2013 Auto Bild All Season Tyre Test

Test Summary
Wet Braking	Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Bridgestone A001
Dry Braking	Bridgestone A001
Wet Handling	Uniroyal AllSeasonExpert
Rolling Resistance	Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Hankook Optimo 4S Kleber Quadraxer
Noise	Uniroyal AllSeasonExpert
Snow Handling	Falken EUROALL SEASON AS200

With the line between all season and winter tyres becoming increasingly blurred, its good that one magazine places all three tyres of tyres in the same test.

This years Auto Bild all season tyre test includes a summer, a winter, and the nine newest all season tyres, and tests them on dry, wet and snowy roads. Using a 195/65 R15 H tyre size, the tyres were tested on the now de facto tyre test car, the Golf 7.

The big surprise this year wasn't the summers poor performance in the snow, that's expected, but that an "all season tyre" out performed a pure winter tyre in the snow tests, and that the winter tyre outperformed all but the two best all season tyres in wet braking. The expected balance was restored during dry braking, with the winter placing mid pack at best, but the margin between a good winter and a good all season tyre are now almost non-existent.

Which is the best "All Season" tyre for the UK?

With the overall score weighted towards snow and wet performance for the German climate, it’s important those of us in the UK consider the wet and dry balance.

Looking at the overall braking distances, it seems the best overall “All Season” tyre is the Falken, closely followed by the winter.

If we look at just the dry and wet performance, the picture is slightly different. The summer tyre is the overall winner, stopping in 105.3 metres in total with the Falken in second at 111.4, but the Bridgestone jumps to third with a total of 112.3 metres and the winter ends in fourth with 114.9 metres. The test winning Goodyear places fifth, at 115 metres.

With the Falken and Bridgestone out performing the summer tyre in the snow by well over 200%, these are the tyres we’d be looking at for year round use in the UK, but there’s no escaping a dedicated summer and winter tyre setup is the optimum for year round safety and performance.

The Results