2018 Auto Bild All Season Tire Test

Test Summary
Wet Braking	Bridgestone Weather Control A005
Dry Braking	Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen 2 Bridgestone Weather Control A005 Continental AllSeasonContact
Wet Handling	Nokian WeatherProof
Rolling Resistance	Nokian WeatherProof
Noise	Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen 2
Snow Braking	Michelin CrossClimate Plus
Snow Handling	Hankook Kinergy 4S2 Vredestein Quatrac 5 Nexen N Blue 4 Season

Following on from the 27 all season tire braking shootout, Auto Bild have published their excellent 2018 all season tire test. Testing the best ten 195/65 R15 all season tires from the braking test, Auto Bild have done an incredibly thorough job putting all the tire patterns through the usual array or dry, wet and snow testing.

The New Tire

The most interesting part of this test must be the inclusion of the new Bridgestone Weather Control A005, as it's the first time this new tire has featured in a full all season tire test.

If you're just looking at the results as the overall standings, you'd be forgiven for dismissing the Bridgestone as a purchase option, but for the most of the UK this new tire might actually be one of the BEST options for year round motoring in the UK.

Why? Because it has significant advantages in wet and dry braking, even beating the dry master the Michelin CrossClimate+, and matches the excellent performance in dry and wet handling. While it's snow performance is it's weakness, it's still significantly better than the reference summer tire in the test. With the UK climate being dry or wet 99% of the year, the balance of performance the Bridgestone offers is more acceptable to our climate than it is to the German testers.

The Rest

Ignoring the Bridgestone in last place, the top five results aren't surprising. The Goodyear and Continental all season tires performed excellently as ever, the Nokian was more like a winter tire and won the snow testing, and the Michelin excellent in the dry.

If you've not already seen our all season tire recommendation video, we explain the balance of performances between various all season tires, and explain why for example the Nokian might not be the best idea for the south of the UK, and the Michelin not the best for northern Scotland. Have a watch here.

Dry

As mentioned above, the Bridgestone was the star of the dry testing, winning both the dry braking and dry handling tests. The Michelin CrossClimate also faired extremely well, a significant step ahead of the rest during dry braking, and joint second place during dry handling.

Wet

Wet braking once again saw the Bridgestone leading the way, however no all season tire could get close to the summer tire which had a large advantage.

During the wet handling testing the Goodyear was the best of the all season tires, with the Bridgestone and Continental in second and third places.

The Continental again proved it's wet weather credentials and won the aquaplaning testing.

Snow

While the Bridgestone was exceptional in the dry and wet, it's struggled in the snow testing. The Nokian all season tire once again showed winter-tire like qualities in the snow, with the Continental showing an extremely balanced wet/snow performance blend.

Value

As in other tests, the Michelin had the best wear scores, but it was the Falken that proved to have the best price / wear balance costing just 4.84 euros per 1,000 km.

Environment

The Nokian had the lowest fuel use, with most of the all season tires on test beating the summer tire.

The good value Nexen tire proved to also be the quietest on test.

Results