplaning almost non-existent even at 80 kph.
The not-so-good:
- Grip sometimes in the dry is so and so. Car feels a bit wobbly, so I try not to take turns too vigorously. Smooth and steady/
- Dry braking, to be honest, is a bit tricky sometimes thus I try a more defensive driving approach. Obviously, I wouldn't count on them as much as a regular summer tire. Maybe, if one lives in a more hot environment, a Crossclimate is the better choice.
- They do squeak when taking tight turns at low speed in the dry / warmer temps
- They also squeak when on certain zebra crossing or when leaving the lights more enthusiastically. Again during the summer time when temps are 30 and beyond
Would I buy again? Absolutely.
Which tyres do you drive?
Researching the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen 3? Rate the tyres you actually drive - and help the next buyer choose.
I bought these nearly a year ago with high expectations. Sadly they are completely unsuited to a large premium saloon. They are like driving on winter tyres. Awful white noise from them. wallowy. Need constant steering correction on the motorway where you could let go of the steering for many seconds before them. They screech and fold over if you swerve. On wife’s little Megane they are ok. They seem to puncture easily too.
Really good tires for everyday use on an average car.
The dry and snow performance seem slightly improved compared to the Vector gen-2, but the lateral grip is still average on snow and the price is also increased.
I really like the "idiot-proof" feeling where the tires squeal but actually have plenty of margin before they really start sliding. It's also very progressive when the grip comes back, even on snow/ice.
Those tires are great in the rain and do well in winter conditions. I wouldn't recommend them on twisty roads in hot weather since they don't seem to cope so well with the heat. They give a "floaty" feeling when too hot, otherwise they do a good job. You can consider those as winter-biased tires.
They don't seem to wear too fast, they give reasonable fuel economy and they are quiet.
1st I will start by saying that the car (it is a camper van L300 Mitsubishi) previously had the vector 4 from 2004 and on break test for annual technical inspection they still performed, while driving still decent in the summer and the wet, no cracks, no air loss, slight grip loss, this were 17 years old! Now I got the gen 3 DOT 2021 as expected, of course due to them being new as well but, they do great in every way.
Bought a set of four 235 55 17 W. The handling and poise is not as good as the previous several summer tyres. The worst thing is the noise. They make a horrible noise in an otherwise silent car. Like 4 blow torches. It is not super load but is as annoying typed of sound that has never been there before. Would not buy again.
Fitted these tyres after the Manufacturer Standard Michelin Primacy 3s proved to be an absolute liability in winter.
In terms of day to day use a great tyre. I can't comment on feedback or lack of it because the car doesn't have any to begin with it's not that sort of car. But in terms of a tyre that in cold, hot or wet conditions provides no nasty surprises it's spot on. Also a soft riding tyre which is good for taking the edge off expanding gaps etc. Rolling noise is no worse than the summers that were on, if anything may be a little bit quieter.
In general in normal conditions a lovely stable safe tyre, if not the most fun thing I'd imagine.
In winter conditions absolutely great, they are not magic by any means, you know you are on snow and ice but they provide more than enough grip for the esp, tcs and abs to work with. As a result rather than these systems hindering your progress by killing any forward movement at all or removing all braking force trying to keep the wheels rolling they become useful.
Had the "luck" to find myself on a sheet of ice on a single track road heading towards another car who was also on ice and we were going to meet at the bottom of a dip. Pressed the brake, ABS kicked in but the car slowed and I could steer out of his way. I then managed to pull away out of the dip on sheet ice without much interference from the traction control. They also work well snow as well.
I have used the following allseasontyres since 2010, always with the ThreePeak SnowFlake symbol (for what that is worth since the differences between all these tires can be very significant).
Quatrac3 Vredestein (little to complain about)
Quatrac5 Vredestein (dito)
Goodyear Vector 4S Gen2 (even better)
Goodyear Vector 4S Gen3 (a little bit better).
I am a weatherhobbyist and weahterphotographer and therefor: I go out when others mostly don't. So I need reliable tires. I live in The Netherlands where some winters have 70 days with a snowcover and other winters just 5 (well that is happening since 2014) or even less. Also we can have 10+ and rain in winter (also mainly the last decades) and we can have -20 in March. Or snow in April. In summer we get huge thunderstorms with torrential rains etcetc. A climate very common in NW Europe liek Germany and Denmark, our winters are colder than in most of the UK and surely Ireland though and in cold winters it is a lot colder.
So I do not avoid difficult conditions, the opposite is true.
With Quatrac3 everything was already fine, but on very compacted snow it was like a summertire all of a sudden. With the Quatrac5 I expected the same, yet it was better.
Both Vredesteins btw excelled in longevity: they took me 70000 km.
So why go for the Goodyear? Simple: because I like to try new things and these were consistently at toppositions in reviews whereas Vredestein was hit and miss depending on the review. Do I note a hige difference? No but there is a difference. Where the Vredesteins got me everywhere with no trouble, also under heavy snow, the GY G2 and now G3 are more stable. So sliding a bit to the left or right was noted on the Vredesteins but just not on the GY allseasons. Also the traction is still better. When compared to a summertire the difference with all these is, as everyone with a little kknowledge on the subject is aware off, nothing short of huge. It is completely irresponsible to drive with such tire son snow and I think allseasons even in our warming climate should be mandatory in winter.
A strike down for the Gen2 GY tires is that hey did not nearly last me as long as the Vredesteins. I see that in the latest tests the Vredestein just edges the GY Gen3 out and is indeed the best. In my experience the GY Gen2 lasted me 45000 km. That is a pretty big difference in my view and seems to be quite a bit less than what I read in the reviews back in 2015 or 16. With Vredestein going from Quatrac Pro to Quatrac things seem to have changed: it is a symmetrical tyre and looks like a mix of Michelin Crossclimates and Goodyears (and continental). And the testresults are now on par with the GY Gen3. But since the wear seems even better I would probably opt for the Vredesteins also, again, because I like something new.
So in the end, to keep it to the point, the GY Gen3 has seen 2 months of use but already I have driven with a 40 cm regular snowcover. On steep roads, with all kinds of snow. It seems to do very well and I will never go back to exchanging summer and wintertyres. May be it is usefull if you live in a climate with lots of snow over prolonged period times, since the best wintertyres are still better combined with a rather"sporty" drivestyle. But I even in the Alps etc these tires woudl be fine as long as you don't push it. If the Gen3 wears off in 50000 km I will no doubt jump to the Vredesteins though.
Hope it helps.
Recently bought Gen3
> Dry Grip is good.
> Snow drive is super . Ice Grip is very Good
> Wet performence is excellent.
Really Happy with the performence
> Last time i used bridgestone weather controll a005,These tyres are super but week in snow but in wet performence beautifull.
Recently replaced budget summer tyres with these. Due to travel across the UK during winter & have been caught out before using summer tyres in the winter conditions.
As the tests have suggested these are very capable on wet & dry, good braking & cornering, though you do notice sportiness is reduced a little bit in comparison with Summer tyres. Noise levels are the same & comfort is identical, though I imagine you would notice a difference if you switched from premium summer tyres.
I was going to hold off on posting this but we've just had our first bout of snow which left the early morning roads with a slushy and slick surface, particularly where I live and the council don't seem to bother gritting the roads. Would have been bricking it on summer tyres but I had zero loss of traction using these.
Will update if/when we get heavier snow or worse conditions & once some wear has occurred.
92%
Member
Skoda
235/45 R18 V
500 miles
A Combination of Roads
Spirited
Great tyres!
I changed the tyres 3 weeks ago and switched from summer Pirelli Cinturato P7, which came with my new Skoda.
The car is with DCC, which I use in comfort mode.
Immediately after I changed the tyres I feel the difference. the car became much more comfortable and quiet. Especially on weared and cracked road surfaces. When going over bumps, the car is feeling smooth and soft. There is not any more typical noises from suspension and much less road noises can be heard.
I drove in autumn conditions in range +3 to +25 DEG Celsius. The grip below +15 DEG is much better than with the summer tyres, in all conditions - wet, dry, muddy. Between 15 and 20 DEG, the grip is similar like P7. Above 20 DEG, V4 Gen3 start feeling more soft than needed and start "floating" on the pattern's blocks when cornering. Braking grip is also excellent in all conditions till now.
In addition to quietness, would like to add that on extremely wet surface there is not typical for most winter patterns high frequencies noises when accelerating, caused by water extraction from the pattern in the contact spots.
In regards with the tests published on this website I would confirm that the tyres are very close to best winter tyres performance on dry and wet below 15 DEG (based on my previous experience with winter Goodyear, Continental, Semperit, Kleber, Toyo etc, which I drove on my previous cars).
After I collect some experience on snow and ice, I will update this review. And after at least a full year I can evaluate the wear of the tyres, til now the tyres are quite new and I cannot make evaluation. I hope that in hot summer in Bulgaria tyres will survive in 40++ DEG and will save elasticity for the next few years.
As major drawback I will note the price. Currently the model is very new and I have to wait for 2 weeks after the order. The price is higher than on Michelin CC+ here in Bulgaria and even PILOT ALPIN 5, which are the most expensive tyres for normal road cars.
At the end would like to give my huge LIKE on www.tyrereviews.co.uk, which are making our choice of tyres much easier with the information and tests published here :-) ! Thank You Tyrereviews!
