4WD vs All Weather / All Season Tires - Is AWD better than the correct tyres? 

FYI the small legend should of course be BLUE = FWD All Season and WHITE = AWD Summer. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review on www.tyrereviews.com

Would love to see the results 4x4 all season v 4x4 Winter...Pretty sure winter would win...but i'd like to see HOW much difference.

Another Stella video mate, love these 2wd vs 4wd comparison videos, amazing what a 2wd car can do on better suited rubber!

Great video. I wish everyone with 4WD/AWD vehicles understood this lesson. Tires are the most important when it comes to control. All seasons are obviously not as good as winter tires for the cold and snow, but for many drivers it’s the only practical option.

All season awd vs winter tire fwd would be really cool to see

It will be interesting to see also a test between budget/overused winter tires on 4WD vs a premium winter tire on a FWD

Great video! In the intro the white car is AWD, and the black car is FWD. But in the bottom left it's swapped? It says Black AWD, White FWD.

Now we need the 2WD Winter vs 4WD All Season. Edit: Okay, commented too quick, before finishing the video. There will be a new video! Yay!

Love these, I really appreciate the effort you put into these comparisons. Informative and fun. Can't wait for the 4wd all season vs 2wd winter!

is this why I drive past a lot of 4x4's in ditches the 1st day of snow in the UK?

Been waiting forever for the all season awd vs winter 2wd. This is great to see though :)

Always puts a smile on my face, driving past stuck landrovers and range rovers on these low profile summer tyres.

It's impressive to see the difference ! And as you point in the outro, the summer tyre did a fair job in the snow and was a very strong contender in your summer/everyday tyre review !

In my country a good rust proof car is more important in winter because it doesn’t freeze all that much but when it does they coat the roads in a thick layer of salt to the point you’d think it had snowed but it’s just all salt.

I'm someone that drives in snow for fun. But, even with a lot of experience driving other peoples cars -- with all kinds of tires -- to get them unstuck, I was still surprised by how poorly the summer tires did here. Thanks for another educational video. I look forward to the next video in the series.

AWD is not better without correct tires. Summer tires are useless in winter, hope this is not news to anyone. I like these tests tho haha

With any car not on winter tires, the million-dollar question is "will I be able to get up that hill?". On winter tires it's "I KNOW I will get up that hill, but the million-dollar question is "How long will it take me?"

love how much fun You have in the circle with stability off! It is very immersive for us! Looking forward for next one!

"I'm having a really good day at work" - there is just something special about going sideways in snow, isn't it?!! LOL

The results were pretty much what I expected, but its good to have it confirmed.

From watching these videos and this channel convinced me to fit All Season tyres on my AWD car in prep for this winter in the UK. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for these winter tests. I really do appreciate the amount of work you put into them.

Great test!

Other people have mentioned it but I think your onscreen info seems to be incorrect. It had me pretty confused for awhile

Thanks for the work, based off another video of yours I fitted Bridgestone all seasons to mine and massively happy with them. At least if it snows I can get home 👍

This backs up what I have said all along. Here in Canada we have 4 seasonal ratings for tires. Summer, All Season (M+S), All Weather, and Winter. The latter two have the snowflake over mountain symbol. There are performance criteria for a tire to earn that designation. There are no such criteria for an M+S tire. I always run two sets of tires on my 1990 Volvo 240 Estate. That rear wheel drive car has hauled all wheel drive cars out of ditches often enough I carry a tow rope at all times. Then again, the 240 is the ultimate winter car on my books. We are getting snow here, with 50 cm expected by tomorrow. Old faithful will have no problem.

WOW... I honestly thought the AWD with summer tires would have been better; clearly not the case. Excellent demo, I learned that good tires are CRUCIAL in the snow.

Great video, tyres are your contact with the road and you should always pick the most suitable one. I had a recent incident when the road I planned to drive on was reported as closed due to snow, however when I got near to it, it was reported as being open and as I started to drive on it I saw no road closed sign. The road goes over a biggish pennine hill where on a clear day you can see about 50 miles, it had been snowing and I was a Renault Scenic 2.0l diesel 2wd car with normal road tyres that happen to have a lot of grip across the tyre with no solid rings of rubber around the tyre. I drove carefully using a high as gear possible and passed loads of stuck cars including several 4 x 4's, I managed to drive around these cars and as I came down the other side I came across a Policeman with his back to me blocking the road. He asked how I had managed to get over the hill and was my car 4wd. A few winters later I am in a Ford Focus with tyres that had solid rings of rubber around the tyre with no cross grips, the first bit of snow it came to it flatly refused to get any traction resulting in me being stuck.

How about FWD winter tyres vs AWD all season

Great content. I wish I had started using dedicated summer and winter tires years ago. I always thought it was too expensive, but it really doesn't cost much more when considering the long term cost.

All-season/all-weather terminology confusion leads Americans to think that their all-seasons are perfectly fine in the snow. I appreciate your reminders to American viewers that your results don't apply to all-season tires in the US (yet). This is a sensitive issue for us because the people who race out onto the snow/ice without proper tires and endanger us all do so on (American) all-season tires and think they're just fine in snow.

I think it would be interesting to see a base line test with these two vehicles on the same all season tires.

I cannot wait for comparison: FWD equipped with winter tyres vs AWD with all-season tyres (with both AWD and FWD configurations if possible). Cheers

So close to what I want to see. Please do 2 wheel Winter tires vs. 4 wheel All weather or All Season Tires. The point being that 2wd with Winter Tires is better than 4 wheel drive with AS tires. Made it to the end of the video, yes, can't wait!

I'd prefer to see all-season on the AWD and snows on the FWD. Makes much more sense.

During the winter, I find more 4wd vehicles in the ditch because they can go ok, but can't stop or turn.

As I've been saying for twenty years; the contact patch is more generally important than the drive system. From a person who used to say "winter tires are a stupid waste" before I was tossed into an AWD Audi 80 with Hakkapeliittas in 6" of snow to demonstrate why I was wrong. Been driving on winters (in winter months only) ever since.

People in my taxi are baffled when i tell them about their safety and I’m on winter tyres. The look on their face when this fact comes out, “ All cars have two wheel steering and four wheel braking.” That’s why you see that 4x4 there hit the wall.

Please note that the term All Season tires in the US and EU is completely different. As noted in the title of the video those are All Weather tires rated for severe winter service. All Season tires in the US are rated only M+S and are mostly worthless on snow and ice.

It would be actually more interesting to see allseason vs winter tires. In many cases that is the decision you make in mid europe, sould you get 2 sets summer + winter, or stay with one all season set. While you are always okay to drive all seasons in most cases in summer, it is interesting to see how much worse it is to drive all seasons in winter vs. winter tires.

Due to korona... i am still on my summer tires (winters are sitting at the grandparents house and they dont want us visiting...). So today, with the first snowfall here, i was sliding all around the place... Now i am looking for a hasmat suit to go get my winters :)

Another excellent video - giving the facts in an accessible way with humour.....sometimes intentional :-) Thanks you are making my mind up on All Season tyres here in Wales.

I love these vids! I would always have assumed AWD would have the upper hand. I've just had my winter tyres fitted to my 2wd car, I'm a ready as I can be!!

Your videos are so entertaining, it doesn't matter if you want to buy new tyres or not.

I have the GY Vector4 gen3 on a 4x4 Kadjar. Its the first winter with them on and after the first snow test I am impressed by them. Cant wait to test them again! I would love to see more video tests with this tyres on your channel. Thx!

The most well-balanced choice for consumers is front-drive with 2 sets of wheels, winters and some sort of summer/all-season. Excellent winter driving, good summer driving, without the lifelong AWD penalty of increased fuel consumption, increased repair costs, decreased handling, and the most-dreaded AWD cost: Having to replace all 4 tires if you damage 1 beyond repair.

Very interesant comparative. In Spain people continue saying that it is no necesary winter tyres.... So if we have 5 centimetres of snow, the traffic stop.

That was unbelievable. A mini cooper s... with no front grab handles! Cheap *******. Great video keep it up!

Two things...One I have these all seasons today we had some snow (5 cm where I live) in The Netherlands. Over here all roads areback to treated with salt before the snow falls, then when it gets intense they have these huge shovels to get snow off the road also our I guess famous bike lanes. But there are always roads that are not treated so I look these up to test the tires. Also I live 15 km in land where it tends to be colder, so over here it was dry snow. 5 km from the coast it was a little warmer so there was more slush on the roads. I drove 50-70 km/h and than breaking...The car is absolutely stable. On the deep slush though you feel the ABS working but on the dry snow not at all. Second point is that when I first started to buy allseasons in november 2010 we already had a lot of very dry snow on the ground and falling. I had to go on my summers under my new car. Since it was so cold and snowy I had to drive 60 km to get allseasons (Vredestein Quatrac3). So just before I was at the shop I took the wrong, untreated road....And it was almost a disaster. All cars on both sides of the road and I could not turn. Fortunately there was a parking lot where I could turn. After they mounted these 4season Quatracs I went immediately back to that same road. Just zero problems. A month later the situatiion had changed and we needed to drive to Denmark. So that was 700 km. Where I lived we had 30 cm of snow and that remained unchanged all the way. IN DK and NL the roads are well treated, but in Germany one side of the road wasn't...And some people drove very slowly. So with 100 km.h I went to the left lane because others did so too. And it was again just no problem at all. These Goodyears are clearly better, I already used them last week when we took a small short trip to the hills (700 m max) with 40 cm of snow. From that highplane (Hoge Venen in the belgian Eifel) we went into the valleys...Steep hills etcetc. Zero problems, everything went just fine. I think for people living in a climate with a changable wintersnowcover like we have in The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark for instance these tires to my mind are ideal. If you have 3-4 months with continuous snowcover wintertres are not much better, but better still.

Love these videos. Always change to winters. Can’t wait to see the winters v all season

Got a bit confused as to which car was which at first because it said on screen AWD AS and FWD SUM... I’d love to see the ranking for 6 different combinations: 3 2WD & 3 4WD, and summer, all-season and winter tyres and all six combinations in the dry, in the wet and on snow. That would be a big test to organise but a very interesting one.

Good test as always, and look forward to the next. What would be ace to see is more summer vs. winter tyre testing in

If this video doesn't make you think seriously about tyres then nothing will. 👏

Can't wait for the 4wd on all seasons and 2wd on winter tires!

Excited to see your coming AWD/all season vs. FWD/winter. In the US, the vast majority of people buying AWD/4WD with all season tires do so because they think it's safest and they don't need to swap into winter tires. No doubt that FWD with winter tires will stop much better than AWD with all seasons but it'll be interesting to see if the FWD will also have better traction and handling in the snow. If so, that'll prove that people are foolish spending extra money for AWD and yet not swap winter tires.

As always good review I’ve got the vector 4seasons gen3 on my Audi A4 can’t fault them although not had snow yet !!! Feel very good in the wet and have the gen 2 on the back so all round good year tyres get 👍 from me !!

No braking isn’t the same on AWD and FWD, AWD cars are heavier and may or may not have bigger brakes because of it. In winter conditions the added weigh of the AWD system can have a slight effect on stopping distance. And in really low traction scenarios it shouldn’t be a “positive effect”.

you should make a comparison between AWD summer and FWD All Season. It is clear that on snow AWD always have an advantage

There really needs to be more public knowledge for people to make a sensible and informed tyre choice. All these people in crossovers and 4x4s thinking they're invincible come cold bad weather need to watch this video!

Tires almost always make or break a vehicle or driving situation - quite literally, sometimes. :-p It always amazes me how many people with AWD or 4WD seem to think they don't have to pay attention to road/weather conditions, just because they have AWD or 4WD. Many times you'll see them in a ditch or snow bank. :-D

That video s worth milions of likes. Thank you very much for it.

Anyone notice this is flat ground and basically flat hills, no rollers?? 🤔 I use snow tires with studs every year on my 2010 and 2013 RAV4's and even post videos every year of me climbing hills and playing in the snow 🤷 I've pushed snow with both of my cars front bumpers and I have yet to feel the need to buy any other car. Nice comparison in this video so thank you guys for taking the time to prove how much better snow tires are

You should do it with both cars wearing the same tires to see the difference that awd makes on that model.

Very interesting but predictable I think. Tyres are one thing I’ve never cheated on in my 34 years driving. It’s just hard in the UK to go for the winter tyres (which I did) as they need proper cold temp’s and snow to benefit, whereby I should have gone for all season tyres instead for my use. Great video 🙂

Looks like the best job ever, do you need an assistant?!

I would love to see a 6 wheel drive vehicle on summer tyres VS a Morgan three-wheeler that has 1 wheel drive on winter tyres!

Video idea: What happens if you mix new and old tires? You already did mixing tire compounds/types, but not different states of wear. (My dad's old car wore out the front tires faster than the rear, so instead of rotating tires, he would put new tires on the front and move the front tires to the rear.)

I'm sold. Next tyre change it's all seasons for me, assuming I can find a brand that does my combination of sizes - that seems to be the biggest challenge at the moment. The lateral test is really interesting as it shows the difference between grip and traction. REALLY interesting actually. Can't quite get my head around it.

Would be great to see a test between something like a Discovery Sport on summer tyres and a Ford Focus on all season tyres

Resultados de traducción 7 days ago in Madrid, great snowfall. A somewhat steep hill, in front of me a Volvo cx90 of more than 70,000 euros that could not climb with its 4x4 traction, he got out of the car and told me not to try. That if he couldn't get on with his 4x4 car, he told me that it would be silly to try to get on with my Dacia Lodgy (15,000 euros). I lowered the window, pointed my finger at my Michelin Crossclimate wheels and said to the driver ... "I think your car may be missing this accessory" I started and went up without problems. It was a shame not being able to see the face that was left on him! This is the second time something similar has happened to me with a Volvo 4x4.

I’m interested to hear some myth busting on snow and ice whether to go, high tyres pressure for the pizza cutter effect, or low like the Arctic trucks

Brilliant content, so far this series of videos has shown 2WD car owners don't need to envy AWD cars too much if they have winter or all season tyres fitted. Can't wait for the next test to see how AWD manages with all season tyres. How does the wear rate of all season tyres compare to summer tyres?

Don't you have swapped tires and "wheel drive" in the legend in left corner? (at 1:37) It says AWD and AS, but AWD had summer tires. :) (Sorry if Im wrong). I enjoyed the video, make please some for new snow and used tires. :)

i overtook a land rover sat spinning his wheels on the moors in about 12 inches of drifted snow in the recent wintry spell. in my 12 year old fwd golf on snow tyres. would have loved to have seen his face

Would love to see a a comparsion of brand new Winter tyre and half worn winter tyre under 3 - 4 mm of tread at 4WD :)

No traction, no “game”. As simple as that.

Could you do a tyre pressure video please?

Best in-car driver footage ever.

Easy conclusion: 2wd + correct tires = safety 4wd + incorrect tires = fun What you need?

2WD vs FWD please! Both winter tires or whatever.

Going to buy them goodyear what a tire 🙌

FWD with winter tyres runs circles around 4WD with all-seasons every day of the week and twice on Sunday. That's just common knowledge.

Fantastic investigation (but a somewhat predictable outcome)! Great drone shots.

Thanks 4 your infos!!! Best to know living at 1800 meters!!!

Acceleration aside .. but in braking and lateral grip AWD mini has another drawback - extra weight of AWD drivetrain.

Might be a real lot to ask but it would be awesome to see the lap times with the car in 4WD and good snow tires

Great as always :) You know what you should also test ? Semi-truck and coach tires, there's no real test of how each one performs ;) Plus drifting those thing on snow should be fun xD

Good video. Would be better if you just used a shot of the two cars at the start of each test, rather than a video preview of the outcome!

Bit of a curve ball, but it would be great if you could put summer tyres + snow socks into the equation. I've had great success with them to and from a ski trip in the Alps and also in the UK when we got a sprinkling a couple of years ago and I was the only car to get up a gentle slope unaided.

These are the cars you should have used in the all seas on vs winter tires instead of the rwd vs 4x4 truck used.

I'd be curious to see a video AWD winter, AWD all season (European), AWD all season (American). I recently picked up a Mazda3 AWD with Bridgestone Turanzas (American all seasons), which were absolute trash. We got some greasy snow and the car was all over the place. I searched around online and found some Vredestein Quatrac 5s (American all weather - I gather this is equivalent to European all seasons). Of course now I haven't had a chance to see how they stack up. In the United States the mantra is "get your a good set of all seasons and be done with it."

Rather see AWD with All-Season tires vs FWD with winter tires.

I know you mentioned a forthcoming test with FWD with winter tires vs. AWD with all season tires. Can’t wait for it. As a bonus, would you please show what the “ultimate” setup is capable of? (AWD fitted with winter tires). I think it would also be valuable information to have. Thanks

Id like to see FWD all season vs AWD all season to see if there a big difference that makes AWD worth it, or is it just a waste of gas mileage.

If you can, Winter tires on both AWD and FWD! Love to see the difference! Do people really need AWD as much as they think in winter?

As the owner of an STI currently on summer tires dealing with a PNW snowstorm and single digit temps, buy yourself some all season tires

Another good test would be AWD winter tyres vs. FWD winter tyres. There we can see if is worth to pay for AWD.

Love these videos but my understanding is the traction control should be turned off in these conditions. The hill start in particular where traction control was on, a second run with it off would've been interesting. My A3 Quattro is a different car with it off as the power isn't killed to the wheels to reduce them spinning. All seasons would still win and it wouldn't impact the braking of course :)

It’s a shame you can’t show conditions similar to a typical winters day in the U.K., more a cold dusting of snow rather than full blown driving on snow

This and many other tests show really well that every 4 -wheel drive comparision is worth of nothing if you do not have equal tyres.