Each autumn, drivers across temperate climates face a quiet but consequential question: how much performance are they willing to trade for convenience? Auto Motor und Sport's 2026 evaluation of nine all-season tyres, conducted on a Hyundai i20 in the 195/55 R16 size, offers a measured answer — one where Continental's AllSeasonContact 2 leads a field of capable but inherently compromised performers. The test affirms an enduring truth of engineering: a tool designed to serve two masters will always bow to physics, and the wisdom lies not in denying the trade-off, but in understanding when it is