Tyre Reviews Tyre Tests

ADAC tyre tests are some of the most influential in the world, and for the 2020 winter season ADAC have chosen to test thirteen 235/55 R17 winter tyres for SUV / 4x4 and fifteen 205/55 R16 of the best winter tyres for cars.

Following on from the 52 winter tyre braking test, the top 20 winter tyres in 245/45 R18 have been put through the usual Auto Bild winter tyre tests, to discover the best performance winter tyre for the 2020 season.

Following on from the 32 tyre braking shootout, Auto Bild have taken the fourteen best all season tyres to the full test, and included a summer and winter tyre as reference.

As with the Tyre Reviews all season test, Auto Bild have ranked the new Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-3 as the best all season tyre, not because it was outstanding in one single area, but because it had a rounded performance in nearly all tests.

Every year, the German publication Auto Bild selects a tyre size, finds as many all season tyres as possible in that size, and tests them all in dry and wet braking, with the top 14 tyres proceeding to the full all season tyre test.

For the 2020 all season tyre test, Auto Bild rounded up 34 all season tyres in the common 205/55 R16 size, and a summer and winter tyre as reference.

With the promise of one tyre to work in all conditions, all season tyres are a rapidly growing market segment.

To find out which of these all season tyres is best, and whether they can match a summer and winter tyre, the 2020 Tyre Reviews all season tyre test has tested nine of the best 225/45 R17 all season tyres on the market, and included a summer and winter tyre as reference.

This year Auto Express have tested ten 205/55 R16 summer tyres using a VW Golf. You can be forgiven if this setup sounds similar, as it's almost the same test as the Tyre Reviews 16" summer tyre test.

As eight of the ten tyres on test match tyres we used in our test, but the overall results differ in places, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to look into what's different, and why that might be.

The 2020 ADAC SUV All season tyre test has tested seven all season tyres in the popular 235/55 R17, and include a summer tyre in the dry and wet, and a winter tyre during snow and ice testing.

ADAC usually hides all their data and just gives numeric scores, but this year have released braking distances for all four braking tests. This might be to back up their conclusion from this test, which is even the best all season tyres are deficient compared to a summer and winter tyre combination.

Do you want to know what tyre is best for every day, real world driving? In this test we take eleven of the very best 205/55 R16 tyres on the market, plus a well regarded budget tyre, to see exactly what tyre performs best in the dry, wet, comfort, noise and rolling resistance tests!

Tyre testing is incredibly complicated to conduct, and one of the most difficult parts of testing is good repeatability.

Take for example wet braking. To get the wet braking distance of a tyre, you don't just do the braking run once, you do it 6-8 times, delete the outliers then average out the results. Even on the most expensive test facilities in the world, with the most perfect sprinkler systems and perfect tarmac, you rarely get the same distance twice as there are so many variables, which means when you use a less than state of the art facility, results can be surprising.

This brings us on to this test by the Italian publication "al volante". 

As motorhome, van and commercial vehicle tyre testing is new to the Tyre Reviews website, we thought we'd start with the best of the best, and cover the 2020 Auto Bild 235/65 R16 C test, which used a VW Crafter van to test eight cargo rated all season tyres, and included a summer and winter tyre as reference!

As this is an all season tyre test, Auto Bild not only tested the dry and wet performance of all eight tyres, but also the snow ability of each pattern. Read on below for the full results of what is, another fascinating test by Auto Bild.

Each year, the wonderful Swedish publication Teknikens Värld performs a summer tyre test in Sweden. Their 2020 test covers ten 225/50 R17 summer tyres, including the first test of the brand new Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance 2!

The unique Swedishness of the test means they don't perform dry handling, but instead the "moose test" which involves a sharp lane change at speed. Sadly, we can't database this, but you can see the results of the test in the commentary at the bottom of the page.

For 2020, the German publication Gute Fahrt has tested eight 215/50 R18 SUV tyres using a VW T-Roc.

As with the 18" test in 2019, Gute Fahrt have chosen not to publish their handling data, instead grading each tyres handling subjectively as "very good", "good" or "satisfying". Sadly as this doesn't really work with how the Tyre Reviews database system is set up, we're representing each of the ratings as a number, with 3 being "very good", 2 "good" and 1 as "satisfying".

The 2020 Auto Motor und Sport summer tyre test tested eleven 225/45 R18 ultra high performance tyres using a BMW 3 Series.

While the group overall was extremely close, the winning Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 and second placed Michelin Pilot Sport 4 were almost inseparable overall, with the Goodyear narrowly taking the overall win.

The 2020 Auto Bild AllRad SUV / 4x4 tyre test has looked at the popular 255/55 R18 tyre size. While the tyre patterns included in the test are aimed at "soft roaders", which spend 99% of their time on normal roads, Auto Bild still went to the effort of testing the handling and traction on gravel of all ten tyres, along with traction on grass, mud and even sand!

Off-road performance is often an opposing quality to on-road grip, with dedicated off-road tyres performing well in loose surfaces such as gravel and mud, but poorly on-road in the dry and wet.  It's worth noting, as we found out with our off-road tyre test, repeatable off-road testing is extremely difficult, especially in mud, so these figures should only be used as a broad guide.

The 2020 Auto Zeitung summer tyre test has been published, and as usual they've tested a really interesting mix of twenty tyres in the popular 225/50 R17 size.

As 225/50 R17 tyres generally bias towards comfort rather than outright sporty performance, AZ tested with the new brand BMW 3 Series, and performed the usual array of  thirteen dry, wet, comfort and economy tests.

The talented guys at ACE Europe have just released their first summer tyre test for 2020, and interestingly they've tested nine 215/55 R17 summer tyres from the mid range sector of the market!

Having already looked at the 2020 ADAC 18" UHP summer tyre test, the SUV version in 235/55 R17 is more of the same.

Of the twelve tyres tested in this popular crossover SUV size, Michelin once again take the top spot with the Primacy 4, thanks to an excellent all round balanced performance.

The 2019 Auto Center winter tyre test is both good and bad. The positive is that out of ten 205/55 R16 patterns, it only includes two premium manufacturers. This means we get a much better look at the midrange bracket of winter tyres, which is great for those of us who want to save a little money, and all ten patterns on test have been tested for ice braking and traction which is now usually omitted from central European tyre testing.

Are cheap winter tyres safe? To find out, we travelled to Finland, twice, to do snow, ice, wet and dry testing.

All tests were done using two cars, a VW Golf wearing 205/55 R16 tyres, and a heavier, larger Volvo S90 fitted with 245/45 R18 tyres.

For the first time in 2020, Tyre Reviews will be performing its own all season tyre test, but until then, the Auto Bild all season tyre test is the best you can get! Testing ten sets of all season tyres in 225/45 R17 using a BMW 1 Series, and including a summer and winter tyre as reference, Auto Bild have done as thorough a job as ever for their 2019 all season tyre test.

The most notable performances follow the trends other tests have shown during 2019. The new Bridgestone WeatherControl A005 couldn't deliver on the foundations laid by the strong wet and dry braking performance in the shootout test, finishing ninth overall due to a very average snow performance, but more importantly for UK drivers, very high wear.