According to a survey commissioned by Apollo Tyres Ltd, 65 per cent of motorists in the UK would now consider all-season tyres as their next replacement set. The result of this OnePoll survey of 1,000 UK respondents reflects the continued growing popularity of tyres designed to perform well in conditions encountered throughout the entire year, including dry, wet and snow.
All-season tyres are a logical choice for smaller vehicles primarily used in urban areas, and for this reason, it is surprising that few tyre tests focus on fitments for cars such as these. Tyre Reviews addressed this in its 2023 all-season test, looking at ten tyres in size 195/65 R15. Site founder and resident tester Jonathan Benson fitted these to a VW Golf 7 and evaluated the tyres’ performance in dry, wet and snowy conditions as well as for comfort and value.
Apollo Tyres is celebrating the achievement of its latest Vredestien Quatrac all-season tyre, after the product secured second place in the 2023 Auto Express All Season Tyre Test. Developed for mid-sized family cars and SUVs, the Quatrac was given a ’Recommended’ rating alongside the winning Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-3, having proved its all-round performance in all conditions – it was top in braking on snow and in the wet, while it only dropped one place in the dry braking test, emphasising its safety credentials. Overall, it was just 0.1 per cent behind the winner. The Quatrac could also be called a value champion, acquired for a price around 20 per cent cheaper than the winning tyre.
AutoBild Allrad’s 2023 test of 10 all-season SUV tyres gave four tyres the top “exemplary” grade, with two joint-winners. In Germany, all-season tyres have grown with the most recent product generations’ improved technology, despite the traditional strength of its seasonal tyre change market. The magazine, one of Germany’s leading consumer automotive publications, said the top-ranking tyres in its latest test have “matured into true heroes of road traffic.” At the other end of the scale, three of the size 235/65 R17 108 V/W tyres were described as “not recommended”, while three other tyres gained “satisfactory” and “good” final verdicts. So which all-season products could AutoBild Allrad “unreservedly recommend” to motorists?
Through its premium Vredestein passenger car brand, Apollo Tyres offers one of the largest portfolios of high-performance tyres in Europe, including all-season, winter and summer options. The current includes the Quatrac Pro and Quatrac Pro EV for all-season, the Wintrac Pro for winter and the Ultrac Vorti+ and Vorti R+ for summer. Yves Pouliquen, group head of sales and marketing at Apollo Tyres, shares that this month the company confirmed details of the all-new Vredestein Quatrac Pro+, a dedicated all-season tyre for high-performance cars and SUVs, which will be available later this year.
The Vredestein tyre brand is to become an Official Sponsor of the 2023 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, which will take place in Courchevel Méribel, France, between 6 and 19 February 2023. Apollo Tyres, owner of the Vredestein brand, signed the sponsorship deal to “help drive awareness of the award-winning Vredestein winter and all-season tyre ranges.”
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has selected Apollo Tyres’ latest Vredestein Quatrac all-season tyre as original equipment for the new Caddy. It will fit the Quatrac in 205/65R15 99H XL to selected Caddy models manufactured at the Volkswagen production facility in Poznan, Poland.
A further 25 new dimensions are joining the Vredestein all-season tyre portfolio in response to fast-growing demand for these products. These fitments for 15- to 22-inch rim diameters expand three ranges, the Vredestein Quatrac line for compact and family cars and SUVs, Quatrac Pro for high-performance cars and SUVs and Comtrac 2 all-season+ for commercial vehicles.
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 to arrive this year is from German motoring magazine Autozeitung, which has looked at the commonly-fitted small car size 205/55 R16.
The improvement in the quality of all-season tyres has supported their sustained growth in Europe. While the latest test by the DACH region’s leading auto clubs continued to characterise the product as an unrecommended compromise, German magazine ratings this year have been much less snooty about the segment. Joining the UK’s leading consumer testers in praising the latest generation of year-round fitments, was AutoBild, among the industry’s most coveted ratings, while the most recent Sportauto test gave six out of the seven candidates “good” or even “very good” overall grades. The test acknowledges the advantages of seasonal rubber via two Bridgestone control tyres, the Turanza T005 summer tyre and the Blizzak LM005, but also points out the “amazing qualities” of the seven test subjects on cold-wet and cold-dry roads. The seven all-season tyres were tested in size 225/45 R18 on a BMW 330i.
Tyre Reviews has made the newly released Goodyear Vector 4Season Gen-3 its 2020 All Season 17” Test winner. Putting nine all-season tyres in size 225/45 R17 through their paces at Goodyear’s testing facilities in Finnish Lapland and the south of France, tester Jonathan Benson gave additional recommendations to four further tyres: Hankook’s Kinergy 4S2 (second place) and the Continental AllSeasonContact (third) were given the review website’s Highly Recommended rating, while the Bridgestone Weather Control A005 (fourth) and Michelin CrossClimate+ (fifth) were Recommended. The weighting of different conditions is particularly relevant to all-season tyre tests, given the promise of functionality in a wide range of climate and road surface conditions. Tyre Reviews opted to award overall scores based on 30 per cent wet, 25 per cent dry, 25 per cent snow, 10 per cent noise and comfort, and 10 per cent rolling resistance. See below for the Tyre Reviews video of the 2020 All Season 17” test, and for additional comments on each of the nine tyres tested.
There is no doubt that the all-season tyre segment is one of the fastest-growing in the European market, and it is not difficult to see why; while some countries routinely experience extreme weather conditions in the winter months, much of the continent does not suffer to the same extent. As such, many countries – such as the UK, for example – have never developed a strong winter tyre market.
Apollo Vredestein has launched a consumer-focused campaign in the UK to promote the use of all-season tyres: Until 30 September 2019, all purchases of four Vredestein Quatrac all-season tyres at participating dealers qualify for a free Google Home Mini or Amazon Echo Dot.
Recognising the attractiveness of all-season tyres to the majority of the UK market, leading weekly magazine Auto Express has conducted its second comparative test of six products in the segment. Testing on the bestselling 17” size, 225/45R17, the magazine used the independent Test World facility, with support from Hankook, to test in snow, and Continental’s Contidrom to test in cold and wet conditions to represent winter, and dry conditions to represent summer. The full test also included two leading seasonal tyres, the Goodyear UltraGrip Performance Gen-1 winter tyre and the Continental ContiSportContact 5 summer tyre, which showed that all-season products continue to represent a compromise; however the performance gaps in the tests most relevant to UK drivers may surprise critics of year-round tyres.
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