Continuing the year of all season tyre tests, French magazine L'Argus have released their first all season tyre test, which included both the new Michelin CrossClimate, the new Nokian Weatherproof, and the new Nokian WR D4 as the reference winter tyre.
Testing five of the latest all season tyres in 205/55 R16 on a VW Golf, L'Argus put the all the tyres through a full complement of winter and summer tests, in both an Austrian Autumn at a warm 15c, and a Finnish winter where the temperatures were as low as -15c.
Dry
As we recently found in our tyre test, despite current all season tyres being labelled as "all season", in the dry they often perform little better than a full winter tyre.
During dry braking, the Michelin summer tyre had the shortest stopping distance, stopping the car in 35.8m. The Michelin CrossClimate, which is a new type of "summer optimised" all season tyre, was relatively close, stopping the car in 38.8 meters. The next closest "winter optimised" all season tyre could only manage to stop the car in 42 meters for third place, and the Pirelli, Goodyear and Uniroyal took 43.4, 43.7 and 44 meters respectively. The full winter stopped the car in a lengthy 45.1 meters, almost 10 meters longer than the summer tyre, which is the length of two BMW 7 Series cars!
During dry handling, the CrossClimate was once again closest to the winning summer tyre, with Goodyear in third, Nokian finishing fourth, Uniroyal fifth and Pirelli sixth. Once again the full winter Nokian struggled, finishing last.
Wet
During wet braking, the CrossClimate again excelled, winning the test and stopping the car in just 30.1 meters. Second place was awarded to the Goodyear, stopping the Golf in 31.7 meters, and the Nokian rounded out the top three, stopping in 32.5 meters. The winter surprisingly managed an equal third, matching the Nokians distance, and the summer was was just 0.4 meters behind the winter. The Pirelli and Uniroyal finished sixth and seventh, a noticeable chunk behind the rest of the field, in 34.1 and 34.7 meters.
During the aquaplaning tests the summer once again performed best, winning, with the Uniroyal, winter tyre and Michelin fairly close behind. Nokian, Goodyear and Pirelli rounded out the group.
The wet handling test changed the order again, this time with the Goodyear proving to be the fastest around the track in 51.86 seconds, and the Michelin a shade behind in 52.04 seconds. The summer tyre could only manage third at 52.15, the Nokian finished fourth, a further second behind the Michelin and and the Uniroyal rounded out the top five. One again, it was a poor showing by the Pirelli, which was beaten by the full winter.
Snow
Snow braking is where you expect the summer optimised Michelin CrossClimate to show a weakness, but instead it considerably out performed the Uniroyal all season and almost matched the Pirelli. Unsurprisingly, the full winter stopped the car in the shortest distance at 22.45 meters, and the Nokian WeatherProof narrowly finished behind its full winter sister, stopping the car in 22.52 meters. Goodyear finished in third place at 22.81 meters, then the Pirelli, Michelin and Uniroyal stopped the car in 23.71, 23.89 and 25.01 respectively. The summer tyre, well that didn't perform so well, taking 50.33 meters to bring the Golf to a full stop!
The results were similar in snow traction and laptime. The Nokian all season tyre once again proved its winter credentials, actually winning the traction test and matching the winter tyres lap time, and the rest of the all season tyres were fairly close when compared to the summer tyre.
Results
The results as ordered by L'Argus are below.
Using both the Nokian WR D4 winter tyre and Nokian Weatherproof all season tyre in the same test highlighted the problem with the current range of winter-optimised all season tyres - they're essentially winter tyres with a different name. To summarise the performance difference Weatherproof vs (over the) WR D4:
+ better dry braking (-0.8m)
+ better dry handling
+ fractionally better wet handling
+ fractionally better snow traction
o identical wet braking
o identical snow handling
- worse at aquaplaning (44.72 mph vs 46.89 mph)
- fractionally worse snow braking
As the only summer-optimised all season tyre on test, the Michelin CrossClimate has bucked this trend with a balance of qualities which are, in our opinion, far more suited to year round driving in the majority of the UK where we see snow for lesss than 1% of the year.
The full french write up can be found here: https://www.largus.fr/actualite-automobile/test-pneus-quatre-saisons-que-valent-les-pneus-toutes-saisons-6717390.html
What kind of journalism is this? Instead of writing about winning tire they are writing something like this... talking about anything to move attention to specific product. If you didn't understand what they wrote Nokian Weatherproof outperformed and wins over any other all season tire in a snow test. Quote:
Snow braking is where you expect the summer optimised Michelin CrossClimate to show a weakness, but instead it considerably out performed the Uniroyal all season and almost matched the Pirelli. Unsurprisingly, the full winter stopped the car in the shortest distance at 22.45 meters, and the Nokian WeatherProof narrowly finished behind its full winter sister, stopping the car in 22.52 meters. Goodyear finished in third place at 22.81 meters, then the Pirelli, Michelin and Uniroyal stopped the car in 23.71, 23.89 and 25.01 respectively. The summer tyre, well that didn't perform so well, taking 50.33 meters to bring the Golf to a full stop!'
Good testing but what about wear rate especially in hot summers.
Just tested Michelin Cross Climates in the snow. 15% gradient climb in 2-3 inches of snow in the scottish highlands over about 150-200m. Have them fitted to the golf and this was the first chance to really test them in the snow. With a 15mph run the car managed up the slope with some difficulty but nothing too dramatic. I was extremely impressed given the summer background of these tyres. I'm sure winter tyres would have been a little more confident but given the extreme nature of this test the tyres couldn't be faulted.
Personally, from those results I would choose the Michelin over the Goodyear.
Does the CrossClimate have the M+S symbol to make it legal for driving in Germany during the Winter?
Yes you can see it at the photos of the tyre
Thank you, I did look but I couldn't make it out on my phone screen.
The CrossClimate also has the mountain and snowflake symbol.
There is very good comparison test in summer, autumn and winter between three Michelin tires on the same French magazine
http://www.largus.fr/actual...
Thanks for the link Igor, we'll look at writing this up.
Very good test conditions but, i think that testers were a little bit biased negative.This tyre didnt made to overcome the summer or winter tyres. It does just it says (If you see also and the rest tests, Autobild etc). A very good summer tyre-better from the average, TOP to wet conditions and finally, very good to snow and ice, also better from average of all winter tyres. We dont speak about a champion to all categories, but for an all time and overall very good player for temperate climate, as the most of Europe has! A very-very good tyre for, the average and plus, driver!
I drove at 40+ degrees Celsius at summer in Greece and tyres were just the same with my previus energy+!. Also i drove 10 days ago to snow and ice for over 20klm up and downs, again without a problem i went to home, otherwise, i had to wear snow chains!
Look forward to that, had a mooch at the first couple of pages via google translate, but it isn't exactly an easy read! My favourite sentence was; The rear suspension is not sensitive at sunrise walk but easily rotates with the brake. :-)
7000 klm after with CrossClimate, i am very satisfited to dry and wet both, the wear also great, seems that they have strong materials. Finaly i tested them at snow. First of all you don't stuck nowhere! Even to snow or ice. When you start once, you have the full command of the car. They are not for WRC but they are ownest and do the job. Dont forget, they are summer tyres! And also very good to snow, not top but very good! Better than all weathers and almost equal to winters. In rain they are petfect without competition! Overall is the most complete summer tyre ever made for all weather conditions!
PS. And very-very quiet too!
We assume you're referring to the CrossClimate?
Yes, forgot to write