Unlike some all-season tyre tests published so far in 2024, Italian magazine Al Volante has featured the latest models, including the Bridgestone Turanza All Season 6, Continental AllSeasonContact 2, and Pirelli Cinturato All Season SF3. The Al Volante team examined seven tyres in total, fitting the 225/50 R17 to an Audi A4 Avant for testing.
Wet, dry & snow performance
When Al Volante tested the 225/50 R17 tyres on snow, the Continental tyre achieved 97 out of 100 points, placing it second behind the Michelin CrossClimate 2, which scored a perfect 100. However, the Pirelli tyre set the benchmark when the publication tested on wet and dry asphalt, earning 98 points in each category, and in doing so secured the overall test victory. Al Volante placed equal value upon performance on snow, wet, and dry surfaces in its final results.
The test team at Al Volante appear to have displaced their pocket calculator, as the results published in the magazine contain a minor discrepancy. But the order the tyres appear on the results table remains unchanged when correcting this error, even though accurate calculations would place Michelin and Bridgestone exactly level at 95 points each, instead of three-tenths apart.
How the tyres performed
The magazine’s testers identified no major weaknesses in the Pirelli model. In contrast, they levelled minor criticism against Michelin’s second-place tyre for wet grip, while they noted that the Bridgestone Turanza All Season 6, which finished third, left room for improvement when it came to cornering response on snow.
The Continental AllSeasonContact 2 and Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-3 took fourth and fifth places, respectively. The former showed slight weaknesses in aquaplaning and dry braking, while the latter was marked down for snow grip and dry braking performance.
Finishing in sixth and seventh places respectively were the Vredestein Quatrac Pro+ and Star Performer Solar 4S. Al Volante primarily criticised the Vredestein model for long braking distances on snow and dry roads, while the tested chided the Star Performer tyre for poor grip, particularly on wet roads.
