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.
Results
Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen 2
205/55 R16
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 10 |
| Wet | 21 |
| Snow | 15 |
| Comfort | 5 |
| Rolling Resistance | 5 |
| Noise | 5 |
Total: 61
Michelin CrossClimate
205/55 R16
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 10 |
| Wet | 20 |
| Snow | 11 |
| Comfort | 4 |
| Rolling Resistance | 4 |
| Noise | 5 |
Total: 54
Dunlop Winter Sport 5
205/55 R16
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 7 |
| Wet | 21 |
| Snow | 15 |
| Comfort | 5 |
| Rolling Resistance | 5 |
| Noise | 5 |
Total: 58
Nokian WeatherProof
205/55 R16
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 8 |
| Wet | 21 |
| Snow | 15 |
| Comfort | 4 |
| Rolling Resistance | 5 |
| Noise | 5 |
Total: 58
Hankook Kinergy 4S
205/55 R16
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 8 |
| Wet | 20 |
| Snow | 13 |
| Comfort | 4 |
| Rolling Resistance | 2 |
| Noise | 5 |
Total: 52
Uniroyal AllSeasonExpert
205/55 R16
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 7 |
| Wet | 18 |
| Snow | 15 |
| Comfort | 4 |
| Rolling Resistance | 3 |
| Noise | 4 |
Total: 51
Continental Eco Contact 5
205/55 R16
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 10 |
| Wet | 23 |
| Snow | 3 |
| Comfort | 4 |
| Rolling Resistance | 5 |
| Noise | 5 |
Total: 50
Falken EUROALL SEASON AS200
205/55 R16
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 9 |
| Wet | 19 |
| Snow | 11 |
| Comfort | 4 |
| Rolling Resistance | 1 |
| Noise | 5 |
Total: 49
Pirelli Cinturato AllSeason
205/55 R16
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 10 |
| Wet | 17 |
| Snow | 7 |
| Comfort | 4 |
| Rolling Resistance | 5 |
| Noise | 4 |
Total: 47
Vredestein Quatrac 5
205/55 R16
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 8 |
| Wet | 15 |
| Snow | 11 |
| Comfort | 4 |
| Rolling Resistance | 4 |
| Noise | 5 |
Total: 47
Westlake SW602 All Season
205/55 R16
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 6 |
| Wet | 15 |
| Snow | 10 |
| Comfort | 4 |
| Rolling Resistance | 3 |
| Noise | 5 |
Total: 43
Well, am happy to say that Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen 2 worked faultlessly in the recent covering of snow in UK (Jan 2017). With these tyres on an AWD Subaru I was able to climb a very steep, snowy and ungritted hill at below freezing temperatures with no fuss at all. This year was my first snow in a Subaru - a car without locking diffs, etc but just computer trickery. Previously I had a Mitsubishi L200 with stock Bridgestone Duelers and locking diffs plus low-ratio gearbox and even that truck would still slip a bit on this hill.
Pleased to say I didn't feel/hear the car straining or wheels slipping at all :-) Would definitely buy this tyre again. Fuel consumption is really good. The only trade off I've noticed is slightly more road noise in the car - but that's due to the 'ribbed' type tread and isn't intrusive. In fact, the grip feels "meaty" to my partner when she's driving the car.
from my personal experience:
Better new tires every second or third season,
rather than two sets (summer + winter tires) five or six seasons.
why?
What bothers each tire is "calendar" (age) as a primary, and then the number of working hours in kilometers as a secondary.
Also from my experience, a better grip tires with 60 000 km 8 months old tires than the 30 000 km 5 years old.
Consequently; better all-year tires every two to three seasons than double the premium brand (winter & summer) tires six years on the car.
It would be handy to know at what temperature these tests were performed in, and what impact temperature has on the results.
I found the actual numbers from the test. I'll write only braking distances.
On dry 100-10 km/h:
Continental 38.2m
Michelin 38.3 m
Good Year 39.6 m
Nokian 40.2 m
Dunlop 42.0 m
On wet 100-10 km/h:
Continental 40.9 m
Michelin 42.3 m
Good Year 45.1 m
Nokian 47.2 m
Dunlop 49.3 m
On snow 50-0 km/h:
Continental 56.7 m
Michelin 29.8 m
Good Year 27.9 m
Nokian 27.0 m
Dunlop 27.5 m
Continental ecocontact is not the best summer representative. The best summer tires can be, I suppose, 2-3-maybe even 4 meters better on dry and wet.
But anyway, Michelin and Good Year show very good results here compared to middle class summer tire. And given the snow ability as a plus, the new generation of all-season tires is great alternative for two sets of tires and all the expenses that come with storing and changing the off-season tires.
I just bought new summer tires (Hankook ventus prime 3, autobild test made my decision easier). I've never had winter tires, as we don't get much snow over here. For max 5 days a year when its snowing, I don't see the need of winter tires (those days I don't use the car, and use public transport). I was really thinking of buying the crossclimate, but at the end decided for summer again (the crosscimates were around 75% more expensive, or I could have bought 7 Hankook tires for the price of 4 Michelins).
Thank you for the figures, and good choice regarding the Hankook Prime 3, it looks to be an excellent tyre!
Indeed ive put the ventus prime 3 on my potential shortlist. Currently though for our car tyre size the price is level with some good premium tyres such as cinturato p7 for example, which it does equal but doesnt have any price advantage.
I think you made the right decision if you get that little snow and obviously milder winters, though the ice still has to be accounted for...
We just don't get snow. The winters can be cold but dry, especially mid December-mid February on some mornings we get -10 or less (those temperatures are only when its dry, when its cloudy it cannot get bellow 0). As I live in a city and the streets are salted/sanded pretty well, ice is less even than the snow.
In winter I don't go anywhere outside of the city by car, and not only because of the tires, but I don't have need.
Yeah, does seem a pointless expense in your case spending extra on winter tyres!
7°C is the magic number, once temperatures drop below this summer tyres start to lose their grip due to the rubber being too hard. Cold weather tyres don't cure entirely so they stay sticky in cold temperatures.
The expense is of course something to consider, but you can pick up a spare set of rims for relatively low price (especially if going for second hand) and then it's just a capital expense of having two sets of tyres on the go. It won't cost you any more in the long run as you will be sharing the wear between the two sets (and one could argue that you'll get improved wear as the tyres are being used in their ideal environments).
All that said, I have a set of winters and I didn't put them on last winter as it was rarely below 5°C - and more often than not, by driving home time it was in double figures again. There was only a couple of days I had to drive on ice - I really missed the winter tyres then!
I never understood how can 7 be the magic number. How can summer tires be better than winter on 8C and with that magic, on 6C they are worse than winter tires.
And where to store the off season set of tires? That is the biggest problem. That's why all season are great choice.
Anyway, in winter I drive more carefully when I see the snowflake light next to the temperature on the dashboard, that's bellow 3C.
And I don't drive that much, anyway the tires should be changed after 5-6 years. Last tires I changed because of the age, not wear.
Isn't cinturato p7 (non blue) on par with the old ventus 2? Hankook is much less expensive than all the premiums, even the cinturato p7 and bridgestone t001-which I don't like to count as a premium. I could get good year eff.grip perf. for the same price as cinturato p7, which is 30% more than ventus 3, but wanted the hankooks. And if I went for more expensive tires, I would have gotten crossclimate. And my size is 205/55R16
Currently in our size 205/60 r16 the few places selling the vp3 have it right in amongst the best offerings from the big players. P7 non blue for example is a little cheaper, p7 blue is a little more, michelin still cost a lot more but otherwise its swings and roundabouts finding the right price/performance/wear balance from the very mixed field.
Luckily, Hankook here is still considered as second tier player and the distributor has much better prices (I would say normal, as all other premium tires are much more expensive than they should be). So, my choice was not that difficult, as P7 (non blue) was the closest in price-30% more. The blue version they don't sell because of the much higher price (XL version in that size), and told me only on special order that would make the price Michelin crossclimate high.
If the price for Ventus Prime 3 is similar to P7 Cinturato then logically the price advantage is still hidden in a quite different mileage...
In the latest articles which test wear, the Hankook has always had the best mileage / price. In one test it was only beaten by Michelin under wear.
It is indeed a worthy competitor to the big boys!
Any chance of the hankook and falken figures? Or were these all you could find?
Good work though!
I just wrote the figures for the top 3 tires.
Hankook - dry 40.9; wet 46.5; snow 29.7
Falken - dry 40.7; wet 46.1; snow 30.0
Many thanks!
Where can the numbers be found?
I don't remember for sure now, but I think it's from one Russian page. I think I cannot write it here (will just try, Shina Guide - write it in google), they are very active on the page and post a lot of tyre reviews. Here on tyrereviews.co.uk everything is very slow and many reviews don't get published.
Good to see the main players and latest breed of tyres finally going head to head in a test. Of course some have been covered in the Autobild test, but the results of that were very sparingly summarised giving little info. Some more informative info here and a good range on test makes this the most meaningful test of the latest tyres to date.
The scoring doesn't quite seem to match the comments or particularly give a cohesive overview (for example dry results going up to 10 and wet to 23, with no indication of whether all scores are out of 30 or 25 or some out of 10. If all out of 30/25 then the dry results are puzzling) which lets it down a little, but for me it was what ive been waiting for.
Hi Andy,
We'll look at developing a way of adding the total possible score to the articles in the future.
For this test, the dry scoring was out of 10 points as they just tested braking and handling, whereas the wet tests included lateral stability, and two aquaplaning tests so were out of a total of 25 (5 points awarded for each test)