Tyre Reviews Tyre Tests

The first tyre test of 2018 is rather unique. German publication Auto Zeitung have tested six summer tyres and three all season tyres all in the same test, and while it's going to make the Tyre Reviews version of the result at the bottom of this page read slightly wonky, it's a really interesting way of comparing the dry and wet performances of the two tyre types.

Keep in mind, the nine tyres were only tested in the dry and wet, there was no snow or ice testing to highlight the all season tyres year-round abilities. This means this test should just be looked at to see how the all season tyres compare to the summer tyres in summer conditions, rather than making a purchase decision for year-round motoring.

While studded tyres aren't suitable for the UK climate, they are the best way of staying mobile in extreme winter conditions. Each tyre can have hundreds of studs, which bite into ice with far more grip than a studless friction winter tyre can give. There are of course drawbacks to studded tyres, they're very noisy, and they give up a lot of dry and wet performance when compared to a European winter tyre, but in climates such as Russia and the Nordic countries where you are likely to be driving on ice for weeks at a time, there's little alternative.

We're a little bit late with this one, as it's likely the UK has had most of its bad weather for winter 2017/18, however we can't resist covering a winter ultra high performance tyre test, especially when they use a RWD Toyota GT86 as the test car!

For this test, Sport Auto magazine fitted the GT86 with ten different patterns of 225/40 R18 sports winter tyres, and put the tyres through the normal dry, wet and snow testing.

Everyone knows tyre performance changes with wear, with the biggest change in tyre performance coming from all season and winter tyres in snowy and icy conditions.

The drop in performance can be so vast after 4mm that certain countries where "three peak mountain and snowflake" tyres are a legal requirement for winter driving, they can lose their legality after 4mm, meaning you only get to use half of your tyres tread.

Should this be the case? Michelin have been making alot of noise recently regarding the negative impact of having to scrap a tyre with half its tread life remaining, and their arguments are compelling. Not only are you costing the customer more, but you're also causing a much higher negative environmental impact by doubling natural resourse usage and doubling waste.

For 2017, the "All Road" edition of the German publication Auto Bild has tested ten 225/55 R17 winter tyres. This size is commonly used by compact crossovers, such as the BMW X1 used in this test.

The biggest interest in this test was the Chinese budget winter tyre from Pace. With the most expensive set of winter tyres costing 660 euros at time of test, the budget Pace tyres were a full 400 euros cheaper, at just 260 euros. Are the savings worth the performance drop? Read on below to find out.

The 2017 Auto Express all season tyre test is a wonderful mix of eight 205/55 R16 all season tyres, the Dunlop Sport BluResponse summer tyre and the Continental WinterContact TS860 winter tyre.

A new feature for 2017 is wet testing at over, and under the magic 7c mark the tyre manufacturers recommend we change our tyres at.

For 2017 the Polish publication AutoCentrum has tested eight studless winter tyres in 185/65 R15. As with the other winter tyre tests we've featured across 2017, AutoCentrum tests the winter tyres in the dry, wet and snow, but also includes ice testing, a first for 2017.

Six of the tyres on test are European winter tyres which are available to the UK market, and two of the tyres (Debica Frigo 2 and Sava Eskimo Ice) are full nordic friction winter tyres, so it should give us a good overview of how these two different types of tyres perform, and why Nordic winter tyres aren't suitable for the UK market.

Fifty winter tyres have been put through wet braking tests, with the top thirty also tested for snow braking performance. Only the top twenty have gone through to the full Auto Bild winter tyre test!

The 2017 Auto Bild winter tyre test started with fifty 225/50 R17 winter tyre patterns which Auto Bild tested for wet braking performance, and then dropped the worse twenty tyres from the test.

The next phase was testing the remaining thirty patterns for snow braking, which was then combined with the wet braking distances to allow the ten worst tyres to be dropped. This left twenty winter tyres which Auto Bild regarded as the best winter tyres on the market, and deemed worthy enough to take through to the full testing.

As ever with Auto Bild testing, they undertake all the usual dry, wet and snow testing, but also including important factors such as wear and cost per 1,000 km, which a lot of tests are unable to include.

The results as closer than ever, and you'd be hard pressed to classify any of the top 10 tyres as bad tyres, but three in particular rose to the top.

Sadly there's very little data available for this 235/55 R17 SUV tyre test conducted by the European motoring bodies ACE / ARBO / GTU, nor are Michelin featured, but it's still worth a read if you drive a crossover vehicle such as the Ford Kuga or Volkswagen Tiguan which uses this tyre size.

This year the German motoring orginisation ADAC have tested winter tyres in 195/65 R15 and 215/65 R16.

Unusually for a winter tyre test, Continental faulter in this 215/65 R16 SUV tyre size, only finishing seventh overall. This leaves the door open for Dunlop to take first place with the Winter Sport 5 which proves to have a very balanced all round performance with no glaring weaknesses.

BF Goodrich finished in a very strong second place, winning the majority of the test categories but missing out on the top spot due to a slightly weak wet performance, where as the third placed Goodyear UltraGrip Performance Gen-1 proved to be extremely strong in the wet, but a little disappointing on snow.

This year the German motoring orginisation ADAC have tested winter tyres in 195/65 R15 and 215/65 R16.

The 195/65 R16 winter tyre test continues Continentals winter dominance, with another win for the Continental WinterContact TS860. 

The 2017 Auto Bild all season tyre test has tested ten 205/55 R16 all season tyres touring tyres, using a VW Golf. This is also the first test to include the new Continental AllSeasonContact tyre.

Issue 1,495 of the weekly UK publication Auto Express contains their 2017 winter tyre test!

This year Auto Express have tested eight winter tyre patterns in 225/45 R17 using a VW Golf in the dry and wet, and an Audi A3 in the snow. 

Auto Express have previously asked us to keep our coverage of their tests to a minumum, so below is a summary of what went on. The full results can be found on the Auto Express website, which we will link as soon as they're online.

Overall, with just 3.9% covering the eight tyres on test, it's getting closer every year at the top.

The German publication Auto Zeitung have just published their 2017 all season tyre test, and it might be the most UK relevant tyre test we've ever seen.

First, they're testing in the most popular 205/55 R16 size using a FWD Audi A3, which represents a large slice of our car market. Then, they've managed to include ten all season patterns, which is more than most all season tyre tests manage, but the icing on the cake is the winter tyre included for reference is the multiple award winning Continental WinterContact TS 860.

There's one more summer tyre test left to cover in 2017, and this time it's the American publication Car and Driver testing five 245/40 R18 maximum performance summer tyres using a BMW 430i.

The first winter tyre test of 2017 has been published! The German publication Auto Motor und Sport [AMS] have tested ten ultra high performance winter tyres in 225/40 R18. This extremely popular 18" tyre sizes is fitted to performance saloons such as the Audi A4, Skoda Octavia VRS, and the 232 bhp BMW 430i Grand Coupe used for this testing.

We'll keep the words low and data high for this Australian ultra high performance tyre test. All tyres tested were 235/35 R19, and the magazine used a Ford Focus RS.

The 2017 Auto Bild All Season Tyre Test puts eight 225/50 R17 all season tyres through the usual dry, wet and snow testing, and includes a reference summer and winter tyre for benchmarks.

The two all season heavyweights of the industry, the Michelin CrossClimate and the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-2, trade results to tie overall in first place. As each of these all season tyres approaches year round motoring in different ways, we'll concentrate on the top two places for this write up.

The 2017 EVO magazine summer tyre test tested nine 225/40 R18 ultra high performance tyres using a VW Golf GTI.

As with previous years, the overall result is 60% subjective and 40% objective, making it quite a different test from the traditional tyre tests which rate objective data above subjective. This means that while the raw objective figures from the wet and dry tests are still important, how the tyre feels subjectively with regards to steering speed and car balance has an even more importance on the overall result.