Tyre Reviews Tyre Tests

The 2016 Auto Bild SUV and 4x4 tyre test looks at seven of the latest tyres for the quickly growing "softroad" vehicle segment. These latest softroaders have sporty driving characteristics, and spend most of their time on road, yet should still retain some performance on grass or gravel.

One VW Golf wearing 205/55 R16 tyres, 50 different tyre patterns, and a lot of wet and dry braking tests gives us a good overview of the market in 2016. The dry test was braking from 62 mph, and the wet from 50 mph.

The test we've all been waiting for is here, and it's round one to Continental.

The 2016 Auto Bild Sports Cars tyre test placed six maximum performance tyres through their paces on a Jaguar F-Type, in 255/35 R20 front and 295/30 R20 rear sizes.

The new Continental Sport Contact 6 was tested against the reigning performance tyre king, the Michelin Pilot Super Sport, and the result was surprising.

Testing in 225/45 R17, the GTU test is the first test to include the new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3, Dunlop Sport Maxx RT2, Falken Azenis FK510, Toyo Proxes T1 Sport+ and GT Radial SportActive amongst the fourteen tyres tested! Sadly, the new Michelin Pilot Sport 4 was absent from the test, but we can't have everything at once.

Much like the 225/45 R17 test ADAC published at the same time, the ADAC 185/65 R15 tyre test looks at sixteen premium and mid range tyres, but this time has selected tyres intended to be fitted to smaller town and city cars.

The biggest surprise of the test was this time delivered by Vredestein, with the Sportrac 5 dominating the test, and beating the wet weather master Continental Premium Contact 5 in the wet tests. The Vredestein must have gone through a life cycle update, as in 2015 the best result it could manage was fifth overall, and over placed near the bottom of the tests it took part in.

The 2016 ADAC 225/45 R17 summer tyre test is a classic ADAC by-the-numbers tyre test, with the results driven from data rather than subjective scoring.

Of the sixteen tyres tested, at least three patterns have already been replaced, with the Michelin Pilot Sport 3, Toyo Proxes T1 Sport and GT Radial Champiro HPY already superseded by the Michelin Pilot Sport 4, Toyo Proxes T1 Sport+ and GT Radial Sport Active in late 2015.

Goodyear and Dunlop are also noticeably absent from this test, with the newly released Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 and Dunlop Sport Maxx RT2 missing.

The first summer tyre test of 2016 is a curious one. ACE, the Automobile Club Europa, are often first to publish their regular summer tyre tests, but this year their first tyre test exclusively features midrange tyres.

Testing ten 195/65 R15 tyres on a VW Golf, ACE argue that the most important consideration for 90% of motorists is price, which is why they've chosen to tests tyres as cheap as 35/euros per tyre.

Continuing the year of all season tyre tests, French magazine L'Argus have released their first all season tyre test, which included both the new Michelin CrossClimate, the new Nokian Weatherproof, and the new Nokian WR D4 as the reference winter tyre.

Testing five of the latest all season tyres in 205/55 R16 on a VW Golf, L'Argus put the all the tyres through a full complement of winter and summer tests, in both an Austrian Autumn at a warm 15c, and a Finnish winter where the temperatures were as low as -15c.

Testing 10 premium UHP winter tyres in 225/50 R17, including three patterns released in 2015, Auto Motor und Sport put the tyres through the usual range of dry, wet, snow and environmental tests across Finland and Germany.

Our copy of the 2015 ACE winter tyre test is a little thin on details, but we thought it was important to include as it tests many of the new winter tyres for 2015, in the popular 225/50 R17 tyre size.

This year, Sport Auto have tested seven different UHP winter tyres in 235/35 R19, on a VW Golf R.

The UK climate represents a difficult challenge for car tyres. Warm enough to require a tyre that works well at higher temperatures, but not warm enough to make a summer tyre the best choice year round.

Until recently, tyres have fallen into three distinct categories: summer, all season and winter tyres. Traditionally, all season tyres have been developed from a winter tyre origins, which give them excellent snow performance but can impact dry and wet performance, especially in the warmer months. This year, Michelin have released the CrossClimate, which if the marketing is to be believed, promises to be a second type of all season tyre, one which started life as a summer tyre and has been gifted winter capabilities.

Is a summer and winter tyre combination the only safe option? Has the second generation Goodyear all season moved the game on? Can the new Michelin CrossClimate live up to the marketing hype? That's what we're here to find out.

There's not much we can say about the excellent 2015 Auto Express Winter Tyre Test, other than head over to the Auto Express site and check out the full review!

Based on a combined snow and wet braking performance, this year Auto Bild have taken the best eightteen 185/60 R15 winter tyres through from their 2015 Winter Tyre Shootout, and one all season tyre, the Pirelli Cinturato All Season.

From the fifty tyres tested, there were some surprise drop outs. The Vredestein Snowtrac 5, Yokohama W.Drive, Toyo Snowprox S943 and Avon Ice Touring were a few of the 32 tyres which failed to make the grade. Equally, tyres like the Semperit Speed Grip 2, Barum Polaris 3, Gislavel Euro Frost 5 and Viking Snow Tech II were are few surprise inclusions, it will be interesting to find out if they can live up to the established competition in the full winter tyre test.

Most winter tyre tests cover sizes up to 16 inch wheels, as these are by far the most common winter tyre sizes fitted across Europe. Unfortunately, if you're looking to keep your performance car mobile over winter, these tests are largely useless as a reference, as tyre patterns and performances can drastically change as the sizes increase.

Luckily Auto Bild Sportscars have us covered with their latest ultra high performance winter tyre test. Auto Bild have taken eight UHP winter tyres in 225/40 R18 and tested them on a RWD Mercedes C Class across the usual range of snow, wet and dry tests and have included a summer tyre as reference.

The 2015 Auto Bild all season tyre test is here, and it's the first test to include the new Michelin CrossClimate and Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-2.