2019 Auto Bild Summer Tire Test

This is going to be a long test! The German publication Auto Bild often perform the most thorough tire tests of any of the traditional publications, and 2019 is no exception. After taking fifty three 225/45 R17 tire patterns through wet and dry braking testing to establish the top twenty available in the market, Auto Bild have run the best of the 17" tires through an extremely thorough full test, and even included the often omitted wear test!

The Michelin Pilot Sport 4 continued on from a very strong run of results in 2018 to win the test overall, with the brand new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 a very close second. The new Goodyear only had one weakness, the rolling resistance testing, and was also reported to have a very high purchase price, which no longer applies in the UK market.

Third place was joint awarded to another new tire, the Hankook Ventus S1 Evo 3. This continues on the excellent results Hankook has achieved with the new Ventus Prime 3 in 2018, and confirms what the market has suspected for a while - Hankook is now a premium player. The more established Falken FK510 matched the Hankook, with its only weakness being wear.

It's also worth noting that this is the first test the seventh place Nokian WetProof has been featured in. WetProof by name, the new Nokian proved to be extremely strong in the wet handling tests, but struggled during the aquaplaning testing.

Dry

If you average the dry braking and dry handling results, the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 is the best dry weather tire overall, with a huge gap during the dry braking testing. The Auto Bild testers also commented that the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 was the best handling tire on test, giving excellent steering feel and precision.

Wet

The top four tires during wet braking were all extremely close, with the new Hankook just beating the new Goodyear for the best wet braking tire on test.

The test-winning Michelin proved to be extremely strong during wet handling, leading the pack by a small margin.

And somehow the Michelin tire also dominated the straight aquaplaning testing, which is normally an opposing quality to tests like dry grip and handling.

Environment

The Bridgestone Turanza T005 proved to have the lowest fuel use on test.

All tires, apart from the Bridgestone T005 were separated by less than 3dB during the external noise testing, with the new Nokian WetProof the quietest tire on test.

Each tire was given a subjective comfort score, with the Michelin again being in a class of one.

Cost

The new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 beat Michelin at it's own game, having the lowest wear on test! Michelin and Continental were a close second and third place, which is great to see as wear has been a weak point for Continental in the past. 

The new Goodyear was the most expensive tire tested, which would be to do with the new nature of the tire. If you see our pricing below, the new Goodyear is already significantly cheaper than the Michelin in the UK.

Most importantly, the "value" test, where the magazine divides the purchase price by the potential wear had the Continental and Falken as the best value tires of the top six places! With the corrected Goodyear pricing, the new Asymmetric 5 also looks to be extremely good value.

Results

Below are the overall results and testers commentary. Be sure to check out the full test on autobild.de, and feel free to leave any comments or questions below.