Bridgestone Weather Control A005 EVO vs Continental AllSeasonContact: All season tires have always been the go to tires for the American market and this segment has been well established across the years. However things were only starting to take off in Europe after the launch of Cross Climate in 2015 revolutionizing the whole all season market. We have seen from our previous post on Goodyear’s Vector 4Seasons Gen 3 performance against Continental All Season Contact.
This time around we would like to pair Continental’s AllSeasonContact with another big all season market leader which is Bridgestone’s Weather Control A005 EVO. Bridgestone has also been quietly catching up in this all season- 3 peak mountain segment with the launch of its 2nd generation Weather Control A005 EVO in 2020 as well while Continental over the years has only stuck to AllSeasonContact and it has done fairly well. To find out which is the better tire, we will pit the Bridgestone Weather Control A005 EVO vs Continental AllSeasonContact head to head in an all season showdown!
Table of Contents
Results
Results below were taken from the 2022 Tyre Reviews All Season Tyre Test. A total of 10 tires were tested this time around. The graph below shows the comparison between Bridgestone Weather Control A005 EVO vs Continental AllSeasonContact based on the relevant performance category. The Weather Control A005 EVO was set as a reference hence at the 100% mark.
As both tires are categorized as all season tires with a 3 peak mountain logo on it, an extensive snow testing was conducted. However ice testing was left out which was quite disappointing to our dismay. Note that for subjective comfort evaluation, we equate 1 point as 5%. The tire size of interest is a 225/45R17 which is a common tire size for Audi A3 and Hyundai Elantra. You can check out our latest tire size table for more information. The testing vehicle of choice is a Volkswagen Golf.
Wet
The friction of coefficient of the tire/road dramatically decreases in wet roads compared to dry roads. Hence it is more likely to get into a road accident during wet conditions rather than on a sunny day. It was so important that the EU label has wet braking as one of its three criteria.
Weather Control A005 EVO did fairly well against AllSeasonContact in wet braking by stopping 1.2m earlier. While in wet handling it was a tight affair as AllSeasonContact was just slightly in front by finishing 0.5 seconds faster than Weather Control A005 EVO in wet handling.
The trend continued in aquaplaning as both tires were really closed as AllSeasonContact slightly edge ahead with an aquaplaning slip speed of 78.3 km/h compared to Weather Control A005 EVO’s 78.1 km/h slip speed. However in curve aquaplaning, Weather Control A005 EVO has an +0.2m/s2 advantage. Overall in the wet category, Weather Control A005 EVO has a small edge in all wet braking & curve aquaplaning.
AllSeasonContact :
- -3.6% in wet braking
- +0.5% in wet handling (lap time)
- +0.3% in straight aquaplaning
- -2.9% in curve aquaplaning
Dry
As for dry, safety is usually not an issue as the braking distance is much longer than wet. However this is the default daily usage and the tires have to perform at a very consistent level. Weather Control A005 EVO dominated the dry braking competition by out braking AllSeasonContact by 2.3 meters.
However in the dry handling performance criteria, both tires were equally matched with AllSeasonContact just being ahead with a 0.1 second advantage against Weather Control A005 EVO. From these results, it has been shown repeatedly that having a good dry braking performance does not necessarily guarantee a good dry handling performance. Overall on dry surfaces, Weather Control A005 EVO leads in the dry area with its strong dry braking performance.
AllSeasonContact :
- -5.5% in dry braking
- +0.1% in dry handling (lap time)
Noise
In the exterior noise test, AllSeasonContact has a pass by noise value of 69.7 dB which is 0.1 dB quieter than Weather Control A005 EVO.
AllSeasonContact :
- +0.1% in exterior noise (-0.1 dB)
Rolling Resistance
When it comes to all season tires, rolling resistance is definitely not at the highest priority as the engineer has to handle the most important winter vs summer target conflict. However with the sustainability topic being more prevalent, rolling resistance has been widely used as a competitive marketing tool as it could be easily seen in the label values.
AllSeasonContact is labeled “B” while Weather Control A005 EVO is labeled “C” in the EU label rolling resistance ranking. With this label, we would expect AllSeasonContact to be much better than Weather Control A005 EVO. However upon measuring the rolling resistance coefficient values, the expectations were not met. Weather Control A005 EVO had a lower rolling resistance coefficient value of 7.5N/kN which is the best in the competition. AllSeasonContact on the other hand obtained a 8.1N/kN rolling resistance coefficient which does not even reflect the “B” status based on the EU rolling resistance regulation. Hence as demonstrated time and time again, the EU labels sometimes do not reflect the tire’s true performance.
AllSeasonContact :
- -7.4% in rolling resistance
Snow
As with most all season tires in the European market, both tires here come with a 3 peak mountain symbol to legally certified them as a winter tire. In layman terms, Weather Control A005 EVO and AllSeasonContact have to pass a legal snow test in order to certify themselves as a 3 peak mountain tire.
AllSeasonContact showed its strength in snow traction by taking only 6.8 seconds to accelerate from 5-40 km/h while it took Weather Control A005 EVO 9.5 seconds. Snow braking was once again dominated by AllSeasonContact as it out-brake Weather Control A005 EVO by 4.3 meters. AllSeasonContact also took the lead in snow handling with a lap time advantage of 10.1 seconds. Overall, it is clear from the test results, AllSeasonContact excels much better in snow compared with Weather Control A005 EVO.
AllSeasonContact :
- +13.3% in snow braking
- +39.7% in snow traction
- +8.6% in snow handling (lap times)
Price
The tire prices for both Weather Control A005 EVO & AllSeasonContact are as below:
Tire size: 205/55 R16
AllSeasonContact: €86.6
Weather Control A005 EVO: €79
Difference: +9% more expensive for AllSeasonContact.
Summary
Overall, AllSeasonContact shows great masterclass in snow while Weather Control A005 EVO excels in wet/dry braking & rolling resistance. It is hard to make a clear recommendation in this case and it depends on your requirement. If snow is a clear intention for your all season usage, AllSeasonContact would be a wise choice. If there is minimal winter coverage in your driving location, Weather Control A005 EVO would be a wiser choice. Enjoy!