Tyre Reviews Tyre Tests

While the four wheel drive systems and extra weight of large SUVs can give you a traction advantage in snow and ice over "normal" cars, you have roughly the same braking and turning ability as any other car on the road, which makes winter tyres a sensible option for anyone with an SUV requiring safe, year round motoring.

This year, Auto Bild have tested eight winter tyre patterns in 255/55 R18 using a BMW X5 in Northern Finland, across the usual array of dry, wet and snow tests, all while looking at the tyres comfort, rolling resistance and noise levels.

Issue 1,443 of the weekly UK publication Auto Express contains their excellent 2016 winter tyre test! This year Auto Express have tested eight winter tyre patterns in 205/55 R16 using a VW Golf, and like other publications have included an all season and summer tyre for comparison.

Each year, the German automotive publication Autobild trump all the other European magazines by putting out a huge winter tyre test, and this year is no different.

Starting out with fifty winter tyre patterns, Autobild tested all the tyres wet braking performance. Once the wet braking order was set, Autobild took the twenty seven patterns which stopped the car within 20% of the best through to snow braking, then the top twenty wet and snow braking results combined this, the full tyre test.

Using a BMW 3 Series wearing 245/40 R18 tyres, Auto Bild placed eight ultra high performance winter tyre patterns to the test.

Most magazines look to test around ten different tyre patterns each test, with some pushing up to fifteen different tyres. Auto Bild like to go a step further and this year, have tested test fifty sets of 205/55 R16 winter tyres.

Once again in 2016, the German Magazine Auto Zeitung have provided one of the most exciting winter tyre tests we've covered. Testing thirteen of the latest winter tyres in 205/55 R16, including the Continental WinterContact TS860, Dunlop Winter Sport 5, Goodyear UltraGrip 9 and Nokian WR D4, Auto Zeitung have also included the Michelin CrossClimate summer-bias all season tyre as a comparison.

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.

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 winter tyre test season is here, and as usual the German magazine Auto Bild have done an excellent job of giving us an overview of this years contenders.

Testing 51 tyres in 185/60R15, Auto Bild put each tyre through a wet braking test, then took the top 28 tyres through to the snow braking test. Once the snow braking results were in, the magazine combined the wet and snow distances to give an over all result, taking the top 15 tyres through to their full 2015 Winter Tyre Test.