ADAC all season tyre tests

All-season tyres have, in the course of several years, gone from being a niche used by a few to being the choice of an increasingly wide range of drivers. The growing popularity is primarily due to the increasingly milder climate and better road infrastructure. As tyres of this type must guarantee safety in all conditions, it is essential for every driver to choose a well-tested model for their car. An indispensable source of information on this subject is the all-season tyre tests, the results of which indicate the best models available on the market. One of the most respected is the ranking of all-season tyres by the German automobile club ADAC.

The ADAC all-season tyre test, unlike its summer and winter counterparts, is not conducted every year, but every two years. How does it work then? The organisation selects a dozen or so commonly available models on the market and tests their performance under controlled conditions - on specially prepared tracks. In the case of all-season tyres, as many as nine parameters are tested.

    ADAC all-season tyre tests include:    
• Driving on wet surfaces (30% of the overall score)
   
• Driving on a snow-covered surface (20%)
   
• Driving on dry surfaces (15%)
   
• Driving on icy surfaces (10%)
   
• Fuel savings (10%)
   
• Resistance to wear (10%)
   
• Noise generated (5%)

In each category, a rating is awarded on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is the best score. The final ranking and recommendation by ADAC is determined by a weighted average of all the ratings, taking into account that a single failing grade can discredit excellent performance in the other categories. This is because the Automobilklub assumes that safe tyres must deliver at least sufficient performance in every aspect.