With the line between all season and winter tires becoming increasingly blurred, its good that one magazine places all three tires of tires in the same test.
This years Auto Bild all season tire test includes a summer, a winter, and the nine newest all season tires, and tests them on dry, wet and snowy roads. Using a 195/65 R15 H tire size, the tires were tested on the now de facto tire 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 tire" out performed a pure winter tire in the snow tests, and that the winter tire outperformed all but the two best all season tires 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 tire are now almost non-existent.
Which is the best "All Season" tire 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” tire 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 tire is the overall winner, stopping in 345 feet in total with the Falken in second at 111.4, but the Bridgestone jumps to third with a total of 368 feet and the winter ends in fourth with 377 feet. The test winning Goodyear places fifth, at 377 feet.
With the Falken and Bridgestone out performing the summer tire in the snow by well over 200%, these are the tires we’d be looking at for year round use in the UK, but there’s no escaping a dedicated summer and winter tire setup is the optimum for year round safety and performance.
The Results
Goodyear Vector 4Seasons
195/65 R15
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 6 |
| Wet | 5 |
| Snow | 7 |
| Comfort | 6 |
| Rolling Resistance | 6 |
| Noise | 7 |
Total: 37
Falken EUROALL SEASON AS200
195/65 R15
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 5 |
| Wet | 7 |
| Snow | 6 |
| Comfort | 6 |
| Rolling Resistance | 5 |
| Noise | 9 |
Total: 38
Uniroyal AllSeasonExpert
195/65 R15
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 3 |
| Wet | 5 |
| Snow | 10 |
| Comfort | 7 |
| Rolling Resistance | 5 |
| Noise | 7 |
Total: 37
Bridgestone A001
195/65 R15
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 6 |
| Wet | 8 |
| Snow | 4 |
| Comfort | 6 |
| Rolling Resistance | 3 |
| Noise | 4 |
Total: 31
Vredestein Quatrac 3
195/65 R15
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 5 |
| Wet | 5 |
| Snow | 5 |
| Comfort | 6 |
| Rolling Resistance | 3 |
| Noise | 4 |
Total: 28
Matador Adhessa Evo MP 61
195/65 R15
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 5 |
| Wet | 4 |
| Snow | 6 |
| Comfort | 4 |
| Rolling Resistance | 3 |
| Noise | 5 |
Total: 27
Hankook Optimo 4S
195/65 R15
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 5 |
| Wet | 3 |
| Snow | 7 |
| Comfort | 5 |
| Rolling Resistance | 6 |
| Noise | 6 |
Total: 32
Kleber Quadraxer
195/65 R15
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 4 |
| Wet | 3 |
| Snow | 7 |
| Comfort | 5 |
| Rolling Resistance | 6 |
| Noise | 4 |
Total: 29
Nexen N Priz 4S
195/65 R15
All discipline results (6)
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Dry | 3 |
| Wet | 1 |
| Snow | 5 |
| Comfort | 5 |
| Rolling Resistance | 5 |
| Noise | 8 |
Total: 27
is this a joke? quatrac 3 won the 2011. in 2013 they've scored lower? same category and out of blue the BSa001's and GY4s are better?
Tire technology moves on all the time, even if tire names don't. This year (2014), the Quatrac Lite comes 3rd, behind Pirelli and Goodyear.
We'll have that published soon.
Excellent, looking forward to reading the 2014 test results
Why no Pirelli tires
We're not sure the only true European 4Season tire Pirelli have was available in time for this test:
http://www.tirereviews.co.u...
Odd analysis. The winning tire is the Falken. That is quite clear from the data. Factor in price (the Falken is, on my research, about 25% cheaper than the inferior Goodyear) and it is beyond any argument. Am I missing something?
Auto Bid use score weighting, which means our simple totalling doesn't always give an accurate impression.
I wished I had read this before! I just brought some nexen n priz 4s as the eu label is quite good compared to other tires plus it was good value!
The treadpattern is exactly the same! Althought the compound might be different...
Isn't the all-season Falken Euroall Season As200 identical to the discontinued winter tire Falken Eurowinter HS439 (at least tread-pattern-wise)? I actually happened to use that tire in the winter between 2010 & 2012 and it seemed more of an all-season tire, as it was very quiet and with good characteristics on dry and wet tarmac, average on compacted snow but of noticeably limited pulling power in deep, fresh snow.
Interesting point Adam, we'll ask Falken!
We've asked Falken on twitter, and they've replied saying the compound is updated - https://twitter.com/tirerev...
Compare Bridgestone A001 with Bridgestone LM-25/LM-20. Same situation.
Do you know what kind of winter tire was used? I think it's quite important, especially when it got beaten by a all-season tire.
Unfortunately this isn't something Auto Bild publish :(