2016 Auto Express All Season Tire Test

This year Auto Express have tested six all season tires in the rather large (by all season tires standards) 225/45 R17.

As per our agreement with Auto Express, you will only find very limited coverage below, so be sure to head over to the Auto Express website for full details here.

Results

The excellent Goodyear Vector 4Season Gen-2 wins overall, strongest in the wet, close enough in snow, but disappointing in the dry tests, especially under dry braking where it finished last.

The Nokian WeatherProof finishes second, once again proving to be the best choice if snow performance is your priority. Like the Goodyear, it is not the ideal choice in the dry, finishing last in dry handling.

The Michelin CrossClimate finishes in third place. Once again, the Michelin dominates the dry tests, with the next nearest all season tire 8% worse in dry braking, and once again the French tire struggles in the aquaplaning tests, finishing last in curved aquaplaning and fifth in straight aquaplaning. Curiously, the CrossClimate also struggled under wet braking, finishing in third place and 7% worse than the test winning Goodyear. This is not a result we've seen repeated in any of the European tests, or in fact our own testing. While the CrossClimate couldn't match the majority of the all season tires in the snow, it offered a vastly improved performance when compared to the summer tire, scoring 80% of the best result in the snow braking test, where the summer tire could only manage 30%.

Fourth and fifth places were taken by Hankook and Vredestein respectively, with the Hankook Kinergy 4S and Vredestein Quatrac 5 finishing within just 0.2% of each other overall. Both tires were strong in the dry, with the Vredestein just beating the Hankook, but both tires also struggled in the wet.

The budget Star Performer Winter SPTS AS finished in last place. While the Star Performer was priced at nearly half the price of the test winning Goodyear, Auto Express found very little else positive about the tires performance. With these tires fitted the car stopped a huge 42 feet further than the best under wet braking, and provided low grip and a difficult balance in all three handling tests. It was also the noisiest and had the highest rolling resistance of all tested tires. Not recommended.

1^st

Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen 2

225/45 R17

A fine all rounder that's really safe in the wet and snow.

All discipline results (1)

Test	Result
Overall	100

Total: 100

2^nd

Nokian WeatherProof

225/45 R17

The one to buy if you have prolonged periods of snow.

All discipline results (1)

Test	Result
Overall	99.8

Total: 99.8

3^rd

Michelin CrossClimate

225/45 R17

Excellent in the dry, but weaker in the snow and aquaplaning tests.

All discipline results (1)

Test	Result
Overall	98.4

Total: 98.4

4^th

Hankook Kinergy 4S

225/45 R17

Works well in the dry, less at home in the wet.

All discipline results (1)

Test	Result
Overall	97.4

Total: 97.4

5^th

Vredestein Quatrac 5

225/45 R17

Good performance in the dry and on snow, but weak in the wet

All discipline results (1)

Test	Result
Overall	97.2

Total: 97.2

6^th

Star Performer SPTS AS

225/45 R17

Very cheap to buy, but the loss of performance is not worth the risk.

All discipline results (1)

Test	Result
Overall	92.9

Total: 92.9