This year the Hungarian publication Auto Navigator have tested fourteen 205/55 R16 summer tires, but also included an all season tire (the Michelin CrossClimate), a full winter tire, and most interestingly worn summer and winter tires.
It's important to note that the worn winter tire used was from last years test, whereas the worn summer tire was 7 years old and had been stored in "sub optimal conditions" which put the tire at a huge disadvantage. While the tread depth of each of the worn tires wasn't listed, the magazine article indicated the tires still had good tread depth, rather than at the legal limit of 1.6mm.
All tests were performed around 15c air temperature. Sadly aquaplaning wasn't tested by the magazine.
Dry
During the dry braking testing, the new Bridgestone Turanza T005 narrowly beat the Michelin pairing of the Primacy 4 and CrossClimate.
The gap between the new winter tire and worn winter tire was huge, and also quite difficult to understand as winter tires often have improvements to dry braking as they wear, due to less block movement. The aged, worn summer tire showed clear signs of the rubber hardening up over time, and was only able to beat a single budget tire.
Dry handling had a similar overall result, only with the Michelin CrossClimate dropping out of the top three.
Wet
During the wet braking testing the Michelin Primacy 4 proved to be the class of the test, stopping the car a full 0.6m ahead of the second placed Hankook. Again, the aged summer tire had no answer to the test, finishing second to last.
The Michelin also performed the best during wet handling, with the Bridgestone in a close second place, both tires having a good lead over the rivals. The worn tires again struggled, finishing last by quite a margin.
Environment
The Michelin all season and winter tires proved to be the quietest on test, with the Primacy 4 once again being the best of the summer tires.
Results
Overall results below.
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no
- 3PMSF: no