Summer Premium Touring Tyre Tests

In 2018, German test body ADAC have tested fourteen 175/65 R14 summer tyres, and sixteen in the larger 205/55 R16 size.

In this 175/65 R14 test, the mid range brands dominate! Falken impressively win the test and continue their run of recently form with the SN832 Ecorun having a very balanced overall performance. The Continental owned brand Semperit finishes in second place, owing to an excellent wet performance, and third place was the best result a premium manufacturer could manage with the Dunlop proving to be a well balanced tyre.

In 2018, German test body ADAC have tested sixteen 205/55 R16 summer tyres, and fourteen tyres in the smaller 175/65 R14 size.

In this 205/55 R16 test, premium manufacturers take the top three places. Michelin lead the way, having the lowest wear on test and proving to be excellent in the dry, Bridgestone have a surprisingly strong performance in the wet to score second place overall, and Continental have a very balanced showing for the last of the podium spots.

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.

The excellent 2017 Auto Express summer tyre test has just been published! This year Auto Express tested eleven 205/55 R16 tyre sizes, ranging from the premium end of the market to the budget end.

This year's winner is the Continental Premium Contact 5. This tyre has always tested well, but with the newer Premium Contact 6 having already been on the market for 6 months at time of test, it would have been interesting to see just how well the latest version of the Premium Contact range would have done!

With the SUV sector booming, tyre manufacturers are starting to merge their car and SUV lines into one product. The latest, and according to this test by the Swedish magazine Vi Bilägare, greatest example of this, is the new Continental Premium Contact 6.

The first test featuring the new Bridgestone DriveGuard runflat tyre has been published!

Testing ten 205/55 R16 touring tyres on a VW Golf, Polish Motor magazine included the new generation Bridgestone DriveGuard runflat tyre against the traditional non-runflat competition. 

We've currently very few details about this years ACE / GTU SUV Summer tyre test, but we do know some things.

The testers tested eleven 215/60 R17 tyres using a the crossover SUV Vauxhall Mokka. No offroad tests were done, as crossover SUVs spend most of their lives on the black stuff.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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 Russians always put on an interesting tyre test. Usually, their tyre tests crun big, ultra high performance tyres on powerful cars, and give an excellent account of just how each tyre feels on the limit. This time, it's a little bit different...

We like technical data, and Auto Bild Belarus have gone the extra mile with their 2015 215/55 R16 tyre test.