Test Summary | |
Wet Braking | Continental Premium Contact 6 |
Dry Braking | Bridgestone Weather Control A005 |
Wet Handling | Continental AllSeasonContact |
Wear | Continental WinterContact TS 860 |
Rolling Resistance | Continental AllSeasonContact |
Snow Handling | Continental WinterContact TS 860 |
As in previous years, Auto Express have included a summer and winter tyre as reference. Shockingly, the summer Continental PremiumContact 5 was the best in dry overall, near the best in wet, and fell apart in snow. Things get more interesting when we compare the winter Continental WinterContact TS860 to the all season tyres on test.
If you ignore the dry braking result (a break down of all the data can be found on the Auto Express website here), the winter tyre was as much an all season tyre as the best all season tyre on test! While this won't apply to all winter tyres, it's a good example of how close a winter bias all season tyre, and a full winter tyre can be!
Of the all season tyres, the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-2 just edged out the Continental AllSeasonContact for the test win. Both tyres had excellent, balanced performances, with the Continental a little stronger in the dry and snow covered roads, and the Goodyear having the edge in the wet.
The summer bias Michelin CrossClimate+ was the strongest all season tyre overall in dry conditions, coupled with the sportiest handling. It matched the best in the wet, and while couldn't quite keep up with the winter-bias all season tyres in the snow, it was still an order of magnitude better than the summer tyre.
Interestingly the Bridgestone A005 again scored well in the braking tests, but as over tests have started to show, it doesn't quite have an all round ability like the best all season tyres on tests, largely due to a very weak snow performance and high rolling resistance.
Results
Sadly Auto Express don't provide any raw data, instead scoring the best in each test one hundred percent, and working down from there. You can check out the full test on the Auto Express website here.
1st: Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons Gen 2 | |
| A great all round performance, excellent in the wet and snow. Not the sharpest during dry handling. Read Reviews Buy from £80.27 |
1st: Continental WinterContact TS 860 | |
| Best in the wet overall, very strong in snow. Weak in dry braking. Read Reviews |
2nd: Continental AllSeasonContact | |
| Lowest fuel consumption, excellent in the snow and wet, good in dry. Not quite as good as the Goodyear in the wet, but still very good. Read Reviews Buy from £83.39 |
3rd: Michelin CrossClimate+ | |
| Best in the dry with the most sporty handling, very good in the wet, good snow traction. Weak in snow braking and snow handling, but still much much better than the summer tyre. Read Reviews Buy from £99.99 |
4th: Nokian WeatherProof | |
| Very strong in the snow, good aquaplaning results, low rolling resistance. A little weak in the dry, high noise. Read Reviews |
5th: Bridgestone Weather Control A005 | |
| Good wet and dry braking. Very weak in the snow, high fuel use. Read Reviews |
6th: Falken EUROALL SEASON AS210 | |
| Good in dry handling and straight aquaplaning, low noise. High fuel use, poor snow grip, long wet braking. Read Reviews Buy from £84.65 |
7th: Hankook Kinergy 4S2 | |
| Excellent in the dry, low fuel use. Long wet braking, poor performance on snow. Read Reviews Buy from £82.99 |
8th: Cooper Discoverer All Season | |
| Low noise, good snow handling. Poor wet grip. Read Reviews |
8th: Continental Premium Contact 6 | |
| Best in the dry. Did not perform in snow. Read Reviews Buy from £79.99 |
9th: Nankang Cross Seasons AW6 | |
| Cheap, good in snow. Very poor wet and dry grip. Read Reviews |