All-Weather Tire Testing Overview

Presenter

• Name: Jonathan Benson
• Experience: Over 10 years as a professional tire tester

Purpose

• To test seven popular all-weather tires
• Comparison with a dedicated winter tire

Tires Tested

• Michelin Cross Climate 2
• Bridgestone
• Firestone
• Goodyear
• Nokian
• Pirelli
• Toyo

Test Criteria

• Snow and Ice
• Dry and Wet Conditions
• Noise and Comfort Levels
• Rolling Resistance

Key Concepts

All-Weather vs. All-Season

• All-Weather Tires: Designed for all seasons, severe snow rated with three-peak mountain snowflake marking.
• All-Season Tires (North America): Often perform poorly in snow, considered more as three-season tires.

Testing Challenges

• Design Trade-offs: Wet vs. Snow performance presents opposing challenges.
• Manufacturer Choices: Balance between dry, wet, and winter performance can differ.

Tire Testing Results

Wet Handling

• Bridgestone, Firestone, Toyo: Struggled with understeer, not precise.
• Nokian, Michelin, Pirelli: Varied in focus, Michelin fun to drive, Pirelli balanced.
• Goodyear Assurance Weather Ready 2: Best performance in wet conditions, fast lap times, stable.

Summer Tire Comparison

• Not a high-performance tire but outperformed all-weather tires significantly.

Wet Braking

• Top performers mirrored wet handling results.
• Summer tire showed significant advantage.

Dry Performance

• Toyo, Firestone, Bridgestone: Struggled with understeer, soft carcasses.
• Michelin, Nokian, Pirelli: Michelin focused on braking, Pirelli well-rounded.
• Goodyear: Best dry steering and grip performance.

Dry Braking Distances

• Best: Michelin Cross Climate 2
• Second: Goodyear, with a significant gap.
• Others: Pirelli, Nokian, Toyo, Bridgestone, Firestone.

Noise and Comfort

• Firestone: Best comfort but had cabin noise.
• Goodyear: Good on cobblestones, hard on impact bars.
• Pirelli: Best overall for noise and comfort.

Snow Performance

• Best Tyres: Michelin and Nokian.
• Bridgestone, Firestone, Pirelli: Good performance but required more lateral grip balance.
• Worst in Snow: Toyo and Goodyear (but still performed better than US all-season and summer).

Winter Tire Performance

• Winter Tire (Hakkapeliitta R5): Superior in snow, more confidence and grip compared to all-weather.

Ice Performance

• Best Overall: Pirelli for ice traction and braking.
• Michelin and Nokian: Also performed well.
• Struggled: Goodyear, Firestone, Toyo.

Rolling Resistance

• Lowest: Michelin
• Highest: Goodyear

Cost Analysis

• Most Expensive per Mile: Michelin
• Cheapest per Mile: Toyo

Conclusions

• Best Overall: Michelin Cross Climate 2 due to balance across all conditions.
• Other Notable Tires: Goodyear and Pirelli for specific strengths.
• Conclusion: Michelin remains the gold standard, but other brands offer competitive advantages in specific areas.

Additional Resources

• Links to further tests comparing all-weather to other tire categories available in the video description.

Notes

• User interaction encouraged for sharing experiences or inquiries.
• Detailed results and personalized score weighting system available through provided online tools.