Owned and backed by Cooper Tire, Mastercraft has more than 100 years of experience in the tire industry. Its tires are known for their advanced technology, features, value, and performance and are made for use on passenger cars, minivans, SUVs, CUVs, and pickups. To allow customers to choose tires as per their driving needs, terrain type, and climatic conditions, Mastercraft offers a wide variety of tires that include all-season, all-terrain, winter, highway, mud-terrain, and performance.

The Mastercraft AST is an all-season tire that is suitable for use on passenger cars and is engineered to offer better traction, confident ride control, extended life, enhanced comfort, and improved damage resistance. The tire has many great features that we will discuss in this Mastercraft AST tire review and also know its positives and negatives, vehicle compatibility, sizes, and many other important details.

Features and Benefits

Typically, the all-season tires are engineered to perform in dry, wet, and light winter weather conditions, and the AST is no different. It is optimized to deliver year-round performance, alongside other different abilities. Here are the key features of the Mastercraft AST tire:

• Good year-round traction and grip – The tire features squared-off tread elements that boost traction performance in dry, wet, and light snow conditions, providing reliable year-round usability. Additionally, the siping across the tread boosts grip in wet and light snow conditions, ensuring confident drives.
• Impressive hydroplaning resistance – The wider circumferential grooves and lateral grooves of this tire channel water from the footprint for reduced risk of hydroplaning and improved wet traction.
• Solid durability and better damage resistance – The rugged construction and sturdy rubber compounds provide better durability and damage resistance to the tire, alongside improving the ride stability.
• Quieter rides – All thanks to the variable tread pitch sequencing, this tire doesn’t let airwaves accumulate inside the tread and generate noise, which ensures quieter rides.
• Longer service life – The AST is also engineered to serve for a good number of miles and the manufacturer has utilized the larger center tread voids that decrease on the shoulder area, promoting even and longer wear, and also contributing to better traction performance.

The Mastercraft AST is offered in 13- to 17-inch rim sizes and some of its available tire sizes include:

165/65R13 185/65R14 205/65R15 215/60R16 225/60R17

Pros and Cons

Having covered all the important features and benefits of the Mastercraft AST, let’s now go over the pros and cons to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the tire in practical conditions.

PROS:

• Moderately priced for budget-friendly tire seekers.
• Dependable handling performance than many of its competitors.
• Traction performance in dry conditions is good.
• Offered in many different sizes for maximum compatibility.

CONS:

• No limited manufacturer tread life warranty is offered.
• Traction performance in wet and light snow conditions isn’t impressive.
• Not engineered for use in extreme winter conditions on thick ice and snow.

SimpleTire’s view on Mastercraft AST tires

If you’re looking for an all-season tire that’s not too pricey and comes with all the standard features that a typical all-season tire has, then you can consider Mastercraft AST. This tire offers a dependable handling performance than its competitors and offers better traction performance in dry conditions. Mastercraft offers this tire in many different sizes to ensure that the tire is compatible with a good number of vehicles on the market.

That being said, the tire doesn’t come with any limited manufacturer tread life warranty and isn’t great when it comes to traction in wet and light snow conditions. Additionally, you shouldn’t consider it if you need tires to drive on thick snow or ice in extreme winter weather conditions.

The Mastercraft AST competes with the following all-season tires:

• Federal Formoza FD2
• Falken Sincera SN250A A/S
• Douglas All-Season
• Hankook Kinergy ST (H735)
• Nexen N’Priz AH5
• Kumho Solus TA11
• Sumitomo Touring L/S T/H/V
• Laufenn G FIT AS LH41
• GT Radial Champiro Touring A/S
• Westlake RP18
• Ironman RB-12

Vehicles the Mastercraft AST is a good replacement tire for

Designed for use on new and older models of passenger cars, the Mastercraft AST is a good replacement choice for use on the Kia Rio, Mitsubishi Lancer, Chevrolet Cruze, Dodge Grand Caravan, Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata, Lexus GS, Nissan Altima, Saab 9-3, Toyota Camry, Volvo S60, Buick Encore, Ford Mustang, and Audi A6.