The testing heroes at Sport Auto have answered a question we've all wanted to know the answer to! Just how good are all season tires in large wheel sizes on a performance vehicle?
To answer this, Sport Auto have tested six of the best all season tires, and included a NAMED summer and winter tire, the Bridgestone Potenza Sport UUHP summer tire, and the test winning Bridgestone Blizzak LM005 winter tire.
It's a good test.
5 categories (13 tests)
Test Category | Best Performer | Worst Performer | Difference |
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Dry (2 tests) | |||
Dry Braking | ▲ Bridgestone Potenza Sport: 36.7 M | ▼ Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen 3: 43.9 M | 7.2 M (16.4%) |
Dry Handling | ▲ Bridgestone Potenza Sport: 127.3 Km/H | ▼ Bridgestone Blizzak LM005: 120.3 Km/H | 7.0 Km/H (5.8%) |
Wet (5 tests) | |||
Wet Braking | ▲ Vredestein Quatrac Pro: 30.1 M | ▼ Toyo Celsius AS2: 39.5 M | 9.4 M (23.8%) |
Wet Handling | ▲ Vredestein Quatrac Pro: 75.4 Km/H | ▼ Toyo Celsius AS2: 68.5 Km/H | 6.9 Km/H (10.1%) |
Wet Circle | ▲ Bridgestone Potenza Sport: 8.45 m/s | ▼ Toyo Celsius AS2: 7.58 m/s | 0.9 m/s (11.5%) |
Straight Aqua | ▲ Toyo Celsius AS2: 75.6 Km/H | ▼ Bridgestone Weather Control A005: 68.7 Km/H | 6.9 Km/H (10.0%) |
Curved Aquaplaning | ▲ Bridgestone Potenza Sport: 2.76 m/sec2 | ▼ Bridgestone Weather Control A005: 1.84 m/sec2 | 0.9 m/sec2 (50.0%) |
Snow (3 tests) | |||
Snow Braking | ▲ Bridgestone Blizzak LM005: 26.1 M | ▼ Bridgestone Potenza Sport: 56.8 M | 30.7 M (54.0%) |
Snow Handling | ▲ Bridgestone Blizzak LM005: 47.9 Km/H | ▼ Bridgestone Potenza Sport: 17.6 Km/H | 30.3 Km/H (172.2%) |
Snow Slalom | ▲ Bridgestone Blizzak LM005: 3.49 m/sec2 | ▼ Bridgestone Potenza Sport: 1.23 m/sec2 | 2.3 m/sec2 (183.7%) |
Comfort (1 tests) | |||
Noise | ▲ Vredestein Quatrac Pro: 71.1 dB | ▼ Bridgestone Potenza Sport: 73.9 dB | 2.8 dB (3.8%) |
Value (2 tests) | |||
Price | ▲ Bridgestone Potenza Sport: 171 | ▼ Bridgestone Blizzak LM005: 240 | 69.0 (28.8%) |
Rolling Resistance | ▲ Continental AllSeasonContact: 7.5 kg / t | ▼ Bridgestone Potenza Sport: 9.8 kg / t | 2.3 kg / t (23.5%) |
Dry
What can we learn? Naturally the summer tire wins the dry tests, that's no surprise, but there's quite a big delta in dry braking and a huge difference in dry handling! The winter also places as you'd expect in dry handling, although it does beat the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons G3 in dry braking, which is always a weakness of that all season tire.
Wet
Wet braking is quite a surprise. The tests were done at 8c, and it's important to remember the Potenza Sport UUHP summer tire is one of the UUHP tires that does need a bit of temperature to work, but in this test the summer tire could only manage mid pack in wet braking and near the bottom during wet handling! The rear star is the winter tire, beating all the all season tires are relatively warm winter conditions, apart from the Vredestein Quatrac Pro, which is always outstanding in the wet.
Snow
Fortunately the winter tire was also the best in all the snow tests and the summer tire the worst.
As we've seen in other tests, the Michelin CrossClimate 2 is as close to a winter tire as any all season tire is.
Environment
Noise is an interesting test, with the summer tire by far the nosiest and the winter tire once again only being beat by the Vredestein. Summer tires are usually closer to all season tires in noise, this Potenza Sport is particularly noisy.
There was quite a spread in rolling resistance, with the AllSeasonContact proving to be the best of the group.
Interestingly all the all season tires were priced between the summer and winter tires.
Results
1st: Michelin CrossClimate 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Very good on snow with a high level of grip and a comparatively wide limit range for an all-season. Very short braking distances dry. Good feedback and high grip in dry corners, good safety reserves. Slightly longer braking distances in the wet and heavy understeer in wet turns, somewhat reduced aquaplaning safety. Weakly audible howling noise between 50 and 30 km/h (determined when the vehicle coasts from 80 km/h) Test Winner / Very Good. Read Reviews Buy from £190.85 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2nd: Vredestein Quatrac Pro | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Moderate grip on snow, but excellent wet grip with very precise and reliable handling. Reliable performance even in the dry. Very quiet on the outside and inside, comfortable. Slightly longer braking distances on snow, a bit nervous and sensitive to load changes when cornering. High rolling resistance. Very Good. Read Reviews Buy from £170.45 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
3rd: Continental AllSeasonContact | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Very good traction and easy to control driving behavior on snow, cooperates very well with the ASR/ESP/ABS control systems. Quite safe from aquaplaning, good level of grip and safe handling on dry roads, very low rolling resistance. Sharp traction break, narrow slip zone on snow. Slightly longer braking distances on wet and dry roads. Very Good. Read Reviews | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
4th: Bridgestone Weather Control A005 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Quite balanced performance on snow for an all-season, decent grip in the wet, cornering, precise and quite similar to a summer tire in the dry. Comparatively narrow threshold range on snow, low aquaplaning resistance, faintly audible, humming road noise at low speeds. Good. Read Reviews | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
4th: Bridgestone Blizzak LM005 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Reference winter tires with better grip due to the system and wider slip and limit areas on snow. Easily manageable even in critical situations. Good wet grip, decent ride comfort. Significant deficits when driving fast on winding, dry roads. Sluggish steering response, strong understeer. Very weakly perceptible rolling noise inside the vehicle, increased rolling resistance. Read Reviews Buy from £245.42 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
5th: Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Decent grip and agile handling on snow, safer and wider limit area on wet. Very manageable on dry roads, but not very dynamic. Low reserves for spinning wheels on snow. Not very stable when changing loads in the wet. Longer braking distances on dry asphalt, high rolling resistance. Good. Read Reviews Buy from £162.64 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
6th: Toyo Celsius AS2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Acceptable braking and cornering grip on snow. Good balanced performance on dry roads, superior aquaplaning safety. Inharmonious with too small steering angle and slip reserves handling on snow. Deficits in cornering grip and too long braking distances on a wet road (devaluation). Increased rolling resistance. A bit rumbling, howling road noise at 70-50 km/h. Fair. Read Reviews | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
7th: Bridgestone Potenza Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Reference summer tire with high grip and cornering potential on dry and wet roads. Reliable only at higher road surface temperatures above +10°C. Insufficient grip on snow. In the wet tests at +8°C, frequent loss of grip and sudden breakaway. Hard, rumbling rolling on edges and joints due to the temperature, comparatively high rolling resistance. Read Reviews Buy from £134.50 |