This year the German magazine "Gute Fahrt" have tested nine all season tyres in 205/55 R16 using a VW Golf, plus summer and winter tyre for comparison.
While the full results are summarised below, we thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at how the all season tyres compared to the summer Continental EcoContact 5 and winter Dunlop WinterSport 5 included in the test.
Dry
In dry handling, the Continental summer tyre offered the best steering feel, grip and balance, however the testers found the Michelin and Goodyear were surprisingly close for all season tyres. The Dunlop winter matched a number of the all season tyres, showing how many all season tyres could also be marketed as full winter without any change in composition.
In dry braking the summer once again took first place but the Michelin all season had a nearly identical performance, with the Goodyear and Pirelli a little behind the Michelin.
Wet
During the wet testing, the summer tyre held its advantage with the Continental finishing top of the wet handling tests, but this time with the Goodyear and Hankook all season tyres narrowly behind it, with the Michelin and Falken a small percentage further back.
Under wet braking the Michelin was once again the only tyre able to get close to the Continental summer, with the Goodyear the next best, some 6% behind the Michelin.
The Nokian managed to reign supreme under the aquaplaning tests, beating even the winter tyre which was the next best tyre included.
Snow
Unsurprisingly the Continental summer tyre couldn't perform in the snow, scoring less than 50% of even the worst all season tyre in each test.
Perhaps more surprisingly was the performance of the Nokian all season tyre, which managed to beat the dedicated winter tyre under snow braking, and match the winter tyre during the snow traction test. The Goodyear all season was a very reasonable third in each test, and the Michelin CrossClimate could brake and accelerate on terms with the majority of all season tyres, showing the advantage in the summer doesn't compromise the winter performance too highly.
In the snow the Dunlop is king, but in this test the all-season Goodyear and Uniroyal almost managed to match it. In summer conditions Dunlop was strong in handing because it has a very predictable behavior, but because of the soft compound, it will wear quickly in hot weather
Good value for money, good handling, short braking distances and high traction on snow, short braking distances on wet roads, high resistance to aquaplaning
Low Price, good handling and short braking distances in the snow, good handling on dry surfaces, acceptable handling on wet surfaces (even though the tendency to understeer)
High rolling resistance (the only noticeable flaw)
