That’s Interesting.
But simple braking testing is just not applicable to most of the season in the mountains, or in Vermont. Turning matters, braking matters, handling matters, and the Nordic tires are much better in winter conditions when considering all three.
The indoor lap times on snow are deceptive in characterizing the performance differences.
There is a huge performance difference between all seasons and “Nordic” tires. He even says so when describing how the car handled when hitting polished ice.
“If You encounter actual winter conditions, you fit a Nordic tire”.
His recommendation for all seasons was for UK drivers - not real winter climates.
Further, his summer tire experience was spot on. I got caught in Vermont (big change in forecast, snow, freezing rain showed up) with the S600 on summer tires.
Horrible. Absolutely dangerous. Don’t ever drive on summer tires in winter conditions. I hadn’t planned to, but as I said, I got caught.
His recommendation about all seasons applies to the cars I keep in Virginia Beach, though, with a similar mild, wet winter climate to the UK.
The Mercedes do not get driven in snow. The AWD Volvo does, about once every other year, and the Nokian WRG4 do quite well.