All-season tires are a great solution for most drivers for many reasons. They are a versatile jack-of-all-trades choice that drivers love for their balance of year-round grip, long tread life and wear properties, quiet and refined ride, stable road manners, and capable handling. For all the benefits that all-season tires offer, though, they often fall a little short when called on for the kind of handling, cornering, and braking performance drivers of sporty sedans and crossovers are looking for.

Summer and ultra-high-performance (UHP) tires are designed for those drivers and their vehicles, delivering the confidence that goes with spirited driving and letting drivers push the envelope of their vehicles’ performance. That means steering quicker response, sharp and accurate cornering, and shorter braking distances, but summer and UHP tires have a notable tradeoff. Summer and UHP tires use a tread formulation that’s softer and “stickier” for great adhesion to the pavement. In some cases, that rubber is almost as soft as a pencil eraser – soft enough to put an indentation in the sidewall with your thumbnail. That kind of rubber compound is great for grip and handling, but it also tends to wear quickly and will stiffen up and lose traction in colder weather, making it downright treacherous to use in snow or slush. Tire manufacturers advise against using summer or UHP tires if temperatures are below 40-45 degrees F; you should dismount them and exchange them for all-season or all-weather tires.

That’s a bit of a headache, of course, and then you also have the issue of figuring out where to store your summer/UHP tires until the next season. That’s where UHP all-season tires come in – they can offer the same handling and braking properties as UHP tires and are designed around the power, torque, and driving dynamics of performance cars, but can be used year-round without being swapped out in cold weather. That brings us to the Motivo 365 from Nitto, a great innovation-packed value in a UHP all-season tire]’. The Motivo 365 checks all those boxes and outperforms expectations in a lot of different ways, but don’t just take us at our word for it; let’s go in for a closer look with this Nitto Motivo 365 review:

Features and Benefits

Here are some of the design features and innovations that make the Nitto Motivo 365 a great value and a great performer in a UHP all-season tire:

• Advanced rubber formulation is designed for great wear properties, dependable traction, and grip in subfreezing temperatures
• Innovative asymmetric all-season tread features a comprehensive system of circumferential grooves, lateral and angled grooves to deliver traction year-round
• Grooves help resist hydroplaning by channeling standing water away from the tire’s contact patch
• Three Peak Mountain Snowflake certified for severe winter service
• Wide center tread blocks designed to enhance straight-line stability and road manners as well as steering response
• Tread blocks and grooves are randomized and computer-tuned to help keep road noise low by neutralizing certain frequencies and overtones
• Multi-wave sipe pattern designed to interlock and enhance winter traction, multiplying the tread’s surface area with hundreds of hair-thin grooves that slice through snow, slush, standing water
• Visual service indicators built into main tread groove walls alert a driver to uneven or excessive wear at a glance
• Covered by 60,000 mile limited manufacturer tread life warranty

Pros and Cons

In the case of the Nitto Motivo 365, this is a tire where the pros outweigh the cons:

PROS:

• Generous limited manufacturer’s tread life coverage
• Three Peak Mountain Snowflake rating
• Handling is precise and predictable
• Quiet and refined ride quality

CONS:

• Can be noisy on some pavement surfaces

SimpleTire’s view on Nitto Motivo 365 tires

Are you familiar with SimpleTire’s SimpleScore system? SimpleScore is the SimpleTire team's rating method to give you a quick, at-a-glance idea of a tire’s strengths and weaknesses. We look at the tire’s specs, info from the manufacturer, customer reviews, and other data points, then distill all that info down to a 1-10 numerical value for the categories of traction, handling, longevity, and an overall average SimpleScore number. In the case of the Nitto Motivo 365, the SimpleScore looks like this:

Nitto Motivo 365

Traction: 7.8 Handling: 8.9 Longevity: 7.2 Overall average SimpleScore: 7.9

Those are some pretty impressive SimpleScore numbers, especially for a tire that starts at $123.99 each.

The overall driving dynamics of the Nitto Motivo 365 are pretty admirable and more in line with what you’d expect from a tire that costs far more. The steering response is quick and light without being overly sensitive or twitchy. Cornering is nimble and predictable even when pushed hard, although, to be honest, it may not be quite up to the standards of a summer or UHP tire; still, on a twisty road or an interstate offramp, the Motivo 365 will let you push your vehicle’s performance envelope pretty hard without breaking loose. Thanks to that tread compound and asymmetric tread pattern, braking is precise and confident on wet or dry pavement.

The computer-tuned tread pitch of the Nitto does a great job of keeping road noise to a minimum, and the central tread block design means that straight-line stability on the interstate is secure without being sluggish, making long road trips a lot less stressful. As for traction, the tire industry sets the bar pretty high for the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake certification: it’s rare to see a UHP all-season tire that’s 3PMSF rated for severe winter service, but winter performance with the Nitto is amazingly strong in snow and slush. It’s the kind of winter traction you won’t find with a summer or UHP tire and adds a lot to the value of the Nitto.

A 60,000 mile limited warranty is another strong point for this tire, especially when you remember that most tires in the summer/UHP category don’t have any mileage warranty. Overall, the Motivo 365 from Nitto is an excellent value and performer in a UHP all-season tire, which far outweighs its price point and can punch far above its weight class.

Vehicles The Nitto Motivo 365 is a good replacement tire for

While not used as original equipment, the Nitto Motivo 365 is a good replacement tire for vehicles like the following:

• Acura TL
• Audi A6
• BMW 135i
• Dodge Challenger
• Chevrolet Corvette
• Kia K5
• Ford Mustang
• Honda Civic
• Hyundai Veloster
• Jaguar XKR
• Lexus GS350
• Lincoln LS
• Mazda Miata MX-5
• Mercedes-Benz E550
• Nissan Maxima
• Pontiac G6
• Scion tC
• Subaru BRZ
• Toyota 86
• Volkswagen CC Sport