You and I are well into our tyre technology
@chriscroft but for the first time ever, i'm going to disagree with some of what you say, kind of.
However, my disagreement has a couple of caveats attached to my side of the fence.
I also ran these tyres on a set of banded Amaroks on my T6, and have the luxury of having them also on my wife's Mini Cooper S and my Motorhome.
First off, the Mini. Anyone that has driven a late Cooper S in automatic, will know these things are very quick when spanked. The original factory Michelin Primacy 4's are a fantastic summer tyre with loads of grip and very quiet, which is what swayed me onto the Cross Climates, and on the Mini, these tyres are a huge success. They are as quiet as the summers, with equally good performance, including fantastic deep puddle performance, with almost zero snatch when you hit a puddle.
Then the Motorhome. A big heavy front wheel drive, with all the weight at the back, which is an awful combination on wet grass, mud or snow. All conditions that my Motorhome has seen. Most Motorhomes also come from the factory with Michelins, and mine was no exception, running the Agilis Camping. A fantastic tyre and surprisingly good all round for such a huge tyre. I whacked the Cross Climates on this for a trip into Germany and Austria last winter and they performed amazingly in the cold condition and snow. Bare in mind that European snow is far better managed than UK snow, so not the extreme test for a tyre, but very confidence inspiring.
The T6, and this is where things don't quite match the two above.
Ok, so my T6 is mapped, running around 250hp, and a lot more torque than standard, with the TVS map on the DSG box, which does make a big difference to how the power is put down, but these Cross Climates just didn't work for my van. Yes, they were quiet, and in the dry they handled really nice, and yes they look aesthetically a lovely tyre, but my problems were in the wet weather. It wasn't the wet weather cornering, because that was fine unless pushed over the limits. The issue was acceleration on my T6, in the wet on these tyres. Every junction was a traction nightmare if you needed to pull out quickly, and traction control is a PITA at the best of times, but trying to pull off quickly in the wet on these tyres was really frustrating.
You and I have been through our share of tyre brands, and we both know pretty quickly if we like a tyre or not, and the Cross-Climate is such a great tyre in 90% of situations, but when that missing 10% is a characteristic that's important, the tyre fails in your own opinion and situation. I think my issue wasn't the tyre itself, because I suspect many others will love the Michelin. I think it wasn't suitable to my T6.
Would any all season tyre fill that 10% gap in this case? Yes, the Goodyear Vector 4 did. My latest Goodyears are absolutely perfect on my T6. They don't skip around under hard throttle in the wet, they are slightly quieter than the Michelins, the tread pattern is almost the same design, with the extra bonus that the sidewalls on the Goodyear are much smoother, and therefor take a hand applied tyre shine much better that the rougher sides of the Cross climates, but generally they are a better all round tyre for me.
Don't get me wrong, the Michelins are a fantastic tyre on a vehicle that the tyre was designed for, but a heavy T6, with a lot of torque, running a slightly stretched (therefor undersized in the manufactures eyes) tyres, they just didn't work for me.
; and thats what really matters with tyres.
