All season tyres?

RichardD1970

Due to get 4 new tyres soon.

Thinking of getting some all seasons. Are they worth it? Do they actually give improved performance in cold/wintery conditions?

Thanks.

fatbelly

If you get snow/slush they are hugely different to summer tyres. The trade-off is slightly worse grip in dry/hot conditions. This test reviewed the best new tyres against a reference summer tyre

https://www.tyrereviews.com/Article/Best-All-Season-Tyres-2024-2025.htm

This one included some midrange brands

https://www.tyrereviews.com/Article/2024-AutoBild-All-Season-Tyre-Test.htm

Mildly_Miffed

Yes, absolutely!

I spent a decade or so swapping between summers and winters (spare set of cheap scruffy second-hand standard alloys), but the last few years, I've been a huge fan of all-seasons all year round.

Bigphil1474

Been driving 36 years and have never had summer and winter tyres. Mostly I've just had tyres, but in the last 5 or so years I've been a bit more flush so have gone for a decent brand all season tyre. Think my current car has Bridgestone on all corners, definitely the last 2 I bought were. Check out Black Circle prices.

daveyjp

I have them fitted to both our vehicles (one had all four tyres changed from summer to all season just a couple of weeks ago) and I have found no downsides.

Much improved grip on damp autumn/winter surfaces, especially when setting off on at inclined junctions, better on muddy fields.

Almost ten years ago I had Subaru Forester with all season tyres fitted from new, driving in snow was a breeze, the 4wd helped, but I have also found that 4wd with summer tyres is a waste of time, you just get all four wheels spinning rather than two.

400ixl

Where in the country do you live?

North with high risk of snow then winter tyres
Mid and on non gritted roads the all season
South or mainly in town on gritted roads then summer will be fine

All season will not be as good in the summer months so you are compromising there so you need to balance the risks. Saying that a good all season (Michelin, Goodyear, Vredestein etc) will be better than a budget (Kumho, Nankang, Runway etc) tyre, but obviously cost quite a bit more.

fatbelly

My old car came with all seasons and a set of summer tyres in the boot. When I put the summer tyres on I noticed I was struggling for grip when parked on wet grassy areas and went back to all seasons.


Currently running Goodyear vector 4 season Gen 2 on one car (don't seem to be wearing at all)

And Bridgestone Weathercontrol 005 evo on the other ( significant wear)

Blackcircles have 15% off some allseasons at the moment

Arunmor

The older I get the better my tyres get. We have all season tyres on two of the three cars (one without are still on manufacturer fitted tyres from new.  I'm a fan of Goodyear Vector 4season.

born_again

My last 3 cars all spun wheels on normal OEM tyres. Swapped out to ALL season. Problem gone.

Not noticed any difference in grip in summer at all.

Frozen_up_north

I had Continental all season tyres on my last car, it was great on what little snow and ice we had. My new car is still on the Bridgestone tyres it came with.

Bear in mind it was 14 years since we had serious Winter weather here near the Humber. I am retired, so no need to venture out if the weather is bad.

I spent most of the mid 1970s to the mid nineties driving all over Yorkshire on business with plain vanilla summer tyres. The biggest difference was (a) front wheel drive and (b) having plenty of tread.

Do compare the stopping distances in wet weather, the all season tyres are noticeably worse in wet compared to summer tyres.

Mildly_Miffed

Frozen_up_north said:

I spent most of the mid 1970s to the mid nineties driving all over Yorkshire on business with plain vanilla summer tyres. The biggest difference was (a) front wheel drive and (b) having plenty of tread.

Except that ignores the huge changes in tyre technology and especially rubber compound in modern tyres.

Modern tyres use compounds that are VERY different to those used in the 1970s, optimised for either high grip (performance tyres) or low rolling resistance (eco tyres). Those compounds simply do not grip well at low temperatures.

Ironically, since budget ditchfinder tyres have lagged behind the rest of the industry in compounds, they're less-worse at those winter temperatures, although that's changing as they start to use more modern compounds.