Michelin CrossClimate 2 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. Michelin has a strong foothold in the all season market with its newest Cross Climate 2 (launch in 2020) and has been winning quite a number of press tests. Continental responded against Cross Climate with their own AllSeasonContact which was launched in 2018. While Cross Climate has had 2 iterations (Cross climate plus & 2), 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 Michelin CrossClimate 2 vs Continental AllSeasonContact head to head in an all season showdown!
Table of Contents
Results
Results below were taken from the 2021 Tyre Reviews All Season Tyre Test. A total of 11 tires were tested this time around including a reference summer & winter tire to gauge the compromises of an all season tire. The winter testing was done in Ivalo, Finland while the summer test was conducted in Wachauring, Austria. The graph below shows the comparison between Michelin CrossClimate 2 vs Continental AllSeasonContact based on the relevant performance category. The CrossClimate 2 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%. Hence for example if tire A is graded 7 while tire B is graded 6, A is better than B by 5%. The tire size of interest is 205/55R16 which is a common tire size for Volkswagen Golf (2018) and the Toyota Corolla Altis (2018) while the test vehicle is the Golf GTI. You can check out our latest tire size table for more information.
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. As this is all season, Tyre Review decided to test wet braking at 2 different temperature points. Once at 4°C and the other at 15°C to really test the different conditions which an all season tire will have to face.
The AllSeasonContact did really well @ 4°C and out-brake Cross Climate 2 by 0.37 meters. AllSeasonContact finished a respectable 3rd overall among the competition @ 4°C wet braking. However things changed drastically @ 15°C as the Cross Climate 2 brake 1.1 meters earlier than the AllSeasonContact . What we are witnessing here is the effect of the all season compound & its micro contact area varies based on the given temperature. Broadly speaking, all compounds are optimized to perform at a certain range due to the multitude of trade offs it has to deal with. While an all season compound should work its magic in between the winter & summer temperatures, each manufacturer’s optimized range varies, hence the fluctuation of results can be seen at different temperatures.
While in wet handling, both tires are equally matched in terms of lap time as AllSeasonContact was slower than Cross Climate 2 by 0.23 seconds. As we have seen with many Michelin tires across various press tests, Cross Climate 2’s aquaplaning performance is the best among the competition. It managed a straight aquaplaning slip speed of 92.2 km/h while AllSeasonContact only had a 87.8 km/h slip speed. Similar trends in curve aquaplaning as Cross Climate 2 has a tiny +0.2m/s2 advantage. Overall in the wet category, AllSeasonContact has an edge during low temperatures but at a warmer temperature range Cross Climate 2 is much better.
AllSeasonContact :
- +1.2% in wet braking @4°C
- -4% in wet braking @15°C
- -0.5% in wet handling (lap time)
- -4.8% in straight aquaplaning
- -0.2% 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. The testing was done at 2-4°C which is more of the winter side. Cross Climate 2 dominated the dry braking competition by being the best in competition while out braking AllSeasonContact by 3.1 meters.
The same story continues in dry handling as the Cross climate 2 claimed the best all season tire among the rest with the fastest lap time @ 45.8 seconds. Hot behind its heels is the AllSeasonContact which is only 0.11 seconds slower than Cross Climate 2. Overall on dry surfaces, it is clear that AllSeasonContact is only second best compared to Cross Climate 2.
AllSeasonContact :
- -7.7% in dry braking
- -0.2% in dry handling (lap time)
Comfort & Noise
In the exterior noise test, Cross Climate 2 has a pass by noise value of 69.1 dB which is 2.3 dB quieter than AllSeasonContact. To our dismay, AllSeasonContact has the worst pass by noise results at 71.4 dB and it firmly rooted in last place among the competition. Both tires are equally matched in subjective comfort with a rating of 9.5/10
AllSeasonContact :
- -3.2% in exterior noise (+2.3 dB)
- 0% in subjective comfort (9.5/10)
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.
Both Cross Climate 2 & AllSeasonContact are labeled “B”. In terms of results, they were quite close with AllSeasonContact having the higher rolling resistance coefficient of 7.82N/kN compared to the 7.17 N/kN value of Cross Climate 2. Hence this makes the Cross Climate 2 a much more sustainable tire as it emits less carbon footprint over its lifetime compared to AllSeasonContact.
AllSeasonContact :
- -2% 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, AllSeasonContact and Cross Climate 2 have to pass a legal snow test in order to certify themselves as a 3 peak mountain tire.
Both tires took turns to display their snow capabilities at different snow tests. Cross Climate 2 showed its strength in snow traction by taking only 5.45 seconds to accelerate from 5-40 km/h while it took AllSeasonContact 5.85 seconds. All the all season tires took less than 7 seconds to accelerate till 40km/h while the reference summer tire took 20 seconds ! This is the part where you get your money’s worth by not getting stuck in the snow 🙂 . AllSeasonContact topped the snow braking charts with an 0.42m braking advantage over Cross Climate 2. Both tires were equally matched in snow handling as 0.1 seconds differentiate them in terms of lap time. Overall, both tires are neck to neck in terms of snow performances and there is no clear advantage.
AllSeasonContact :
- +2.5% in snow braking
- -6.8% in snow traction
- +0.1% in snow handling (lap times)
- -1.5% in snow circle
Price
Being the undisputed technology leader, we would expect Michelin to command the highest priced tire in the market. This was proven to be true as Michelin’s Cross Climate 2 proved to be slightly more expensive compared to Continental’s AllSeasonContact.
Tire size: 205/55 R16
Cross Climate 2: €91.6
AllSeasonContact: €86.6
Difference: -6% more cheaper for AllSeasonContact.
Summary
Overall, Cross Climate 2 shows great masterclass performance in all categories. It only lost out to AllSeasonContact in snow braking & wet braking at cold temperatures. It is clear in our opinion that clearly the Cross Climate 2 is the winner of this duel with its outstanding dry, wet, & snow performances.