Tire Types

Here in the UK summer tires are the sort the vast majority of the public use year-round, although they perform less well at colder temperatures and extremely poorly in snow. Winter tires are designed for the colder months and have good snow capabilities while still retaining wet and dry performance, although often at the cost of some dry braking. All season tires are somewhere in between, attempting to be usable in all conditions while being left on year-round. Most modern all season tires have the “snowflake on mountain” certification on them, just as full winter tires do.

Background

After the heavy and prolonged snow of the winter of 2009/2010 (even in the south of the UK), I fitted cold weather / winter-capable tires the following year. As well as considering some winter-rated all season tires I'd also considered some dry-biased full winters. In the end I went for a (Central European) snow-biased winter tire. I would be rewarded, since the 2010/2011 winter would be similarly snowy.

I've continued to fit winter tires for the past 14 years, documenting the experiences with my first two sets on Tire Reviews. However, when I removed my third set in the spring of 2024 I really did question fitting a new and fourth set this autumn.

This wasn't because I “no longer believed” in winter tires, nor was it the run of mostly mild winters we've had since those back to back cold ones some 15 years ago. No, the reason was a change in my circumstances. I was at this point doing considerably less mileage and mainly during the middle part of the day. Prices at my local tire place for swapping over tires had doubled since I first began running winters, plus rather than wearing out my tires they were starting to age out first. I also had to be realistic about the age of my car and whether it would last through further multiple (summer+winter) sets. Finally, the third car in our family was now running winter-capable tires for the very first time in the form of the Michelin CrossClimate 2, so at a pinch I thought I'd be able to have use of another car if required. My plan at the beginning of 2024 was therefore to run summer tires all year round going forwards.

Things changed for me again at the start of autumn, when I ended up doing several early morning runs for a family member to the hospital and the vets (for unrelated reasons, I hasten to add!). Suddenly I was considering winter tires again, given that such short notice, emergency outings could mean the third car in the family might not be available to me.

A final twist came slightly later in the autumn when I ended up doing some VERY early morning runs. I was driving through wet, slippery recently flooded country lanes at 3 degrees C as mist rolled off the grass verges and fields, with the final destination being up a moderately steep private track that was lined with rubble. I was also now doing evening rush hour driving and on that same day I was returning at 17 degrees C with the following evening being 18 degrees. 17-18 degrees is when I find winter tires have noticeable and unacceptable (for me) severely delayed steering and braking. I now found myself wanting all season tires.

All Season Tires

Goodyear claim to have pioneered the concept of all season tires and their “Vector” series had historically been the benchmark. However, the tire market was completely disrupted in March 2015 with the launch of Michelin's “CrossClimate.” Michelin stressed that these were to be considered summer tires with winter capabilities - most all season tires up until then were much closer to winter tires in terms of performance and design trade-offs. The CrossClimate instead was similar to summer tires in the dry and wet while still providing grip in the cold and wintry conditions, making them far more suitable for year-round use and also for milder climates such as the UK where you only see occasional snow.

Continental had up until this point remained out of the all season tire market, but in 2017 they released their “AllSeasonContact” product. In their press release Conti referred to it as “a tire suitable for drivers who cover lower mileage and drive in and around urban areas in moderate weather conditions,” stating that, “for all other drivers, in the interests of maximum road safety Continental continues to recommend fitting tires that have been specially developed for the relevant season.” In 2023 Conti released the successor model, the AllSeasonContact 2.

Winter Tires

Historically the general advice was that if you wanted to have winter-capable tires but (for whatever reason) you could only fit one set of tires for year-round use, then you should fit winter tires. This was because the safety and performance benefits of running winter tires in winter outweigh the performance disadvantages of running winter tires in summer. (Or to put it another way: you compromise yourself more by running summer tires in winter.)

The Continental WinterContact TS series of Central European winter tires have for many years been incredibly rounded in performance across dry, wet and snowy conditions, so much so that Jon gave the TS 860 as an “alternative” in his Tire Reviews “best all season tires” 2018 round up, commenting that it had been “more all season than some all season tires” when included as a reference winter tire.

In previous articles I have myself repeated that if you could only fit one set of tires then you should fit winter tires, but my view on that has since shifted. Modern all season tires have improved so much that they now warrant their naming, although you should consider the different dry/wet/snow trade-offs that each manufacturer makes as to what tire is suitable for your climate and driving.

My Choices

Come late September 2024 I'd narrowed my candidates down to the current Continental WinterContact TS 870 (already being used as a winter tire on the second car in the family) and the new (and only just available this year in my tire size) Continental AllSeasonContact 2 as my first choices for a winter and all season tire respectively. Both were incredibly well rounded tires for their category.

Unfortunately I was finding it hard to locate stock at mainstream UK retailers, so I reached out to Jon to see if Conti could supply me with a review set of either. Continental were themselves out of stock and it would take (exactly!) a month from my initial approach for Conti to source and arrange delivery of the AllSeasonContact 2 to my local tire fitters. During the intervening time I found stock of first the ASC2 and then a while later the TS870, so I would have had fall back options if Continental hadn't been able to pull through.

What would I have fitted had I bought tires myself? Most likely the TS870. Fitting separate summer and winter tires is so deeply ingrained in me, plus my personal belief - at least up until now - has been that if you're going to compromise your dry and wet running for some winter capabilities then you may as well go all the way and fit full winter tires. So, while the ASC2 are being supplied and fitted for me courtesy of Continental, they are not going to get an easy ride.

The biggest question mark for me, however, is how a more rounded (as opposed to dry biased) all season tire will work in the heat of the summer. In my first year of running winter tires I'd known about the “7 degree rule” for fitting winter tires, but I hadn't been sure of the opposite - i.e. when best to remove them. That year I found that it was above 10 degrees C when I began to notice poorer performance, and have since used the cut-off point of temperatures being consistently at and above 13 degrees to be when I change back to summers. Interestingly, in 2020 I'd run our winter tires into early June and at a maximum of 26 degrees due to a global, viral outbreak some of you might remember. I don't recall now what winter tires were like at such hot temperatures (my mind seems to have tried to forget that period of time), other than to say that I'd previously found 17-18 degrees unacceptable, so it must have been the same or even worse!

Fitting

Historically the earliest I've fitted winter tires has been 31st October, with my average across the previous 14 years being 21st November. I was contacted by my local tire place on 25th October to say that the AllSeasonContact 2s had arrived, although I was busy then and for the next couple of days, so I arranged for fitting to be done on the 28th October. This year based on the most recent weather forecast I'd ear-marked mid-November as the ideal switch-over point for fitting winter tires. Putting the ASC2 on slightly earlier therefore gave me a few weeks in warmer and mixed conditions to see how an (all-round) all season tire fared when I'd otherwise still be running summers, as well as when I then approached and passed the switch-over point when I'd normally be running winters.

Tread depth of the Continental AllSeasonContact 2 at new was around 8mm. According to the date code my set were 10 weeks old and were made in Slovakia.

First Impressions

In my short drive home from the garage I found that the comfort and quietness of the AllSeasonContact 2 was more towards that of a winter tire. Braking was slightly longer than a summer tire - although less than I was expecting. It had been drizzling all morning so the roads were damp and greasy. I found traction to be better than a summer tire in these conditions.

Once home I allowed the tires to cool down for a couple of hours before adjusting the pressures to those recommended for my car. I then went out on a loop I've used repeatedly over the years that includes different speed limits (between 30 and 70 mph) and road types. Here I found that the ASC2 had somewhat of a split personality.

At urban speeds (as I'd already experienced on my initial drive home), the AllSeasonContact 2 were more like a comfort oriented tire, quiet and feeling soft over any slight bumps. But above 30 mph they felt harsher over larger bumps and pot-holes, behaving much more like sportier tires I've driven in the past - crashing over irregularities while maintaining momentum. Braking from these higher speeds now took longer, more like a winter tire (and what I had originally been expecting from an all-round all season tire). Steering was highly responsive and grip was still good at higher speeds on damp, greasy and leave-strewn autumnal roads.

Fuel economy of the AllSeasonContact 2 was ironically more difficult to judge, despite having numbers for it. Frustratingly, I encountered FOUR sets of temporary traffic lights around my fixed loop, making comparisons against previous tires meaningless. I now regretted not squeezing in a run on my summer tires prior to removing them as I could at least have then had an apples-to-apples comparison.

A third run was done on the day that was, like my initial one back from fitting, urban based, but now partly in the evening rush hour. These two urban runs averaged out at 36.4 MPG for the ASC2. This directly compared to 36.3 MPG for my most recent summer tires and 34.6 MPG for my last winter tires. I expect this is more engine/traffic congestion constrained rather than tire related, but it's good to know that the AllSeasonContact 2 is at least in the ballpark. My summer tires are rated “A” on the EU Label whereas the ASC2 are “C” in my size. My old winters were rated “E” whereas the current model of them, as well as the TS 870, are rated “D.” Over the course of the year then I may - at least on longer runs - be losing out over the summer months while gaining in the colder ones. The latter point could be an additional justification for running all-season tires in place of winter tires in the UK.

Initial AllSeasonContact 2 versus CrossClimate 2 experiences

The following day I ended up using the Michelin CrossClimate 2 shod car for a shopping run in order to also fill it up with petrol for the owner. Roads were bone dry now, so comparisons from the previous day were not exact. However, I continued to notice the ever so slightly longer dry braking of the CC2 in comparison to summer tires, but otherwise the CC2 behaved consistently and - if I'm honest - quite boringly. The CC2 “just felt like tires,” aside for the slightly longer dry braking. As a reminder, Michelin engineered the original CrossClimate to be a “summer tire with winter capabilities.” The current CrossClimate 2 has shifted the design somewhat, retaining the dry weather properties but with a massive improvement in snow performance - at the cost of a weaker wet performance.

In comparison, the Continental AllSeasonContact 2 from technical testing appears to have been designed to work in a balanced way across all conditions. Perhaps the extremely clever engineering of the ASC2 was what I'd picked up regarding the split personality I'd encountered, being quiet and soft at urban speeds and over small bumps, while sportier and harsher over bigger bumps and pot holes and at higher speeds.

The next day was dry again and another short urban run was done on the AllSeasonContact 2. This cemented my impression of them - close to a summer tire, but a bit more towards a winter tire than the CrossClimate 2, with the ASC2 taking ever so slightly longer to brake and steer.

Further running as temperatures varied

I continued to note my experiences over the course of the next two weeks. The Continental AllSeasonContact 2 gripped well in all conditions, including around winding multi-story car park ramps. It also picked up speed faster than my recent tires, further adding to its slightly sporty side.

As temperatures dropped to 10-11 degrees the ASC2 began to feel more like a winter tire, while at 12 degrees more like a summer. I've always been sceptical of tire manufacturers' claims about “adaptive compounds”, but I now began to give that some credence. From my original “split personality” analysis I was now tending more towards a “multi-faceted nature.”

As temperatures dropped down to 9 degrees I found that the longer braking was still catching me out - repeatedly so. The biggest strength I'd identified of the AllSeasonContact 2 - that it behaved differently in varying circumstances - was becoming a frustration to me. While making progress along the road the ASC2 would lull me into thinking it was a summer tire, only to catch me out and behave more like a winter tire when encountering a sweeping curve or when starting to brake. At this point I really was starting to have doubts about the AllSeasonContact 2, particularly for year-round use.

Winter tires go on to the remaining car

The weather wouldn't get cold enough until the middle of November for the now sole remaining summer tire shod car in the family to switch over to its winter tires - currently the Continental WinterContact TS 870. I have to admit a pang of regret that I wasn't running full winters myself. I think this was mainly from all these years of running winter tires and knowing just how well-rounded the TS870 are, but also I think a little from my (at the time) frustration with the ASC2.

The AllSeasonContact 2, however, would start to come in to their own as the temperatures continued to drop. At 8 degrees C at night on a wet road they began to feel even more like a winter tire. At 7 degrees in heavier rain the following evening they did so even more - and krissshed (that's a technical term) undisturbed through a deep puddle of water at the side of road.

Snow!

On Tuesday 19th November 2024 I woke to big fluffy flakes of falling snow. Unfortunately, due to mid-November ground temperatures and morning school/rush-hour traffic, any settled snow soon melted, leaving wet roads. However, it was still only 2 degrees air temp when I went out towards midday and 4-5 degrees on my way back. But, it was on this journey that something miraculous happened - the AllSeasonContact 2 suddenly "clicked" for me and they felt and behaved how I expected them to in these conditions - like winter tires. I now realised how to think of them - AS winter tires, but less compromised in warmer weather, leaving them somewhere between winters and summers. I did worry if the ASC2 would start to catch me out again once temperatures increased, but thankfully when the weather warmed I still “got” them. Wunderbar!

Initial Conclusion and Further Updates

From technical tests the Continental AllSeasonContact 2 appeared to be a well-rounded All Season tire and my initial experiences with them have confirmed that. They are comfortable and quiet, sportier at higher speeds and during acceleration, adapt to changing temperatures, seem to be in the ballpark of my other tires in terms of fuel economy, and perform like winter tires in near zero temperatures and in the wet while being less compromised than a winter tire in the warm and dry.

I plan to update my experiences here on Tire Reviews as I continue to move through the seasons and encounter different weather and driving conditions.

The two open questions for me are how they handle deep, lasting snow (if I get any) - technical testing appears to suggest absolutely fine - and, most importantly, how they feel to me in the warmer conditions of spring and summer. The answers to those points will dictate how I run the AllSeasonContact 2 in subsequent seasons. ASC2 year round? Refit my previous summer tires for the warmer months and use the AllSeasonContact 2 in the colder months? Or revert to running dedicated summer and winter tires? I look forward to finding out.

David