How good are all season tyres?

Need new tyres and will soon be doing a daily journey over either kirkstone pass or shap. What are these all season ones like, seems like the decent ones are about 70quid, or I could get some slightly older design proper winter ones for about 55-60 and run them all year. Car is just a Berlingo so not like I’m looking for ultimate performance, just need to get me around over winter.

Any recommendations £70 max but ideally cheaper!

Winter tyres will wear very quickly in the summer months.

As far as I am aware Nokian make the best all season. They are fully rated for winter (with the snowflake logo on the sidewall) but aren’t noisy or squirmy in the warmer months.

If i needed new tyres, I’d get the nokian all season. If my current tyres were good I’d buy winters on a second set of wheels.

edit: no idea what they cost.

They’re good!
I live 800ft up in the Surrey Alps and we’ve had snow a few times in the last couple of years, nothing major but enough to stop Range Rovers on ornery tyres getting up ( and more crucially, down) the Hill. My daughter has Vredestein Quatrac on her Seat Mii and hasn’t had a problem getting up or down stuff that stops 4WDs.
EDIT: I have Nokian All Weathers on my Subaru and they ARE squirmy in the summer, though much better in the rain than any true Winter tyre I’ve tried…

Depends on which all season tyre.

as well as Nokian mentioned above, Michelin Cross Climate (and newer + version) are supposed to be superb in winter conditions. I’ve got a set to use but not fitted them yet.

Cross climates which are awesome in rain and snow and minus degrees. Never lost grip in winter when the roads were jcy. Big diff Vs summer tyres.

A bit squishier in summer when hot but I never lose grip when the road is wet pulling out from junctions.

Thoroughly recommend.

Will let you know in the spring, just got some Maxxis Vansmart all seasons, storage space is an issue for having two sets so thought I’d see how these go. Had two sets of 15″ for the old van, new van takes 16″ so had to get something different.
Had them since May and so far so good. Reasonably quiet and no noticeable difference to fuel economy, grip or wear compared to the summers (cheap and cheerfuls, can’t remember what) Hoping for no noticeable difference in grip compared to the winters too (Goodrich Activan)
.
About £75 each for the Maxxis in 16″ plus fitting

I had full winter tyres a while ago which, whilst good (obvously) in the snow etc. were, liike mentioned above very squirmy in the summer. The tread also disintegrated pretty horrendously over the course of their life.

Swapped to Cross Climates and been very impressed with them. Coped with last winter snow and ice very well, and a lot smoother for the rest of the year.

I’ve just got a new car and I’m kinda pondering whether to get Cross Climates again on it now before the winter or tae the risk with the standard fit tyres for another year – been a long time ince I had standards on over winter!

Put cross climates on the front of the civic, they’re incredibly good, stick like shit tae a blanket on wet, off camber roundabouts.

I’m impressed. 👏🏻

Michelin Cross Climates here too, on a golf – well impressed.

They are wearing well too.

I have Cross Climate+ on my C estate and they’ve been good in all round driving including snow, heavy rain and smashing down to Tuscany. They’ve worn so much better than the stock Hankook that Merc’s come with that had lost front edge within 10k miles.

Just put crossclimates on the van, wanted an all year round tyre that was mud and snow marked for the alps in winter and good for tracks and soggy campsites etc. Then took them across europe in 30deg heat. Very pleased so far, but christ theyre expensive at £130 a corner…

Scottish Central belt. Lots of travel further north and North England.
I’ve used all seasons for 11 years now.
The new ones like our Michelin CrossClimates last as long as a normal tyre. I can’t tell a difference in summer (but better than the sh*t things that were on the car when it arrived).
Cold or frosty mornings, rain and even snow are just dealt with better and with more confidence.

The other car has some cheaper Maxxis all seasons on (AP2’s?) and they are a bit more squirmy in summer.

The cheap Riken puncture replacement is noisy.

We ran Nokian or Hankook before this lot.

You get what you pay for.

Another vote for cross climates. I have them on my Amarok. They worked bloody well all summer and last winter they got me through 2 ft of snow locally where only tractors were getting through otherwise and also made very short work of going up a pretty snowy alp in February. They are a bit worse in braking than a full winter in the snow but so much better in the wet and dry that I’m happy with that small compromise. They also seem to work well off-road too which was a nice surprise!

Where do you get all season tyres for a Berlingo that are less than 100 quid a tyre? I can’t find them unless I got for the seriously unheard of tyres that have terrible noise and terrible economy – and even then it is about 85 a corner!

I use full winters on van and car. I don’t notice any appreciable increase in wear.

We had Hankook All Season’s on my wife VW Touran and they were just as capable and effective in the snow as my van with full winters.

^^^ mytyres or giga tyres, (same company I think) obviously you need to add fitting but there some good brands available for under 100.

The other car has some cheaper Maxxis all seasons on (AP2’s?) and they are a bit more squirmy in summer.

What were these like over the winter period? Been looking at these as they are quite well priced!

I’ve been using Falken All Seasons for the last few years. About £65-70 a corner. Perfectly good for NW Scotland weather.

I have a set of Nokians on the front of the Mondeo and a new set of Cross climates on the back. Would have gone for Nokian again but Costco were doing a good deal, ended up 80 quid a corner for 17’s. If you know anyone with a card it’s well worth looking at.

Been very impressed with the Nokians.

Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 here in Canada, on the car 6-7 months of the year, like driving on dry roads.

If you’ve

breatheeasy

Member

I had full winter tyres a while ago which, whilst good (obvously) in the snow etc. were, liike mentioned above very squirmy in the summer. The tread also disintegrated pretty horrendously over the course of their life.

That’s not always the case- I’ve had snowproxes and icebears and OK, they weren’t as good as a n equivalent quality normal tyre in the summer in terms of grip, but they didn’t wear especially fast. And they worked better than a budget summer tyre.I probably wouldn’t do it on my current car just because it’s a much quicker/nicer handling one, but it worked grand on my old focus and mondeo.

I’m still a believer in 2 sets though. Especially if it’s a common wheel/tyre size, I got a set of lightly used wintersports on decent wheels for £100…

The all weather Nokuans are good, the WR4 or whatever they are. Not as good as a half decent summer Tyre in summer and half decent winter Tyre in winter but not a bad compromise. Not a patch on the hakkepalettas or whatever they are called. Those are the dogs danglers. If you can find them, they sell the previous version hakkepalettas under a different name, Nordman or similar, much cheaper than the current version. If you get a reasonable deal it’s not much more than a set of all weather tyres and you get much better tyres. You just have to deal with swapping them around.

Do you know if the nordman uses the same compound as it had when it was the Hakka? They could well be a winter bargain

i live in Yukon Territory where it is snowy for 7 months of the year and the roads are seldom cleared. The guy who sold me my winter tyres uses the all season nokian on his family car, which I thought was a good endorsement.

Do you know if the nordman uses the same compound as it had when it was the Hakka?

That’s a good question. I’ve only really seen/heard it referred to as using the previous generation hakkas ‘technology’ and ring molds.

I know that one of the main differences between the current generation nokian all weather tyres and the nordman all weather tyres is the nordman uses the older tread pattern and the nokian has extra polished rubber in the sipes to eject slush better. Made no mention of the compound. I think the full winter hakkas have changed compounds more often though so not directly comparable

@DickBarton – SMS at Back o’the Hill.
I got the cross climates on holiday after a puncture, when the old ones were due replacement. I paid £120/EA for 225/55/17.
SMS will usually get Hankook or similar for £100.

Will never use regular summer tyres again.

Have used full winters before, didn’t notice any change in mpg or handling in warm weather, yes they wore quicker but the tread is deeper to start with so ended up replacing them after similar sorts of miles to summers.
On Michelin Cross Climate + now and have been for last 18 months, probably done 14k miles on them, nowhere near worn, great handling in all conditions except deep snow (but even then they manage, just with a bit of slippage). I won’t have any other tyre now

Edit, just checked mileage via MOT checker, I’ve done 19k miles on the CC+’s

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/accessories-tyres/92863/all-season-tyre-test-20182019-top-all-weather-tyres-tested

Had Vrederstein Quadra on our Volvo V70 at one point – very capable tyre, better than my Defender on BFG AT’s on hard packed snow & ice. Wore fairly quickly in summer though.

Now running Michelin cross climate and they are as good in winter but wearing as a normal tyre would. Bought from Costco

Maxxis AP2s on a 2.0HDI Blingo here, no complaints, paid £70 a tyre iirc.

Previous generation Berlingo was a decent car in winter it has good ground clearance and even with well treaded (non eco) tires on I’ve found it to go down farm tracks well until the ground clearance is spent.

How ever the latest one came with Michelin premacy tires……and I driving in a wet day with them is a lottery horrid tire. Makes the car a liability.

If you have those on(stock tires from.new ) anything will be an improvement.

Has the maxxis all season on the previous one near the end of its life. Great in winter , squirmy if you really did try to make them squirm in winter (this is an 85bhp Berlingo……) So in the real world the squirm was never an issue. How ever once the ground clearance was compromised it still got stuck like any other car.

Because of the premacy issue above we moved to full on 15 inch and narrower(the smallest narrowest tire shown in the handbook) nokian winters on this one almost immediately 15 inch tires are cheaper than chips even in 86t/XL rating which the bingo needs. We run them from about October to April. No appreciable wear. Great in the colder(and wet) weather , grassy fields etc. Not got this one into ground clearance issues yet. Not had the amount of snow we have had in the past yet.

Combination of colder weather and the tires does lose us about 4mpg though .

Another vote for Cross Climates, have had them on the V70 for 4 years!
Never been stuck in Winter.
Wouldn’t consider anything else now.

Got some Bridgestone all season tyres on the Partner. Seem very good, about 3mpg lower than when the summer tyres were on but they worked better in the ice we had for a couple of days this year. Seem to also do well in wet so I’m fine with the small dip in mpg.

yokahama geolandars are the OEM spec on my subaru so I stick with them. surprisingly cheap from my local subaru dealer and seem pretty good in all the mud/snow/ice I’ve thrown at them so far.

on my second set of CrossClimate+ here on an A6 Avant quattro. I put the first set on when the car was 8 months old, coming into winter and the performance change in snowy conditions was quiet unbelievable ! West of Scotland so more often wet and slushy and they are very surefooted. I get about 20k miles out a set of 4. I have driven past many stuck other 4wd cars and SUVs with summer/factory tyres and the only thing that has been a stopper for me has been abandoned vehicles or thickness of snow.

Current got Falken AS200s (I think) on the faux by faux CRV. Previously had Bridgestone Dueller of some sort. Both sets have made it cake to just drive through the odd snowy day. Wheras the other car was the predictable slippery disaster on the summer tyres it had fitted. I don’t drive fast enough to notice any much difference in wet weather but given the difference in snow I’m assuming it’s there.

No noticable downside (particularly wear rate) in the summer, with the all season jobs. Price wise, they are there at the same price point as reasonable summers.

I won’t fit summers again, if possible.

I fitted a set of Cross Climates to my Outlander and the difference was incredible.

It’s as though the car has been bitten by a radioctive spider.  I am now able to drive up vertical surfaces with ease and  negotiating  congested tunnels is now simplicity itself as I just drive up the walls and along the roof, upside down. I need to remember to finish my coffee first though as it is a bugger to wash out of the roof cloth.

Not really.

They were noticeably better in the winter, much, much better in the snow and equally as good in the summer as summer tyres. I’ll be sticking with them for all future tyre purchases.

^^^^ sounds like we need a Lanarkshire ‘tyre off’ snow day somewhere 🙂

You’d have an unfair advantage.

Living in EK means you get to practice driving in the snow for 250 days a year.

🙂