Tyre Reviews Tyre Tests

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.

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.

2015 has been called the year of the all season tyre, and Auto Express have just confirmed it with their first ever all season tyre test.

Testing six all season tyres, and a class winning summer and winter tyre, Auto Express put all eight tyres through fourteen tests covering the snow, wet, dry abilities of the tyre, and included noise, rolling resistance and price too.

The best tyre test from the UK press is finally here - the EVO 2015 tyre test.

The 2015 Auto Express tyre test covers eleven patterns in the popular 225/45 R17 size.  Testing at Continentals test track in Texas, Auto Express used the benchmark VW Golf to carry out nine thorough tests covering dry and wet performance, along with rolling resistance and cabin noise.

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...

It's not often we report on tyre tests from across the pond. The tyres, roads, and driving conditions can be very different, especially in North America, however this test from the Australian magazine "Australian Motor" was too interesting / random to miss.

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

With the UK being the largest optional "big wheel" upgrader in Europe, you'd have thought the likes of EVO and Auto Express would test a bigger tyre size than the usual 17" size they choose! Fortunately, Germany has the answer, and this year Sport Auto Magazine tested seven patterns in 235/35 R19, the most common 19" tyre size on the market, using a VW Golf R. 

Following on from the 53 tyre wet and dry braking shootout, Auto Bild have tested the top 18 tyres more thoroughly, putting them through the usual mix of wet, dry, wear and NVH tests in 185/60 R15 on a VW Polo.

 With over two hundred different tyres available for the chosen 225/50 R17 tyre size, Auto Motor Und Sport decided to pick the top nine best European label scoring tyres to test on their Mercedes C Class, presuming they would be getting the top nine tyres on the market. 

For the 2015 ultra high performance tyre test, Auto Bild have chosen the new BMW M4, wearing 275/35 R19 rear and 255/35 R19 fronts. While this limits the amount of tyres available to test to just seven, it is a very good test car as the M4 is the benchmark for the current breed of big-wheeled super-saloons!