Cooper CS5 Ultra Touring vs Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady: All season tires have always been the go to tires for the American market and this segment has been well established across the years. There are 2 types of all season tires, one with 3 peak mountain & one with only M+S. We have covered these 2 types of tire head to head with Michelin’s Defender T+H (M+S) vs Cross Climate 2 (3 peak mountain) and the M+S all season tires are worst in winter performances but excel much better in mileage.
This time around we picked up 2 all season challengers in the form of Cooper’s CS5 Ultra Touring and Goodyear’s Assurance WeatherReady. Assurance WeatherReady was launched in 2017 and covers a large range of passenger cars and crossovers. CS5 Ultra Touring on the other hand was launched way back in 2014 and covers mostly passenger cars, minivans, SUVs and crossovers sizes from 15″-18″. Let’s put these 2 tires head to head and see who comes out on top !
Table of Contents
Results
Results below were taken from the Tire Rack’s “Grand Touring All-Season” test. A total of 4 tires were tested this time around in Tire Rack’s own proving ground. The graph below shows the comparison between Cooper CS5 Ultra Touring vs Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady based on the relevant performance category. The CS5 Ultra Touring was set as a reference hence at the 100% mark. Note that for subjective evaluation, we equate 1 point as 5%. Hence for example if tire A is graded 7 while tire B is graded 6, A is better than B by 5%.
As both tires are categorized as all season tires, Tire Rack has included snow & ice in its testing portfolio. A detailed testing on snow including acceleration, braking & handling were evaluated. The tire size of interest is a 225/50 R17 which is a common tire size for Audi A4 & Honda Accord. You can check out our latest tire size table for more information. The testing vehicle is a rear wheel drive 2020 BMW F36 430i Gran Coupe with a 17×7.5 rim.
Wet
The friction of coefficient of the tire/road dramatically decreases in wet roads compared to dry roads. Hence it is more likely to get into a road accident during wet conditions rather than on a sunny day. It was so important that the EU label has wet braking as one of its three criteria. CS5 Ultra Touring was clearly the better tire in wet braking as it stopped 8.8 feet (2.7m) earlier than Assurance WeatherReady.
When it comes to wet handling, things were really close as CS5 Ultra Touring had a 1.1 second advantage in lap time against Assurance WeatherReady. It was opposite in wet handling as Assurance WeatherReady fared so slightly better with a subjective score of 5.92/10 compared to 5.87/10 of CS5 Ultra Touring. Overall, CS5 Ultra Touring has the upper hand in wet.
Assurance WeatherReady:
- -7% in wet braking
- +0.2% in wet handling (subj)
- -3% in wet handling (lap time)
Dry
As for dry, safety is usually not an issue as the braking distance is much longer than wet. However this is the default daily usage and the tires have to perform at a very consistent level. Similar to the wet results, CS5 Ultra Touring was ahead of Assurance WeatherReady in dry braking as well. It managed to brake 9.5 feet (2.9m) earlier compared to Assurance WeatherReady from a speed of 50mph (80km/h) down to 0.
In dry handling, things were totally swapped around as Assurance WeatherReady suddenly became dominant with a subjective rating of 6.57/10 over CS5 Ultra Touring 5.16/10. In regards to the lap times, Assurance WeatherReady was 0.37 seconds faster per lap relative to CS5 Ultra Touring. Overall, CS5 Ultra Touring showed clear strengths in dry braking while Assurance WeatherReady dominated in dry handling.
Assurance WeatherReady:
- -9.8% in dry braking
- +7.1% in dry handling (subj)
- +1.2% in dry handling (lap time)
Noise/Comfort/Ride Quality
Ride comfort, noise & comfort was tested and it was clear that Assurance WeatherReady was better with a 7.36/10 rating compared to the 6.75/10 rating of CS5 Ultra Touring’ with steering & road handling being the main differences.
Assurance WeatherReady:
- +3.1% in average of Noise, Comfort & Ride Quality.
Snow
As both tires have been rated as an all season tire, we were thrilled when Tire Rack included snow on its testing list. Upon initial checks, CS5 Ultra Touring does not have the elusive 3 peak mountain logo but Assurance WeatherReady does. Hence the Goodyear has to pass a certain threshold of snow traction level as determined by the legislation. From an overall expectation point of view, Assurance WeatherReady should dominate the winter performances.
As expected with the 3 peak mountain rating, Assurance WeatherReady dominated across all snow tests. It stopped 13.9 feet (4.3m) earlier than CS5 Ultra Touring from a speed of 25 mph (40 km/h) to 0. It was also extremely good when it came to snow acceleration as it took 11 feet (3.3m) less distance to accelerate from 0 to 12 mph (20 km/h). While it was also quicker in lap time (9.6 seconds !) and also subjectively better in snow handling (+0.75 points). Overall, Assurance WeatherReady is clearly the better snow tire.
Assurance WeatherReady:
- +25.5% in snow braking
- +36.2% in snow acceleration
- +3.8% in snow handling (subj)
- +10.4% in snow handling (lap time)
Ice
With such dominating performances in snow, we would expect this to continue in ice. This was the case as Assurance WeatherReady out-brake CS5 Ultra Touring by 14.7 feet (4.5m) from a braking speed of 12 mph (20 km/h) to 0. In ice traction, Assurance WeatherReady was in the lead by taking 0.77 seconds less to travel 60 feet in comparison against CS5 Ultra Touring. Overall, Assurance WeatherReady was dominant in ice.
Assurance WeatherReady:
- +31.5% in ice braking
- +15.2% in ice acceleration
UTQG rating
We have previously shown that UTQG tread wear rating can be a good indication of your expected mileage. Below are the UTQG values of both of the tirelines.
| Brand | Tireline | Size | Tread Wear | Traction | Temperature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodyear | Assurance WeatherReady | All | 700 | A | A |
| Cooper | CS5 Ultra Touring | All | 640 | A | A |
The mileage warranty for CS5 Ultra Touring is at 70,000 miles while Assurance WeatherReady mileage warranty is at 60,000 miles. This is however not in line with CS5 Ultra Touring’s lower UTQG tread wear rating values of 640 compared to Assurance WeatherReady’s 700 rating. Taking into consideration the overall picture, CS5 Ultra Touring should have a higher expected mileage “give and take” the standard real life tolerances (road condition, car alignment, driving style & rotation) due to its higher mileage warranty assurance.
For more in depth information about UTQG, please check out this article here. We even have a free download on the latest UTQG values from the leading tire manufacturers.
Price
Goodyear being the more premium brand with the 3 peak mountain rating commanded a higher price costing 29 dollars more than CS5 Ultra Touring.
Tire size: 225/50R17
CS5 Ultra Touring: $173
Assurance WeatherReady: $202
Difference: +14% more expensive for Assurance WeatherReady.
Summary
Overall, both tires excel on different performance criteria. Assurance WeatherReady was strong in dry handling, noise, snow & ice. CS5 Ultra Touring on the other hand was good in wet & dry braking. Taking into consideration the typical importance of an all season tire, the winner of this duel is Assurance WeatherReady with its excellent all round performances !