Vredestein Quatrac 5

I drive the Quatrac 5 now for two years and 30.000 kilometers (18600 miles), they're decent all season tires. Back tires are down to 6,2mm on the front tires are down to 5mm. One more important thing, the Quatrac 5 are extremely quiet, someone in the previous comments said these tires are noisy, I assume his tires were faulty or his car broken. The fuel economy is amazing. The stopping distance in the wet and on hot summer days isn't the very best, but it's exactly what I expected from a all season tire, so everything is fine. Would I buy them again? Of course I would, they're great.

This is my second review of these tires as I ended up using my van for work over the past winter so clocked about another 15000 miles. I swapped the rears with the fronts and the edges of the fronts were fairly worn and I was suffering with a lot of wheelspin and dangerous braking. The swap improved the braking to the point of not dangerous over winter but it was still below average, handling also improved but on the cold roads I was still getting a lot of wheelspin. One particularly bad trip up north on a motorway run I was suffering extremely badly with aquaplaning even with around 6mm of tread left on them. I swapped them out after with a pair of Michelin cross climates which pretty much solved all my handling, grip, aquaplaning and braking issues. I kept the worn ones on the back and they were fine for the rest of the winter with no problems at all there. Now it's summer I've switched those back to the front and inflated to 45psi cold to get the last use out of them before replacing with the less worn ones. The increased pressure seems to have improved the grip, braking and handling from what it was before. In the warm and dry they are better handling than the cross climates although still not as good in the wet or on the brakes but do seem better than before. I also had some snow driving with the less worn pair on the front before swapping to the Michelins and although they are not as good as those in the cold, wet and ice they actually worked better in snow for me. The Michelins look at least half worn after just 6000 miles on the front so considering the cost difference I'd say the Vredestines are a better tire unless you are doing a lot of driving in bad conditions. In which case I'd probably try the Goodyear Vector 4's which will be going on my Golf diesel this winter. As I said in the last review the Quadrac 5's were pretty good all round for the first 12,000 miles, I don't think the Cross climates would even last any longer than 12,000 miles so the Vredestines win by default. The aquaplaning on the front with the hardly worn tires is my biggest issue and the reason I won't buy these again. The newer version is supposed to be 10% better for that but that's not good enough. Make it 25% and I'd be interested. The Michelins have not aquaplaned once and they are down to about 4mm. The worn pair still on the van is down to about 3mm tread after approximately 20,000 miles on the front and 10,000 on the rear. They are bald on the outside edges but still legal as you only need 1.6mm on 75% of the centre tread in the UK.

I drove about 10,000 miles on these tires and in general I can say that the tires are worthy for those who do not want to bother with changing tires or wheels during the winter period. If the winter is not harsh, you can definitely buy it, but preferably not a low profile because it will be harsh) Otherwise, the tires is not noisy, works well on a dry surface, but it is difficult works on ice or snow, but on snow not as critical as on ice. The conclusion is very simple, use this tire only in a mild winter.

A good all season tire, acceptable to good on all kind of surfaces, good comfort and noise, wear is poor.

Very impressive all around performing tire.

These have been the best tires I've had and are easily comparable to the set of cross climates I've previously had on my old car. I bought these when I finally ran the tread down in the initial bridgestone set which came with my car which I felt did well to get to 28k miles (they were OEM models though so I'd be surprised if off the shelf ones lasted that long). These however are on 32k miles and now they're about done so I've definitely had my use out of them. Many garages tried to put me off these tires, likely because they didn't get a good deal on the price, so I ended up buying them online for around 75% of the prices I was quoted elsewhere. I've also has a lot of people turn their nose up thinking it's some cheap brand but I have to explain that actually they're just not that well known over here. They were superb in the wet and despite having a lower wet grip rating the the Bridgestone's which the car came on these for outgripped those tires by far in the wet. You could feel the car scrambling to get away from the lights or junction in the wet with the Bridgestone's and up until the tread has significantly worn down I've never had that. The road noise definitely isn't the quietest I've had (hence the slightly lower rating on that category) but they are large tires so they're never going to be the best with that anyway and it's not something I can say ever bothered me. They are quite low profile too so they are less forgiving in a car with a sportier suspension in terms of ride quality but in terms of being able to feel the road underneath they did just fine with that.

I have these tires on a MK2 VW Caddy SDi 1.9 diesel with not much over 60bhp. They have now covered around 12,000 to 15,000 miles, fronts are down to 5mm with heavy wear on the edges and the rears are down to 7mm. Most of my driving has been on road trips through Europe in summer in very hot temperatures with a fairly heavy load, I mainly use a car for day to day driving. In the dry these tires perform as well as all but the best summer tires although they are starting to drop off with regular wheelspin occurring even in the dry in recent times. The van will understeer a bit at the limit but it is to be expected on a front drive which combined with the coilovers handles nearly as well as my BMW 1 series. In the wet handling is also good on corners but wheelspin is now nearly as bad as any tires I've experienced when launching or accelerating hard. For the first 10 to 12 thousand miles wheelspin wasn't a problem in the wet. Braking wise in the wet even when the tires were new they were only average, now they are close to being dangerous with planning needed in bad conditions, in an emergency situation you are going to crash. I believe the performance drop off may be due to the excessively hot conditions the tires have been mainly used in as heat cycles will harden rubber, the fact that the fronts have barely worn down much more than the rears show that they may have been overheated when barreling down the alps and doing a couple of laps of the Nurbirgring. When I happened to be using the van after not driving it much for a while it rained and I had no chance of stopping from a not fast speed for a junction, luckily I timed the traffic while I was locking and unlocking the wheels so as not to crash as I pulled straight out in front of someone. Now I am very steady whenever the rain starts to fall or I make sure to drive something else and will swap the tires around as soon as the summer starts to end. If performance is still unsafe when braking in the wet I will purchase a pair of Michelin Cross Climates for the front as according to the tests they maintain performance until they are on the legal limit. I can't stick with dangerous tires no matter how much tread they have left, they are great still in dry conditions and would recommend them if you can get them for a good enough price. I've also got Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons on my 1 series, the Michelins were too expensive for those wheels, so far the Goodyears have impressed although they don't seem quite as good as these Vredestines were when new in the dry. I haven't had the pleasure of snow and ice driving with the Vredestines but on cold tarmac in the winter they out grip most summer tires in corners but are a bit weak when braking again. For the record the van has had new brake pads, discs, fluid and I've cleaned all the dust out of the drums, plus the shoes are within the service limit. All done since I've had these tires, plus it has gone through 2 MOT's. Most of my driving has been easy going except on occasion, rolling resistance is very good, on long motorway runs at 50mph I was averaging close to 70mpg. Normal UK driving gets me mid 50's to the gallon. Overall the Quadrac 5 are good but if you are keeping the vehicle allow them to need replacement within 15,000 miles unless you are happy with sub par / dangerous wet weather performance. You can buy better tires but if the price is right still worth a look.

Generally happy with tire performance other than durability. 2have developed bulges in the sidewalls with no known impact within a year/8000 miles, doesn't look like vredestein is going to be interested in the UK (they offer warranties in other countries). Unless resolved these will be the last I buy

Excellent especially in the dry and for an all-season tire, and with a very progressive handling. I cannot over-exaggerate how can a human-invented substance have so much grip. Mankind has never seen something like this, and probably will never again. Even at the racetrack, these tires are unbelievable. As an example, you can check my lap at the Nordschleife on Youtube, under the title: "Peugeot 205 1.1i (60 HP) - Nürburgring Nordschleife BTG lap in 10'19" on all-season tires".

My experience with these tires: -very good as summer tires, with high levels of grip in the dry -decent as winter tires -they retain the same characteristics in any outside temperature Some things to point out: -they have been quite noisy throughout their life -the sidewall is taller compared to other same size tires (dispite this, the handling is very good) -although the tire pressures were always correct and regularly checked, the edges did wear faster than the inside of the tires. Higher tire pressures seemed to solve this problem slightly

Many years ago whilst living in Scotland I used to use Vredestein tires sold by the local garage. .Don't knoiw why I got out of the habit. Now living in Derbyshire, most of my driving is on muddy local lanes and roads with a few ventures onto motorways.
As my old Mondeo passed yet another MOT I had to buy tires for it. I'm not a tire geek, but prefer a quiet tire. After a bit of research and reading the reviews here I decided on an all season tire and rekindled my enthusiasm for Vredestein.
From the second I drove away from the garage I knew I'd made the correct choice. The Quatrac 5 is quiet. It isn't soggy, pretty firm, gives lovely feedback and is great on the local muddy lanes. The day after fitting they got a blast down the motorway going south - a really comfortable and secure experience in cold heavy rain and flooded roads.
We've only driven about 500 miles, deliberately enacted a few emergency stops and slews in the wet and dry. No spin when accelerating. So far they're knocking spots of the Toyos, Michelins, Goodyears we've used in past times.
Can't speak for longevity as it's early days and awaiting some snow and ice.
How can one get so enthusiastic about four bits of rubber?

Living in the Netherlands, grip in wet conditions is more important than in snow. I drove 80.000 km with one set and still have 3.5 mm left. Grip in the wet is great compared to my previous tires (factory fit on a Ford Fiesta, don't know which ones). When going to Germany in winter, grip in snow turned out to be bad. a slight incline was too much on compacted snow. To me, this doesn't matter because that's 0,5 of the 80.000 km I drove with those tires. The grip in the wet, wear and comfort make them a 'buy again'! 3 mm is fine for next summer if they'll last that long, 1,6 mm is required in the Netherlands. So this is past 'mid life' but will take some time before replacement.

Had these on my Audi A5 Quattro for 2 years and 30,000 miles. Just had the MOT and all 4 still have 6mm of tread on them.
They are really quiet and smooth and have excellent grip in snow, wet and dry conditions. Will definitely buy them again.

When on wet surfaces, I couldn't tell much difference compared to the dry ones! A bit understeering when pushed to the limit on dry tarmac, but until right before the limit it's as good as a premium summer tire. Really comfortable on bumpy - uneven surfaces.

It surely prevents you from using chains when dealing with snow and ice. I'd definitely buy them again.

Having had our first significant snowfall of the year, a solid 10cm on the side roads, these tires have performed exceptionally. They provide ample grip on even significant snow covered inclines, granted with the assistance of the AWD system in my legacy, but its is the lateral grip while cornering and stopping power that really stands out.
Even in lower temperatures - sub 5/6 degrees C- they remain noticeably more flexible, retaining the same grip available at higher temperatures.
Wear is too early to comment other than there are no real signs after 1000 miles on a fairly potent legacy spec b.
100% recommend to anyone looking for a winter/ all season.