Michelin Cross Climate 2 vs Vredestein Quatrac Pro: All season tires have always been the go to tires for the American market and this segment has been well established across the years. It is such a popular segment that Michelin has 3 types of all season products to serve the market (Cross Climate 2, Pilot Sport All Season 4 & Defender T+H. All of these 3 only the Cross Climate 2 has the elusive 3 peak mountain logo which further strengthen its all season capability in snow. We would like to pair the Cross Climate 2 with another competitive 3 peak mountain labeled competitor called Vredestein Quatrac Pro. This tire has been around since 2019 and is known as the wet expert while Cross Climate 2 was launched in 2020. Let’s pair them head to head and see who comes out on top!
Table of Contents
Results
Results below were taken from the 2021 Auto Bild All Season Tire Test with a total of 18 tires tested. The graph below shows the comparison between Michelin Cross Climate 2 vs Vredestein Quatrac Pro based on the relevant performance category. The Cross Climate 2 was set as a reference hence at the 100% mark. Note that for both wet & dry handling evaluation, the average lap speed was used instead of the standard lap time & subjective rating.
As both tires are categorized as all season tires with 3 peak mountain logos on it, Auto Bild has included snow in its testing portfolio. A detailed testing on snow including traction, braking & handling were evaluated. The tire size of interest is a 225/50 R17 which is a common tire size for Audi A4 & Honda Accord. You can check out our latest tire size table for more information. The testing vehicle is a rear wheel drive BMW 3 Series
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. With regards to our comparison, Quatrac Pro dominated the competition when it comes to wet braking by placing 1st among the competition. In raw distances, it braked 3.9 meters (12.8 feet) earlier compared to Cross Climate 2.
While in wet handling, Quatrac Pro’s advantage in wet handling was transferred into a top average speed of 77.3 km/h (48 mph). This was the absolute best among the competition and it was 5 km/h (3.1 mph) more than Cross Climate 2. In wet circle, Quatrac Pro was able to handle much higher lateral acceleration with a 0.68 seconds advantage over Cross Climate 2. When it comes to standard aquaplaning, Cross Climate with its V shape pattern is able to achieve a higher slip speed of 93.1 km/h (57.8 mph) compared to 90.7 km/h (56.4 mph) of Quatrac Pro. However in lateral aquaplaning, the initiative was taken back by Quatrac Pro with an +0.3m/s2 lateral acceleration advantage.
In summary, Quatrac Pro is definitely the wet king in this segment by being 1st in wet braking & handling. It does however have a slight drawback in straight aquaplaning due to its straight groove pattern layout in comparison to the V shape layout adopted by the main competitors.
Quatrac Pro:
- +7.8% in wet braking
- +6.9% in wet handling (avg speed)
- +5.5% in wet circle
- -2.6% in straight aquaplaning
- +5.2% 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. This is where we witness a huge 4.4 meters (14.4 feet) braking distance advantage for Cross Climate 2. Similarly to what Quatrac Pro has done in wet braking, Cross Climate 2 was the best dry braking tire among the competition.
While the similar trend continued in subjective dry handling, Cross Climate 2 managed a +0.9 km/h (0.5 mph) average speed faster compared to Quatrac Pro. Once again Cross Climate 2 tops the chart with the best dry handling tire among the competition. Overall, Cross Climate 2 shows they are the dry king for this segment.
Quatrac Pro:
- -10.5% in dry braking
- -1% in dry handling (avg speed)
Noise
Exterior noise was tested to evaluate the impact of the tires to the surroundings. This is the part of the EU label which can be noted on every single tire sold in the European Union. Quatrac Pro came out with the second quietest tire in the test with 71.4 dB (only losing to Pirelli Cinturato All Season with 71.1 dB). Cross Climate 2 was 0.6 dB louder with a noise value of 72 dB.
Quatrac Pro:
- +0.8% in noise ( -0.6 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.
Cross Climate 2 have a rolling resistance label of “B” while Quatrac Pro has is being labeled “D” which is 2 level down of Cross Climate 2. With this information in mind, it is no surprising that Quatrac Pro was 22% worse than Cross Climate 2 with rolling resistance coefficient value of 9.19 N/kN. Cross Climate 2 was the second best tire in the test with a rolling resistance coefficient of 7.2 N/kN. This makes Cross Climate 2 a much more sustainable as it emits less carbon footprint over its lifetime compared to Quatrac Pro.
Quatrac Pro:
- -22% in rolling resistance
Wear
As wear results are extremely hard to come by as it costs tons of money, we were quite happy when Auto Bild had it included in their test plan. To save cost, the tires were not run thoroughly till the very last tread depth but were run till 15,000 km. The expected mileage was then extrapolated assuming a linear rate of wear over the remaining tread depth.
Michelin usually excels very well when it comes to wear test but this time around it only managed to finish in the middle pack at an expected mileage of 40,000 km. However in comparison with the Quatrac Pro which only managed an expected mileage of 34,600 km it was relatively better. Quatrac Pro performances illustrate the trade off any tire maker is faced with. In this case Quatrac Pro’s excellent wet performance resulted in being bad in rolling resistance & wear hence showing that it is critical to balance the trade offs wisely.
Quatrac Pro:
- -14.4% in wear
Snow
As both tires have been rated as an all season tire with 3 peak mountain rating on them, we were happy that Auto Bild included snow on its testing list. With certified snow status for both tires we would expect Quatrac Pro to put up a decent fight against the all time all season snow master.
In the snow braking test, Cross Climate 2 managed to brake 1 meter (3.28 feet) earlier than Quatrac Pro. Things got worse for Quatrac Pro in snow traction as Cross Climate 2 managed a higher traction force of 2995 Newtons compared to the 2715 Newtons of Quatrac Pro. A slight advantage was also observed in snow handling as Cross Climate 2 had +0.5km/h (0.31 mph) quicker average lap time speed compared against Quatrac Pro. Overall from the results, Cross Climate 2 has a clear edge on the snow surfaces.
Quatrac Pro:
- -3.6% in snow braking
- -9.3% in snow traction
- -1.2% in snow handling (avg speed)
Price
Being the undisputed technology leader, we would expect Michelin to command the highest priced tire in the market. This turned out to be true as Quatrac Pro is significantly cheaper than Cross Climate 2.
Tire size: 225/50 R17
Cross Climate 2: $213r
Quatrac Pro: $148
Difference: -44% more cheaper for Quatrac Pro.
Summary
Overall, Quatrac Pro showed outstanding wet performances while Cross Climate 2 was well balanced with strong performances across dry, rolling resistance, snow & wear. Taking into consideration the overall package, Cross Climate 2 is the clear winner with an overall balanced tire in all performance categories.