all-season tyres

When Nexen Tire introduced its first all-season tyre in the UK a decade ago, many drivers saw these products as just an option for smaller cars with only a handful of horses under the bonnet. Product development has brought all-season tyres a long way since then, and attitudes have changed too. Nexen Tire has now launched a new generation of all-season tyre, and there’s not a single fitment for runabouts or city cars to be seen.

All-season tyres have really grown in popularity in recent years. Perhaps due to our temperate climate, winter tyres have only really found their niche in the most mountainous parts of the country, on vehicles that really need theme (powerful rear-wheel drive cars on the one hand – and vets, doctors and emergency service vehicles on the other). All-season tyres, on the other hand, bring much of the benefit of winter tyres, but without the logistical challenges of changing and storing a second set of wheels and tyres. Here, WhatTyre offers insights into the best-performing all-season and year-round tyres on the market.

The future belongs to all-season tyres, comments Auto Bild Allrad in the preamble to its 2021 test. It adds that these products have evolved into a true alternative to dedicated summer or winter tyres. This year, the German magazine for 4x4 and SUV enthusiasts evaluated ten brands of all-season tyre in size 215/65 R17. Top honours went to the Hankook Kinergy 4S2 X, a tyre that Auto Bild’s testers declared an “exemplary compromise” for safe driving in all weather conditions.

After carrying out no less than five comparative tyre tests for various Auto Bild titles, specialists Dierk Möller and Henning Klipp have a solid understanding of which all-season and winter tyres they’d gladly recommend, and which they wouldn’t. Auto Bild summarises Möller and Klipp’s findings for the current season in its 42/2021 issue and at the same time names its leading manufacturers in the all-season and winter categories. Three brands occupy the podium’s upper step.

Multiple tyre tests in recent years have shown all-season tyres to be a good choice for people wanting safe, year-round motoring, but Auto Bild points out that testing has mostly focused on tyres for small and compact cars. To shift the spotlight onto tyres for sporty mid-sized saloons, the German motoring publication has evaluated 32 brands in size 225/50 R17. In Auto Bild tradition, its testers carried out wet and dry braking tests to cut down this field of candidates to a shortlist of the 16 top performers.

Demand for all-season tyres has shot up since Michelin launched its initial CrossClimate in 2015. 27 million all-season car and SUV tyres were sold in Europe in 2020, up from 11.2 million in 2015. As demand has grown, so the product has evolved. For example, the new CrossClimate 2 offers a 10 per cent reduction in rolling resistance when compared to its best-selling predecessor thanks to a Cool Running Sidewall designed to improve fuel efficiency or electric vehicle battery range...” amongst other enhancements.

Parky mornings and evenings are one sign that summer is on the wane. The appearance of all-season and winter tyre tests is another. The first out this year is from German motoring magazine Autozeitung, which looked at the commonly-fitted small car size 205/55 R16. Autozeitung evaluated nine brands of all-season tyre on a VW Golf Mk7 for their performance in wet, dry and snowy conditions, as well as comfort, noise and rolling resistance.

All-season tyres are growing in popularity on the UK and European roads so, following the announcement of our WhatTyre all-season tyre of the year nominations, we are excited as anyone to learn the identities of the top five tyres in our database of over 250,000 variations.

As part of the news that 2021 marks our inaugural WhatTyre Tyre of the Year awards, we have searched high and low through our database of over 250,000 tyre variations to find the best-performing all-season tyres out there.