2017 All Season Tyre Test

Test Summary
Wet Braking	Michelin CrossClimate
Dry Braking	Continental AllSeasonContact Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen 2
Wet Handling	Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen 2 Continental AllSeasonContact Kleber Quadraxer 2
Rolling Resistance	Continental AllSeasonContact
Noise	Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen 2 BFGoodrich g Grip All Season 2 Pirelli Cinturato AllSeason
Snow Braking	Kleber Quadraxer 2 BFGoodrich g Grip All Season 2
Snow Handling	Nexen N Blue 4 Season
Ice Braking	Kleber Quadraxer 2 BFGoodrich g Grip All Season 2

The 2017 Auto Bild all season tyre test placed ten 205/55 R16 all season tyres through dry, wet and snow testing using a VW Golf. Auto Bild are one of the most thorough tyre testers in the world, and as usual they've included a summer and winter tyre for reference. While Auto Bild sadly haven't published which summer and winter tyres they've used in this all season tyre test, they're certain to be well regarded premium offerings.

This is also the first test to include the new Continental AllSeasonContact tyre. The AllSeasonContact is Continentals first attempt at an all season tyre, and will be interesting to see how the German tyre performs against the established winter-bias Goodyear Vector 4Season Gen-2, and the UK favourite, summer-bias Michelin CrossClimate.

Dry

There are no prizes for guessing the best all season tyre in the dry. As the only summer-bias all season tyre on test, the Michelin CrossClimate wins both the dry braking and dry handling tests, but the new Continental AllSeasonContact is impressively close in second place. Both tyres beat the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-2 which finishes in third.

The summer and winter tyres behave as they should, with the summer tyre winning both tests, and the winter tyre placing last, highlighting how running winter tyres year round is not a sensible option for climates like the UK.

Wet

In the wet, the new Continental tyre continues its impressive first outing, fastest overall during wet handling, second place during wet braking and recording the best aquaplaning resistance. The established Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen-2 trades blows with the Continental, winning the wet braking test and second place during wet handling and aquaplaning, while the Michelin CrossClimate finishes a close third in all three tests. 

Once again, the summer and winter tyres behave as you would expect, with the summer tyre amongst the best on test, and the winter tyre struggling in the warmer wet conditions.

Snow

Again, the new Continental AllSeasonContact proves Continental know how to make a tyre work in all conditions, winning both the snow braking and snow handling tests by a small margin. While Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen-2 manages to stay close to the Continental, the summer-bias Michelin CrossClimate loses out a little on the white stuff, but finsihes a still respectable mid table in both tests.

Unsurprisingly the summer tyre was essentually useless in these snow tests, but perhaps more surprisingly the winter tyre couldn't best the Continental around the snow handling track, or even out-brake the best all season tyres in the snow.

Value

While the new Continental might have seemed like the perfect tyre up until this point, the wear testing shows the German tyres weakness. The projected wear of the Continental was 17,000km less than the best tyre on test, and when you combine it with the high purchase price, it is the only tyre to push into the double digit "euros per 1,000km" scoring in the value category, making it by far the most expensive tyre on test. Please note, the reference summer and winter tyre were not tested for wear.

The Continental claws back some of its cost disadvantage with the lowest rolling resistance.

Results