If you’ve got a sporty sedan, coupe, or crossover, a good set of ultra-high-performance (UHP) or performance-oriented all-season tires can be the best way to get the most out of its handling, cornering, and braking potential. The good news is that now you can get UHP levels of performance in an all-season tire, and also that you don’t have to clean out your bank account to get the price of admission.

The Accelera Alpha is a perfect example of that kind of tire. It’s durable for long, even wear, delivers great traction year-round, and offers handling, cornering, steering response, and road manners that are all direct and immediate. With a comfortable, quiet ride, confident handling, and year-round performance, the Accelera Alpha is designed to offer the best of all possible worlds at an affordable price.

So what about the tire that made the SimpleTire team such believers? Let’s go in for a closer look with this Accelera Alpha review:

Features and Benefits

• Directional all-season tread pattern with circumferential grooves, lateral grooves, and sweeping grooves that evacuate water from the tire’s contact patch and resist hydroplaning in wet weather
• Tread pitch is computer-tuned to cancel frequencies and keep road noise low
• Shoulder and outboard tread reinforced to enhance great cornering ability and resist tread deformation and squirm when pushed hard
• Continuous center rib enhances straight-line stability, steering response, and road manners
• Silica-rich tread formulation engineered for improved wet-weather traction, long wear properties
• 2-ply polyester casing with two steel belts, nylon cap layer
• Casing and tread are designed to isolate bumps, irregularities, and vibrations for a comfortable, compliant ride

Pros and Cons

So, is this Accelera tire the right choice for your ride and budget? Before you decide, let’s take a look at the tire’s strengths and weaknesses:

PROS:

• Handling is sharp and crisp with short braking distances
• Consistent traction and handling on wet or dry pavement
• It looks great on a variety of vehicles

CONS:

• Should not be used in moderate to severe winter weather conditions
• The tire is not backed by a limited manufacturer tread life warranty

SimpleTire’s view on Accelera Alpha tires

The Accelera Alpha is a great value in a performance-oriented all-season tire. The Alpha may not be quite up to the standards of premium-brand UHP tires when it comes to cornering grip and roadability, but it also comes in at a fraction of the price of some of those tires and is a tire that can punch far above its weight class as far as performance and value.

The directional tread pattern looks great on a wide variety of sporty sedans, coupes, and crossovers, and the Alpha delivers cornering, steering response, braking performance, and road manners that respond well to driver inputs and are exact without ever being overly sensitive and touchy. Ride quality and noise levels are surprisingly accommodating for a tire at this price point. One of the nicer touches to remember with this tire is that it’s designed with an all-season rubber formulation for year-round traction when dedicated UHP and summer tires use a softer, stickier tread compound that will stiffen up and lose grip on colder days. That’s why tire manufacturers advise against using summer/UHP tires if temperatures are below 45 degrees F.

No, the Accelera Alpha doesn’t do well in deeper snow (it wasn’t designed to) and doesn’t come from the factory with a mileage warranty. Accelera does back the Alpha with a 1-year road hazard warranty, however.

Vehicles the Accelera Alpha is a good replacement tire for

While not used as original equipment, the Accelera Alpha is a good replacement tire for vehicles like the:

• Chevrolet Trax
• Chrysler 300
• Dodge Avenger
• Ford Focus
• Honda Civic
• Hyundai Sonata
• Kia K5
• Mazda6
• Nissan Maxima
• Toyota Avalon
• Volkswagen Passat