Does a reasonably performing true all season tire exist?

You've seen it, I've seen it: 

ALL SEASON

As if slapping that onto the side wall automatically makes that tire with the straight centerline tread block handle anything remotely resembling a light dusting of the frozen stuff. 

For those of us whose fun cars also serve daily driver duty in climates that get all types of water from the sky, what's your jack of all trades tire? 

I'm not looking for one to handle 6" of snow or ice, I already have the hammer for that job (100 series), but if there is a little bit of fluff out there, or I want to scoot myself up a fire road, I would like to do it with some measure of confidence, at least from my tires. 

It simply cannot exist if you are being exacting. Conti DWS is a very good jack-of-all-trades tire (when its tread is new). After a while, the "S" part wears off, and snow performance predictably goes out with it. New, it is good for light snow, but the fine details on the tire wear quickly, especially when driven 'appropriately' in the summer. So even if such a perfect tire existed, it wouldn't exist for multiple winters. Similarly, the DWS really squirms and has low summer grip compared to a true summer tire. Winter tires are just awful in the summer, heck, spring. I drove a set of Blizzaks from Michigan to NC in the spring once, and I could tell the outside temp by how greasy they turned above 60F. The DWS squirm improves a little as it ages, but it never will grip like a nice sticky tire. The demands for snow and summer performance are just far too broad apart, so you'll have to give up your expectations somewhere.  

YouTuber Tyre Reviews has a LOT of good content that will help with this question, as does Tire Rack's channel.  
 

There is a difference between "all season" (kind of "3 season") like Michelin PSAS4 or the Conti's mentioned above, and tires with the 3 peak symbol on them like the Michelin CrossClimate2.

Edit:  sorry, had to "post and run" earlier.  Here's an example: https://youtube.com/watch?v=421HkK4Nqss&feature=sharea

I'm shopping for winters now and I'm kind of considering Kumho Solus HA32's for year round use. I'm sure handling would be fine for my little commuter, it's wear and noise I'm concerned about

That all depends on your personal definition of 'reasonably performing', as I'd argue that has been available for quite some time. It just takes doing a little research to pick the 'right' ones.

Tire Rack performs 'winter' for their all-season tire and snow/ice tire reviews now, so you can find both objective and subjective data on it. Tire technology has continued to improve winter capabilities, especially for the best all-season tires. I think the main issue is that there is a much wider range of winter performance capabilities among all-season tires than there is among snow/ice tires, and vice versa regarding wet/dry performance.

In my experience, there are what I consider to be 'reasonably acceptable' performing all-season tires for light snow use. It just takes a little research to find them.

For UHP all-season tires, the various iterations of the Conti DWS have been the go-to for sacrificing a little UHP for noticeable winter gains. During one of our big snow storms, my old Fit on DWS's chugged right up a hill that it was the only non-4WD/AWD I saw make it to the top. Everything else I saw failed and had to turn around to find another flatter route. For both a more objective and more objectively subjective look at it, here are the UHP all-season tire test and the performance snow/ice tire test winter results for compairson.

Also, here's a quote from the UHPAS test...

The four tires in our test represent the pinnacle of light snow traction for the Ultra High Performance All-Season category. They firmly demonstrate the category's newfound focus on all-season capabilities and are a monumental departure from what used to be seen as "acceptable" light snow traction for an Ultra High Performance All-Season tire.

The best winter performing 'regular' all-season tires will also out perform the UHP all-season tires in winter conditions.

I say it in every thread like this:  for a general-purpose year-round tire for someone that likes a spirited drive, you can't beat the current generation of the Conti DWS.  I believe it's the DWS 06+ at this time.

Fantastic wet traction, good in 2"-4" snow, decent dry handling, doesn't howl like a rat in a trap when pushed on dry pavement.  Oh, and they're good for 30,000-40,000 miles.

Peabody said:

I'm shopping for winters now and I'm kind of considering Kumho Solus HA32's for year round use. I'm sure handling would be fine for my little commuter, it's wear and noise I'm concerned about

I have the older HA32s as the cold weather/storage tires on my Toyobaru. The car stays parked when there's salt on the roads so I haven't driven them in snow, and I don't do much distance on them so I don't know about wear either. The noise on them seems to be fairly low, it never caught my attention. In terms of handling, grip is decent but they're definitely more of a set of wellington boots than basketball shoes...they're noticeably squishy and vague feeling.

I drive all season tires in bad weather but snow is so rare here I can't comment.  There are AS tires that do very well in dry and wet, but I have no personal snow experience on them.  

DWS06+. Every time I switch between them and autocross tires I'm amazed at how little feel difference there is on initial grip and response. The dws of course don't have the same peak grip and give up a bit with sustained inputs but the initial response and transitional grip is impressive. And they do that in anything from 35* and raining to 110* and sunny. Plus much better ride quality and they're competent enough in snow for 95% of winter conditions.

I think that having a mixed use tire as good in both snow and summer is impossible - there are always compromises making such attempts less capable than a single purpose tire.  Which is why I run high performance summer only tires in summer and dedicated snow tires in winter.

wspohn said:

I think that having a mixed use tire as good in both snow and summer is impossible - there are always compromises making such attempts less capable than a single purpose tire.  Which is why I run high performance summer only tires in summer and dedicated snow tires in winter.

While ultimately you are correct, for approximately 90% of typical driving, that's irrelevant.

Seems like the Conti DWS's are the overwhelming favorite! Great, thanks y'all, this has been really helpful!

I don't know if they're still any good, but a few years back I had some Kumho Ecsta in the UHP or HP all-season category.  I wouldn't say they were good in the winter, but handled light snow ok.  Ice was no bueno.  Dry performance was actually quite impressive.

DWS are the droid you're looking for. I have them on 3 of our 6 cars.