With the winter tire market starting to develop in the UK, a lot of people have been discussing all season tires. UK winters are characterised by long, cold wet spells, and when the snow falls our road systems grind to a halt due to 99% of the cars in use are running summer tires.
For those people who don't want the hassle of changing their tires twice a year, all season tires seem like a logical compromise. Designed to work year round, in theory the all season tire can offer 90% of the wet and dry performance of a summer tire, combined with 90% of the performance of a winter tire on the snow. If these tires are able to offer that sort of performance, with similar year round qualities of a summer tire, what are the draw backs?
Is there such thing as an all season tire
The definition of a modern all season tire is subject to a lot of debate in the tire industry.
All tires are a compromise of performances, and modern all season tires, such as the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons, Vredestein Quatrac 3, Hankook Optimo 4S and Kleber Quadraxer could easily be defined as "wet optimised" winter tires.
These modern all season tires are patterned and siped like winter tires, but use slightly less winter optimal compounds to improve wear and dry weather ability. Certain tires from the Nordic companies are actually called winter tires in the UK, but the same tire is referenced as all season tires in other climates.
So how do they actually perform?
To help us benchmark all season tire performance, we've turned to the Auto Bild 2012 Winter tire test. In that test, 15 winter tires were tested, and they included a summer tire, and the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons all season tire.
For the purposes of consistency we will reference the Goodyear all season tire, against the test winning Continental Winter Contact TS850, and the summer tire.
It's no surprise the summer tire doesn't perform on snow, nor is it a surprise that the all season tire can't quite match the winter tire in the same snowy conditions. What does get interesting is when we look at the wet, dry, wear and rolling resistance scores of each tire.
Under dry braking the results are extremely close, with the winter and all season tire stopping just 0.3 meters apart in favour of the all season. Change the surface to wet, and we find that the Continental winter tire actually stops just 2 meters behind the summer tire, while the all season tire takes a further 5.2 meters to stop.
It's a similar picture during the handling tests. The summer tire couldn't even manage a lap on snow, while the all season tire got within 3.5 kph of the winter. In both the wet and dry the summer leads by a margin, but in both these tests it's the winter that out performs the all season tire. Not what we'd necessarily expect.
The Goodyear has a slightly higher projected mileage, at 38550 kms compared to 33700 for the winter (the summer tire wasn't tested), and during the rolling resistance tests it was actually the Continental winter tire which had the lowest rolling resistance, so would use the least fuel.
To conclude
What can we conclude from this test? The evidence suggests that the technology to create a true all season tire doesn't yet exist, and looking at the balance of qualities, the best winter tire on sale in the UK is actually a better year round tire than the leading all season contender. The Continental works better in the snow, better in the wet during handling, braking and aquaplaning tests, and in the dry it's only narrowly beaten under dry braking, but wins again during the dry handling tests. We’re waiting for the confirmation of the wet and dry test temperatures, but we believe them to be around 7c.
All tires are a compromise, and a siped tire with a compound designed to work in a large range of conditions is more of a compromise than most. Unfortunately, a true all season tire still doesn't exist, and for optimum year round grip we need to run two sets of tires. As a summer tire offers little to no performance in the snow, an all season, or good quality winter tire can be a sensible year round compromise if you don't want the bother of running two sets of wheels, but want to be mobile regardless of the conditions.
The Continental Winter Contact TS850 has moved the game on for winter tires, and based on these test results, would anyone question if it was labelled an all season tire?
Have a read of this by the same author written 2 years later! http://www.tirereviews.co.u...
How would the Summer tires perform at -5 to 5 degrees
Celsius in dry and wet conditions?
I noted that the scale for the "Snow Breaking" does not start at zero. So it looks roughly like Winter=31, AllSeason=38 and Summer=69. So there's only a slight compromise for the AllSeason tire on snow.
I'm just about to start my first winter with the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons. It's a hassle and quite an expense to store & fit a separate set of winter tires. Thus, I've chosen an all-season tire with the reassurance of reasonable/good snow performance and if the snow is really trecherous I'll put on the snow-sox I keep in the boot for occaisional/exceptional use. Fingers crossed folks, it looks like UK winter 2013/14 will be a chilly one!
You'll have no snow issues with the Vector 4Season, it's an idea we're starting to come round to. See our latest winter tire buying guide!
http://www.tirereviews.co.u...
next time a test like this is run please can you try and do 6 catagories
Snow
Cold Wet (~5C)
Cold Dry
Hot Wet (~25C)
Hot Dry
Wear
I think most people in Southern England are looking for a tire that is 'pretty good' in any condition, we don't need 'handling' to sit in traffic jams, tootle along a motorway, or pick the kids up from school. I've tried Vredstein Quadrac 3 tires and they got me about in last winters snow and have been pretty effective in mud too. I've got about 22k miles out of them so far and I'd suggest they'll go to 25k without a problem. (3mm limit)
If I lived in Yorkshire or further north I'd buy another set of wheels for winter tires, but I don't, for the 1 week of snow we get some years, a 'summer tire' that isn't utterly useless in the snow is all I want, the Vredsteins have been that tire to me.
While we'd love to do this test, logistically it's very difficult. It would either take a lot of (expensive) flying and shipping of tires, or over 6 months to complete, by which time the patterns would have probably changed!
We're going to try and do it with a very small subset of tires.
That really would be excellent.. yes I can see the logistical problems.. is there a Scandinavian magazine you could tie up with to keep costs reasonable?
So, come on then... where's the winter v. summer v. all season test on a warm road?
I'd be very interested to see this sort of comparison at around 25 degrees C.
Trust me people, we americans use all season tires year round in snowy climates and we use Michelins, Bridgestone, Continentals, etc on many of our cars and can drive through 5 inch or more of snow with little issues. We can use winter tires but only if we do alot of driving in the snow or on highways during winter time or have a rear wheel drive sedan from the luxury brands. Most of the cars in the USA come with all seasons and all wheel drive. If you have front wheel drive, then all seasons in UK is perfect. If you have awd, you can still use all season too with better traction if not perfect like winter sets but about 80% of the benefits. You SHOULD not be using performance or so-called summer tires at temps below 40 degrees F or 5 degrees celsius as the ride is harder and more slippy. I am not sure why these tire brands and UK are not collaborating for good all seasons like here in the US. All my british family members are jealous that we can drive our sedans, luxury cars, and SUVS in all kinds of weather with good all season tires that are smoother, quieter, longer lasting, and great traction compared to summer performance tires.
Judging by the crash videos on youtube, Americans seem to have terrible problems with traction in all conditions. Maybe tires? Maybe concrete roads?
Well that means that the americans are probably less sensitive to the way their car handles and that the europeans want to have better in the summer and better in the winter.
You are correct but we do use winter tires. I have blizzaks winter set for my car and they are phenomenal.
As a taxi driver I have tried loads of different tires, keber Quadraxer all season tires are by far the best value for money tire I have had fitted. I get about 5 thousand miles more out of those than I have ever had out of any other tire.
Revisiting this article after driving with my Goodyear4S tires during the winter, spring and now during summer ( well almost summer but there have been hot days already over here ).
The 4S tires perform as expected. Good handling and breaking at 24c
Compared to winter tires, these handle and break better.than winter tires at these temperatures.
Thus my criticism towards this article still stands.
It is not because the winter tire performs better in cold wet conditions that it automatically is the better all round tire. Sure it will be a better idea ( for safety ) to have winter tires all year as opposed to have summer tires all year. Winter tires will not completely fail during the summer, while summer tires do completely fail during the winter. And that is why continental says " that running a winter tire through summer is less of a compromise than running a summer tire through winter "
However, all season tires are not summer tires and they perform well during the winter, and imho they make up for their small winter handicap by performing better during the summer.
Here in Belgium we had an enexpected snowfall on march 12, while many people already switched back to summer tires. It was fun being able to drive through the snow with no issues, while overtaking most other cars who where caught with their pants down ( summer tires ).
So if you live in an unpredictable climate ( like Belgium or the UK ) and you don't have the ability to switch between your summer and winter tires by yourself to anticipate for snowfall or a heatwave on the next day, then my advice is to buy a set of top quality all season tires ( Goodyear 4S or Bridgestone A001 for example ).
I agree with your comment especially because it seems to me that Goodyear 4S tires are actually "proper winter performance tires" as are Nokian All Weather Plus tires. These tires have a mountain snow flake symbol which means that they can handle real snow conditions if necessary.These tires are not what in the US label all weather tires (they have no mountain snowflake symbol).
What about at higher temperatures? How would the winter cope with autobahn driving in the middle of summer. I only do 6000 miles a year (3000 in summer going to Italy and back) and have always had 2 sets of tires. I was hoping that all seasons would stop my need for this, but it would appear not.
Unfortunately we've not seen any specific data on how the latest all season and winter tires handle hot summer running. It's something we'll try and put the tire manufacturers for.
This summer took my Bmw 318i across Europe, down to Prague and up to Tallinn. The height of summer on hot roads and for long high speed runs. Tires were Continent Winter Contact 850s. To start with I monitored them in case of high temperature issues but gave up, there were no problems. Ride was great and no worries about grip on cornering. Occasionally on some surfaces slightly more scrabbling for grip on acceleration from standstill than my old Dunlop summer tires.
They are not the cheapest of tires but compared to the cost of changing and storing, over the life of the tires I reckon that I will save money compared to running two sets.
Of course in the winter, first snow, they have been great. Steering and braking both done with great confidence.
I think modern All Season Tires, like the Bridgestone A001, should be the standard tire fitted by car manufacturers for the UK market. Like other aspects of car handling (FWD understeer or RWD oversteer) people will learn to drive to capabilities of the All Season Tires during summer, and we will all be pleased with the reduced chaos on the road network when snow comes. For those that can afford the expense of an extra set of wheels, then they have the ability to optimise for summer and winter. I am surprised neither the UK government, automobile associations, insurance industry or car manufacturers interested in overall car safety, have come to the same conclusion that All Season tires are the most appropriate tire choice if using one set of tires all year round.
Extra set of wheels is no extra expense regarding the tires as the other ones do not wear while stored and the expense for discs is negligible for the life of the car. The hassle of changing them twice a year means 60mins of work by yourself. I think it IS worth the extra safety.
I used to run summer / winter tires for about 8 years, having a second set of steel wheels for the winter tires, and changing sets in October and April. One advantage of having two sets of wheels is that there is the opportunity to change the wheel size to fit a slightly narrower winter tire for better snow performance.
However, for the past 2 years, I have run Bridgestone A001 All Season Tires all year round, feeling that tire technology has progressed to the stage that the latest All Season Tires are adequate.
My experience of the A001 tires is that performance on normal snow is very similar to my previous experience of winter tires. Perhaps more of a gap on compacted snow which has iced up, but still good. Summer performance is also fine, and close to a summer tire for normal driving, but noticeable if driving at high speed on twisty roads. But this extra performance is not something I value. Perhaps a high speed emergency manoeuvre to avoid a hazard on the motorway during summer in dry conditions would be helped with summer tires, but so would keeping a safe distance and I think the 90% grip in summer of All Season Tires is good enough traction for ESP and ABS to take advantage of.
My previous experience with Continental, Michellin and Pirelli winter tires is that their compounds being capable down to -25c temperatures is way beyond most UK winter temperatures, and they noticeably rumble and handling degrades at temperatures above 20C in summer, and so would not use them all year round.
I agree with most of the comments from AWD. The test isn't really representative as it doesn't test in summer temperatures so I would expect the winters to come out ahead of all seasons.
My own experience of the A001s was that I paired these with a set of winter tires on the rear. I took the winters off through the summer, but left the A001s on. I can't say I ever felt them lacking and the wear rate was similar with the fronts lasting a year and 18,000 miles before being getting down to 3mm and pushed to the back with a fresh set to the front.
One aspect that hasn't been mentioned is how they handle standing water. In this respect these are the best tires I have ever used and the only ones I have ever recommended to others. Unfortunately they don't have my size now but I will fit them to the other cars in the household as they come due.
I drive on all road conditions and these have always felt secure and in my view a good compromise for the UK's unpredictable climate.
To me it is clear that the Continental will perform a lot less during warmer temperatures. I like most of the articles here, even this one was good up until the conclusion. If the continental is only tested around 7 degrees, then all we know is that it is a good winter tire, I mean duh ...
Check out the Auto Bild All season test for 2012 ( can find it on this site in as well ), and there you will clearly see that a pure winter tire is not the way to go all year round.
4sRider, I agree with you, however, I wonder how Continental themselves can suggest the WinterContact is suitable as a single choice tire over the SummerContact? If this tire is being tested at warmer temperatures, then we should also see it higher up the ranking when run against the dedicated Summer tires.
I wonder if the results are weighted somehow, perhaps like a golf handicap, to allow for tires across a manufacturers range to 'compete'. If so, there couldn't be a level playing field to start with and at no stage should Continental suggest Wintercontact perform well as a year round tire. How are they arriving at this conclusion?
Continental, quite rightly state, that running a winter tire through summer is less of a compromise than running a summer tire through winter.
As mentioned, all tires are a compromise, and some of the new "all season" tire s have exactly the same compromises as the winters, with regard to compound, so from our experience / understanding it's unlikely the Continental would perform noticeably worse than the Goodyear in summer conditions.
Perhaps this is something we can test next year when it warms up...
Do they say that running any winter tire is less of a compromise, or do they that their winter tire is less of a compromise?
If it's the later then I agree, because the Wintercontacts are exceptional - but so is their price.
Cheaper winter tires don't remotely match them for performance and therefore at lower price points, I think the average all-season may actually be less of a compromise - it has certainly felt so to me anyway, with warm braking proving hazardous and handling extremely vague on average winter tires and the soft silica that gives them their cold grip means that wear above 7 degrees is phenomenal.
To repeat though, the Continental winters are an exceptional tire and if they weren't nearly £1000 a set for my particular car, I'd would have a set on from October to April, whatever the weather.
Hi, good article, thanks.
From your graphs above it does appear that running the best winter tires all year round would be as safe as running all season tires. I'm not convinced. Particularly if the wet and dry tests were done at 7 degrees. After winter performance (which you have covered) surely the most important comparison between the winter and all season tire is wet and dry breaking performance at summer temperatures. There does not appear to be data for this but I think we might be surprised. From my experience of driving with good winter tires (Goodyear Ultra Grip7+) on unusually hot spring days it can be like driving on hot wax, there are times when hard breaking on a dry road leads to a slide and activates the ABS in multiple wheels. Cornering can also become very hairy as winter tires warm up and become more flexible letting the move sideways even before the tires loose grip. In summer even in Britain roads can heat up until the tar melts and the surface of my summer tires can sometimes be too hot to touch after driving quickly on twisty road. We might find that under these conditions the winter tire becomes dangerous whereas the all season tire may perform a lot closer to a summer tire.
What are you thoughts?
This is exactly what I was thinking; the all-season tires (Vector and Quadraxer from personal experience) are only snow siped in the middle of the tread (this actually leads to a slight side slippage sometimes in snow with the Quadraxer, but nothing major and they don't get stuck). However the outer portions of the tread are not siped for snow and this gives them a great deal more stability when cornering in warmer temperatures and braking. In summer they are a good deal more stable than winters and just feel like normal tires to me.
Both excellent posts.
Continental actually recommend if you only run one tire year round, run the WinterContact rather than the SportContact, so they're not worried about it overheating in warmer conditions.
Our understanding of the all season tires is that the compounding isn't /that/ far off a full winter, after all, they still have to work in freezing conditions, we you're making the same compromises as you do with a winter tire.
Hopefully we'll be speaking with Goodyear soon about the differences between the Ultragrip and Vector 4Seasons.
It will be interesting to hear what Goodyear have to say. At the moment I'm considering their Vector 4Seasons, or Continental's Wintercontact TS850, as year-round tires for my Subaru Legacy Sports Tourer.
It seems that in my size (205/55/16) the Conti's may wear better than the 4S, looking at the difference in their EU efficiency labels and perform better in a wet Autumn/Winter/Spring, especially if apex speeds are similar and breaking distances shorter for a Winter tire.
However, along with the first two posts, how these tires perform in warmer weather and, dare I say it, hot weather, is rather important. I'd prefer to run one set of tires, but the TS850's seem to be a more versatile tire than the 4Seasons, certainly for most of the year.
Unfortunately, I am aware that, given predictable conditions, I should choose a tire to suit those conditions, but my sedate driving style [wife and 2 kids] encompasses Winter in the Peak District and Summer on the Continent and everything else in between. I still find it difficult to reconcile with the possibility that a 'Winter' tire may be a better all-rounder than a all-season tire.
Hi Robb,
Still waiting for some good technical data on the 4S, but I'm afraid I'm not sure we'll find the answers we're looking for.
Perhaps in the summer we'll have to get a few sets of tires and try this ourselves!
Well, we have since had a fantastic summer. How did it go?
Wonderfully. Unfortunately it was nearly exclusively spent on summer tires for us!
Some of the reviews of all season / winter tires are starting to show year round running, with no adverse affects for commuting style driving.
Continental may recommend using wintercontact as the safest opotion for year round use but is this because they do not sell an all season tire by any chance??
Continental state they don't believe there is a true all season tire yet, and as such don't want to dress a winter optimised tire as an all season.