All-season tires: light and shadow

All-season tires: light and shadow

All-season tires are becoming increasingly important - not only because of growing market shares, but also as a serious alternative to classic summer and winter tires. “Last year we were able to give an all-season tire the grade of “good” for the first time, and this year we were able to do so four times. However, compared to last year, the number of tires rated as “not sufficient” has doubled from two to four,” explains ÖAMTC tire expert Steffan Kerbl. The overall rating of “good” was given to the models Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen-3, Continental AllSeasonContact 2, Pirelli Cinturato All Season SF3 and the Bridgestone Turanza All Season 6. On the other hand, the CST Medallion All Season ACP1, the APlus AS909, the Arivo Carlorful A/S and the Petlas Multi Action PT565 passed the test with the rating “not sufficient”.

Significant differences

There were particularly big differences in the area of ​​driving safety, such as the braking distance on dry roads at 100 km/h. The Pirelli Cinturato All Season SF 3 achieved the best result here at 38 meters, while the Barum Quartaris 5 needed around 7.5 meters more. “That doesn’t necessarily sound like a lot, but to put it into perspective a little better: While the Pirelli is already stationary, the speedometer on the Barum still shows 40km/h,” Kerbl explains the dimension of the difference. The differences are similarly serious on wet roads. "At 80 km/h on wet roads, the Continental AllSeasonContact 2 comes to a stop after 31.3 meters, the Arivo Carlorful A/S needs around 11.5 meters more - that's a huge difference. The potential damage due to the longer braking distance could be enormous," says the ÖAMTC technician. According to Kerbl, on snow-covered roads, the braking distances were not quite as noticeable - with one exception: "The Nexen N'Blue 4Season and the Barum Quartaris 5 achieved the best result with nine meters each, while 13 other models were a maximum of 80 centimeters behind. The only negative outlier was the Petlas Multi Action PT565, which required 12.5 meters."

Mileage versus driving safety

A surprising picture emerged from the tests of the predicted mileage: "It is not uncommon for the worse-rated tires in this category to generally give a better picture. What surprised us positively, however, was that almost all tires with good properties in snow and wet conditions achieve a predicted mileage of 50,000 km and can therefore travel further than the tires with the worse properties. This may be a bit surprising, but it can be explained quite easily from a technical point of view. The performance on dry, wet and winter roads is largely in conflict with the mileage of the tire. While the good tires solve this well and score points in terms of both driving safety and mileage, the tires rated as “not sufficient” do not solve this conflict. The high mileage of these models is therefore only recommended against driving safety,” explains Steffan Kerbl. The tires rated “satisfactory” – including Michelin Crossclimate 2, Dunlop All Season 2, BFGoodrich Advantage All-Season and the Viking FourTech Plus – show no serious weaknesses and, depending on the tire profile, can be a sensible alternative to the top models. In contrast, the models rated “sufficient” – Vredestrein Quatrac Pro+, Barum Quartaris 5, Nexen N’Blue 4Season 2 and the Superia Ecoblue2 4S – have significant deficiencies in at least one of the main criteria and are therefore no more recommended than the “insufficient” models. "The current test shows ambivalent developments. Some all-season tires are improving significantly and can represent a real alternative for infrequent drivers. At the same time, however, the quality range within the product group is growing," concludes Steffan Kerbl.