All season tyres year round on a powerful (ish) car

[thebursar]

I currently have two cars on standard summer tyres. I live in the south of the UK, so rarely experience conditions that 'require' winter-focused tyres, whether all-season or full winters. I do recognise that they are better in conditions other than snow - and have had them on previous cars - but like most people in the UK, especially in the south, I get along fine with summers. I keep a set of snow chains/socks in the car to get me out of trouble and also to comply with French law when heading to my place in France during the winter months, although I've never yet needed to use them.

I am intending to drop to one car in the spring; most likely keeping my Jaguar XKR and shifting it to daily driving duties. It will be used year-round in the UK as well as several trips to France annually, including in both summer and winter driving conditions.

I do not really have the space to buy a second set of wheels and fit winters to be used for several months of the year, but given it'll be a daily driver I think decent all season tyres (probably Michelin Cross Climate 2s) would be a worthwhile investment. I suspect I will need to fit a full set of tyres in the autumn anyway. However, I'm slightly wary about using all season tyres on a more powerful car in the summer months. Whilst I do like to take advantage of the acceleration from time-to-time (especially to hear the supercharger whine), I tend to drive fairly sedately and don't pretend to be Nigel Mansell. Clearly, temperatures in the south of France can rise to 40+ Celsius during the summer but the Michelin website does seem to indicate this will be fine!

In short:

Option 1: Keep the summer tyres and traction aids. Will probably be fine most of the year but less than ideal in the rare extremes experienced in the UK and less than ideal during my winter visits to France.

Option 2: Michelin Cross Climates year-round. Sacrificing ultimate grip in the summer months - much or all I wouldn't exploit in any case - but be well suited to the colder months from November to March, especially during my winter trips to France.

Thoughts/experiences most welcome.

[NDA]

I've had two XKR's (from new) - I'm a fan.

One of the few cars I've aquaplaned in... driving at 60mph in rain on the A3, not doing anything and it suddenly went. Very scary! Fortunately I didn't hit anything, but it was close.

This is just a prelude really to saying that all seasons might be a good idea if you use it a lot in poor weather.

My XKR's (both convertibles) saw the south of France many times - the perfect location for them.

[vikingaero]

As of 2 weeks ago, all of the cars on our family fleet are on all-season tyres bar two:

BMW 520d company car is on summer tyres and won't be changed as it's a lease car.
Family Bussat gets swapped between summer and winter tyres.

As an illustration, I drove and parked on a farmers field (with permission) that had a small slope. Being wet grass and mud, my friends in a Golf and Corolla both had to reverse down the slope and drive to a less acute part of the field. I had no problems driving out forwards with all-season tyres.

[budgie smuggler]

I'm planning on going to all-seasons next time.

I figure that all-seasons in summer will be less compromised than summers in winter.

My car's only an Oct VRS, so not really powerful at all, but it does have bad traction problems this time of year so hopefully still relevant.

[CABC]

vikingaero said:

a small slope. Being wet grass and mud, my friends in a Golf and Corolla both had to reverse down the slope and drive to a less acute part of the field. I had no problems driving out forwards with all-season tyres.

interesting - I'm considering all seasons for mud as much as cold/ice. google doesn't throw up much info on this, but you found that they shone on wet mud & grass against equivalent cars on good summer tyres with tread?

back on topic, would a fast car not lose some feel with all seasons? even if not as bad as full winters.

[vikingaero]

CABC said:

vikingaero said:

a small slope. Being wet grass and mud, my friends in a Golf and Corolla both had to reverse down the slope and drive to a less acute part of the field. I had no problems driving out forwards with all-season tyres.

interesting - I'm considering all seasons for mud as much as cold/ice. google doesn't throw up much info on this, but you found that they shone on wet mud & grass against equivalent cars on good summer tyres with tread?

back on topic, would a fast car not lose some feel with all seasons? even if not as bad as full winters.

Both cars were 74 plates so would have had reasonably new summer tyres.

The caveat with mud is that if it is just full on mud, any all-season or winter tyre will struggle. I've been stuck in mud a few times with the Passat on winters with M&S rating.

[wyson]

https://www.tyrereviews.com/Tyre-Tests/Best-All-Se...

Crossclimate 2’s are no longer the best summer biased all seasons tyres anymore. You might want to read the above review.

I live in London. Using a car can be optional as I have the tube to get to work, the city is a bit of a heat island etc. My preference would be to run cold optimised summer tyres, like the Continental Premium Contact 7.

Continental have changed the marketing, but it means the same. Great braking without having to warm tyres etc means they will work well in colder temperatures. If you read the handling section below:

https://www.continental-tyres.co.uk/products/car/t...

If there is snow on the ground, ice sheets, I’d leave the car at home, but these should cope with a frosty morning pretty well.

If I lived out in the sticks, and absolutely needed my car, I’d go with the Bridgestone Turanza All Season 6. It is apparently the most summer like of the All Seasons Tyres and got closest to the reference summer tyre in the dry handling test.

Edited by wyson on Friday 7th February 11:11

[Evanivitch]

You're going to burn through all-season tyres if you go that way unless you really revise down your driving style, because you'll have a little less maximum grip in conditions where you'd otherwise try to use the performance of the car. I'm not suggesting dangerously just sufficient slip to cause accelerated wear.

I personally if I was in your position would be looking for somewhere to store a second set of wheels for a small fee and go down the Winter-Summer split.

[Time4another]

All season tyres would be my choice.

[MustangGT]

Time4another said:

All season tyres would be my choice.

Seconded. In normal road driving it will likely be the best option. If you want to drive to the car's performance on a track day or similar I would have a set of summer tyres for this.

[NDA]

CABC said:

back on topic, would a fast car not lose some feel with all seasons? even if not as bad as full winters.

In the OP's case, he is not attempting the Mille Miglia and is driving fairly sedately/normally. I don't think there would be any difference. In fact I think there will be an improvement - the XKR has big fat tyres and no weight in the back, more grip, particularly in UK weather, will be a bonus.

[popeyewhite]

MustangGT said:

Time4another said:

All season tyres would be my choice.

Seconded. In normal road driving it will likely be the best option. If you want to drive to the car's performance on a track day or similar I would have a set of summer tyres for this.

For track driving ideally you'd use a track - biased tyre. In normal road driving summer tyres are best. In every test. You will corner sharper and stop more quickly. This is even more apparent in a performance car. All seasons are not a panacea. Best bet if the OP enjoys his driving is a set of both summer and winter tyres.

[Pica-Pica]

I live in coastal North West Wales, so rain is the biggest issue. For me, summers work fine all year round. I seek out the best tyre for rain (straight aquaplaning, curved aquaplaning, and wet braking). We get about one or two frosty/icy days a year, so i just take it steady then. I have an F30 335d x-drive.

[NDA]

Pica-Pica said:

I live in coastal North West Wales, so rain is the biggest issue. For me, summers work fine all year round. I seek out the best tyre for rain (straight aquaplaning, curved aquaplaning, and wet braking). We get about one or two frosty/icy days a year, so i just take it steady then. I have an F30 335d x-drive.

Summers on an AWD vehicle will probably give better traction than summers on an XKR.

[mmm-five]

I've got a set of Continental AllSeasonContact 2 that were on my 320D and will be put on my 335xD. Yes, they were a bit noisier than my F1 Eagle Assy 6 on the 'Ring, but they made light work of the trip over - and the 3000 miles around Germany, France, Belgium, UK we did during that fortnight in all conditions last October. Never once felt floaty or unsure of it's grip (bar on the track).

Added benefit is a better damped ride on the 18" non-RFT all-seasons over the OE 19" summer RFTs.

Full set of 18's was just over £700 fitted.

Edited by mmm-five on Friday 7th February 11:24

[MustangGT]

popeyewhite said:

MustangGT said:

Time4another said:

All season tyres would be my choice.

Seconded. In normal road driving it will likely be the best option. If you want to drive to the car's performance on a track day or similar I would have a set of summer tyres for this.

For track driving ideally you'd use a track - biased tyre. In normal road driving summer tyres are best. In every test. You will corner sharper and stop more quickly. This is even more apparent in a performance car. All seasons are not a panacea. Best bet if the OP enjoys his driving is a set of both summer and winter tyres.

Which is exactly what the OP is trying to avoid.

In normal road driving you will be hard-pressed to notice the difference between all-season and summer tyres until the winter when it will become very obvious. We are not all driving gods on the limit all the time.

[Patrick Bateman]

What size are your wheels?

I have an XKR and everyone is forgetting something here- good luck getting all season tyres in these sizes.

I run the standard 20" wheels as summer tyres and have 18" standard XK ones for winter. A quick check on mytyres will give you one premium option (Continental All Season Contact 2) to match front and rear, forget about it with the 20" ones, unsure on 19" but I suspect it'll be the same.

[Smint]

All season for me now too, have used them for years anyway but one of the cars had a second set of full winters on wheels which are now retired.

Michelin are not the only all season makers.

[Sheepshanks]

Evanivitch said:

You're going to burn through all-season tyres if you go that way unless you really revise down your driving style, because you'll have a little less maximum grip in conditions where you'd otherwise try to use the performance of the car. I'm not suggesting dangerously just sufficient slip to cause accelerated wear.

We've switched a few cars to CrossClimates and they've lasted longer than the original OEM tyres.

[Evanivitch]

Sheepshanks said:

Evanivitch said:

You're going to burn through all-season tyres if you go that way unless you really revise down your driving style, because you'll have a little less maximum grip in conditions where you'd otherwise try to use the performance of the car. I'm not suggesting dangerously just sufficient slip to cause accelerated wear.

We've switched a few cars to CrossClimates and they've lasted longer than the original OEM tyres.

I've had great wear out of Michelin and Cross Climates too, but in much more sedate vehicles. My current car is 200hp through the front wheels and CC are wearing quicker than on others. I personally wouldn't expect them to respond well to a more enthusiastic car, and like I said they have greater overall grip so you'll get that slip more often then you would on good summers.