Summer Tyre Tests

Following on from the 52 tyre shootout, Auto Bild have taken the twenty best tyres through a full array of wet, dry, NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) and wear tests.

As a change from the usual FWD hatchback used for testing, Auto Bild tested the 225/50 R17 size using a RWD BMW 3 Series.

The Auto Bild sports cars test is usually one of our favourite tests of the year, and this year looks to be no different.

Testing nine 235/35 R19 maximum performance tyres using a Focus ST, Auto Bild have focused on the raw performance of these tyres, weighting the score heavily in favour of wet and dry handling.

For 2017 AutoBild have chosen to test the large 235/50 R18 tyre size, fitted to vehicles such as the BMW X3, Audi Q5 and as tested, the VW Tiguan.

Auto Bild put the ten tyre patterns through the usual wet, dry, comfort and economy tests, and also tested the tyres on grass, gravel, sand and mud, should you wish to take your crossover SUV for some light offroading.

For 2017 the German publication Auto Zeitung have chosen to test ten summer tyres in 215/55 R17 using a VW Touran.

Like Auto Express, AZ buy their tyres on the open market, meaning the Continental Premium Contact 6 and the Bridgestone Turenza T001 Evo are sadly excluded from the test, and are instead represented by their predecessors. To further highlight the complexity of tyre testing, Hankook noted the version of the Ventus Prime 3 purchased for the test were an early manufacturer date and intended for OE fitment. The aftermarket fitment of the Ventus Prime 3 Hankook would have preferred to be tested would have had better wet performance.

The crossover SUV tyre segment is quickly becoming the most important tyre range for tyre manufacturers. Thanks to the exponential growth in popularity of cars such as the VW Tiguan, Audi Q3 and BMW X3, the 16" and 17" SUV sizes are the quickest growing in terms of volume, and why this year ADAC has tested fifteen 215/65 R16 tyres using a VW Tiguan.

After testing the unusually large size of 225/45 R17 in 2016, normal service has been resumed for the 2017 ADAC Summer tyre test, this time testing sixteen tyre patterns in 195/65 R15.

ADAC tests are no toriously data driven and they write very little commentry of their own, so here's our take on the test.

This year Auto Bild have taken 52 summer tyres in 225/50 R17, put them through wet and dry braking, and taken the top 20 through to a full tyre test.

We test the dominent Michelin Pilot Super Sport against the new boy to the max performance tyre segment, the Continental Sport Contact 6! Read on for the full details

Testing nine of the latest max performance tyres, EVO have chosen the popular 235/35 R19 size, using a Ford Focus ST at Continentals circuit in Texas for the 2016 EVO Summer Tyre Test.

The 2016 Auto Express summer tyre test has just been published, and it's the first test to have the "holy 4"! The new Dunlop Sport Maxx RT 2, Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3, Michelin Pilot Sport 4 and Pirelli P Zero PZ4 have finally been tested together at the same track, on the same car (VW Golf GTI), in the same 225/40 R18 size!

The Test World ultra high performance summer tyre test puts thirteen 225/40 R18 tyre patterns through the usual array of wet, dry and environment testing using a VW Golf GTI.

Sadly, there's no Michelin Pilot Sport 4 in this test, with Test World testing the older Pilot Sport 3 pattern, but they have included the new Goodyear and Dunlop tyres.

This year Sport Auto have chosen 235/40 R18 as their ultra high performance tyre test size. Sadly, this resulted in a couple of the key new tyres being left out, so Sport Auto also tested the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 in 225/40 R18 and the Continental Sport Contact 6 in 235/35 R19 to get an approximate idea of how they compared, but excluded them from the final results.

Off road vehicles don't always spend all their time off road, and the new generation of "soft-road" vehicles can go their entire lives without seeing so much as a muddy verge.

For this reason, the German "Off Road" magazine have chosen to test six 215/65 R16 tyres on an Audi Q3, which are designed to spend 99% of their life on the road.

With SUV and 4x4 vehicles quickly becoming the most popular vehicle type in Europe, more and more magazines are providing dedicated tyre tests for SUV sizes.

This year, Auto Motor und Sport have tested nine SUV tyres in the crossover 215/60 R17 size using a VW Mokka.

This year the German AutoBild magazine have taken the 15 best tyres from their 205/55 R16 50 tyre braking shootout through to the full test, and the result is another impressive win for Hankook!

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.