The 2023/24 Tire Reviews winter tire test has tested eleven of the most popular winter tires on the market in the dry, wet and snow, and also analyised the rolling resistance, noise and comfort levels of the tires to help you decide what the best tire is for your own driving needs!
Snow
The two slowest tires around snow handling were the only two asymmetric pattern tires, the Falken and Leao budget tire. A coincidence? Possibly not. Will this pay back in dry and wet? We shall see!
The Falken in particular had a lot of understeer, meaning the front axle just wouldn't turn. This made it quite frustrating to drive, and you had to be mindful about the speed you tried to carry into the corner. The Leao had slightly less understeer, but it was just really vague on the front axle.
The next pair of tires, both of which are good in the snow were the Giti and Continental. Both of these tires had nice steering and good grip, just the transition between grip and sliding was a little more peaky.
Kumho, Bridgestone and Vredestein were all 0.5% apart and very good around the lap. The Kumho, like the previous pair was a little more peaky than I'd like when at the limit of grip, where as the Bridgestone was quite an understeer bias tire, and oddly had noticeably lighter steering than the other tires. On snow!
The Vredestein was a nicely balanced tire. As you know I test blind, and in last years test I really didn't get on with the Wintrac Pro, so it was a surprise to see it up here. It either it works much better in this size or it's had an update, either way, I'm happy to report this.
The final group of tires was the Hankook, Pirelli and Goodyear. These all had excellent grip, good turn in on corner entry, good mid corner grip, and good traction out of the corners, the complete packages. Of the three, the Hankook was the best to drive subjectively, it was just easily manageable at the limit and did everything you asked of it without issue. The Pirelli and Goodyear were a little more abrupt at the limit, but the limit was high.
Finally, the Michelin Pilot Alpin 5 was again in a class of its own in the snow.. It had excellent steering and control, a quick to turn front axle, good levels of grip, controllable past the limit. It was not only the fastest, but my favorite subjectively by a small margin over the Hankook.
The All Season Tire jumped in at an impressive seventh overall, with the Hankook Kinergy 4S2 feeling totally at home in a group of winter tires, and the summer tire, well, it's a summer tire. It took almost double the time, and it felt like it had much less than half the grip, especially under traction.
The Hankook just beat the Michelin in snow braking, with the Bridgestone in third place. The all season tire was once again midpack, and the summer tire finished way behind the group.
Snow traction brought the advantage back to the Michelin, with the Hankook once again the best of the rest.
Wet
Wet is naturally very important for winter tires as the regions that use this category of winter tires have long wet winters.
The fastest around the wet lap also had the best wet braking, and you won't be surprised to know it was the Bridgestone Blizzak LM005. This tire always performs well in the wet, and once again it was outstanding in the grip tests, even if its aquaplaning result was midpack.
The Michelin Pilot Alpin 5 and Continental WinterContact TS870P were also very impressive in both wet braking and wet handling, and like the Bridgestone neither tire was particularly strong in the deeper water of aquaplaning.
Hankook, Goodyear and Pirelli were also great tires in the wet, with the Pirelli managing to be fast around the lap AND have the best aquaplaning resistance of all the winter tires which is a nice combination.
The Falken also was good around the lap and had great aquaplaning resistance, but couldn't quite stop the car as well as the best.
The Giti was great to drive subjectively and had excellent aquaplaning resistance, but did lack a bit of grip at the limit in braking and handling, and the Vredestein and Kumho finished down the order. Not bad tires, this is just a tough group.
The budget tire, the Laeo, well this was bad, possibly highlighted by the RWD platform, but it was really tricky to get around the lap and was another 10% worse than the 12th placed tire in wet braking, which is over a car length in distance!
TLDR, the best winter tire in the wet is the Bridgestone, unless the water is deep then it's pirelli, but the Michelin and Conti are also excellent, and the Goodyear and Hankook are no slouches.
As I talked about in my all season test, the siping required on winter tires makes braking very difficult, which means the summer tire was way ahead of the group during wet braking, and was also very fast around wet handling. It also had the best aquaplaning resistance by a clear margin, a good reminder to take off your winter tires once the colder months have passed.
The all season tire was pipped by the amazing Bridgestone in wet braking, and as we saw in the all season test, the Hankook all season tire didn't like the deeper parts of wet handling as it doesn't have the best aquaplaning resistance so it wasn't the fastest around the lap.
Dry
Dry braking is even harder than wet braking for winter tires, as the forces are higher, so once again the summer tire had a significant margin, over 16% better than the best winter tire! Think about this if you see anyone considering running their winter tires into summer…
The best winter tire in dry braking was the Michelin, with the Continental a close second. Goodyear, Giti and Kumho all did well with the Giti and Kumho tying, and the Falken was a short amount behind. Pirelli, Bridgestone and Hankook, which all did well in wet braking, struggled a little bit in dry braking, and Vredestein and Leao rounded out the braking results.
The best winter tire in dry braking was the Michelin, with the Continental a close second. Goodyear, Giti and Kumho all did well with the Giti and Kumho tying, and the Falken was a short amount behind. Pirelli, Bridgestone and Hankook, which all did well in wet braking, struggled a little bit in dry braking, and Vredestein and Leao rounded out the braking results.
Dry handling obviously isn't the top priority for a winter tire, but it's still an important category. Pretty much all the tires are fine, with only the Laeo being slightly worse than the group. In fact, if you ignore the budget, all the tires were within 1.77% of each other!
The Michelin was the fastest around the lap, but felt a little numb compared to some of the most dynamic, with the Conti, Goodyear, Pirelli and Hankook all being enjoyable to drive.
In summary, the Michelin is the best overall in the dry, but perhaps not the sportiest handling tire at the limit, and the Continental, Kumho and Goodyear all did well.
Comfort
As with the all season test, I didn't have the weather to do objective noise, but two of us did spend quite a lot of time doing subjective noise and comfort on a rather excellent comfort track. There were a bunch of standouts, so if comfort is your thing you'll be really happy with the Bridgestone, Michelin, Continental, Goodyear and Falken, with the Hankook being the best of the rest.
Value
With rolling resistance getting ever more important, but often coming at the expense of wet grip, it's rare to find a tire that does well in both, but a few manufacturers seem to have nailed it in this test, no one more than the Continental, with a near 6% better rolling resistance than the next best winter tire, the Bridgestone, and over 14% better than the third placed tire!
The budget Laeo also did very well in the rolling resistance test, however in this case that definitely came at the expense of grip.
The Pirelli, Giti and Falken are the ones to avoid if you're worried about your fuel bill, all over 15% worse than the Continental, which will translate into roughly 4% more energy use.
The Michelin was predictably the most expensive tire of the group.
Results
1st: Bridgestone Blizzak LM005 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Best in wet handling and wet braking, good in the snow, high levels of comfort, very low rolling resistance. Extended dry braking and dry handling, average aquaplaning resistance. The Bridgestone Blizzak LM005 is an awesome tire, it was the only tire that could get close to the Continentals rolling resistance levels and was the best tire in the wet and one of the best in the snow, with excellent noise and comfort levels. It wasn't the best in the dry, but as it finished so well in almost every other category, the LM005 is proving to still be one of the best winter tires on the market.
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1st: Michelin Pilot Alpin 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Best in dry braking and dry handlings, extremely good in the wet, best tire overall in the snow, highest levels of comfort. Average rolling resistance, average aquaplaning resistance, high levels of understeer in the dry. The Michelin Pilot Alpin 5 pipped the Bridgestone, but by such a small amount I'm calling them both test winners. The Michelin was almost untouchable in the snow, especially snow handling, and was untouchable in the dry and one of the best in the wet. It didn't quite have the rolling resistance of the Bridgestone where it finished nearly 10% behind, but in every other category this tire performance was excellent. A hugely impressive tire.
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3rd: Continental WinterContact TS 870 P | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Excellent in the dry, good wet braking, high levels of comfort, lowest rolling resistance on test by quite a margin. Mid pack wet handling result, average aquaplaning resistance. Third place went to the Continental WinterContact TS870P which is the tire to buy if you want to save fuel or drive an EV, as it had by FAR the lowest rolling resistance on test. It also somehow blended that with one of the best performances in the dry, and excellent grip in the wet. It was a little weaker in the snow than the best tires on test, but it was less than 4% off the best in snow braking and handling, so not a huge gap. Impressive tire, especially when you stop and think about its rolling resistance levels. Read Reviews Buy from £179.84 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
4th: Hankook Winter i cept evo3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Good wet braking, good aquaplaning resistance, best snow braking and excellent snow traction and handling. Extended dry braking, average wet handling lap, average rolling resistance. The Hankook Winter Icept Evo3 was one of the best tires in the snow, which is an important quality for a winter tire, had great grip in the wet with good aquaplaning resistance. It lost out a little in the dry with a 9th placed dry braking result, but it was only 5% off the best. A solid winter tire. Read Reviews | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
4th: Goodyear UltraGrip Performance 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Good dry braking with excellent dry handling, good grip in the wet with good handling, excellent snow performance, excellent levels of comfort. Mid pack wet braking, higher than average rolling resistance. The new Goodyear Ultragrip performance 3 followed the usual Goodyear DNA of minimal compromises, scoring well in every category other than, unusually for goodyear, rolling resistance, but the tire did have one of the best subjective noise and comfort levels on test.
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6th: Pirelli Cinturato Winter 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Great balance in the dry, good wet handling, best aquaplaning resistance on test, good grip in all snow tests. Average result in dry braking, average comfort levels, higher than average rolling resistance. The Pirelli Cinturato Winter 2 was another fun tire to drive, with the best aquaplaning resistance on test, but sadly like the Giti its rolling resistance was amongst the highest of the group. It did however have more grip in the snow and wet than the Giti, hence finishing a spot higher. Read Reviews Buy from £158.98 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
7th: Giti GitiWinterW2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Very good in the dry, good subjective wet handling, excellent aquaplaning resistance. Longer than average wet braking, high rolling resistance. The Giti Wintersport S2 narrowly beat the Vredestein to 7th place overall. It was a fun tire to drive, especially in the dry and had excellent aquaplaning resistance. Its only drawbacks were a higher rolling resistance and reduced comfort, but otherwise a solid tire. Read Reviews | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
8th: Vredestein Wintrac Pro | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Good in snow handling, good rolling resistance. Extended dry braking, reduced grip in the wet with below average wet handling and lower than average aquaplaning resistance. The Vredestein Wintrac Pro had a good snow performance overall, a low rolling resistance but did struggle more in the dry than the previous two tires. The Wintrac Pro has been on the market for a long time, but it's still holding its own considering the talent of this group.
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9th: Kumho Winter Craft WP52 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Strong in the dry with good subjective handling in all conditions. Weakest tire in the wet overall, low aquaplaning resistance The Kumho Winter Craft WP52 has a similar performance overall to the Falken, but it was a little better in the snow and had a slightly better rolling resistance, but couldn't match the Falken in wet handling. Tit for tat between the two brands. Read Reviews | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
10th: Falken EUROWINTER HS02 Pro | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Good dry and wet handling, excellent aquaplaning resistance, very quiet and comfortable. Long wet braking distances, limited performance in the snow, highest rolling resistance on test. The Falken Eurowinter HS02 Pro struggled in the rolling resistance test, having the worst of the group, and wasn't the best in the snow either, but it was obviously much better than the summer tire. It WAS good in wet and dry handling, and had great aquaplaning resistance. Perhaps not a bad winter tire for somewhere like the UK that doesn't see much snow. Read Reviews | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
11th: Leao Winter Defender UHP | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Low rolling resistance. Worst grip in the dry, wet and snow. Extremely long wet braking distances. Last place was the cheap tire, its only redeeming quality was the price and the rolling resistance levels, but if you're looking for good levels of grip in the dry, wet or snow, maybe pick another tire from the results. Read Reviews | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reference Tire: Hankook Kinergy 4S2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Reference Tire: Hankook Ventus Prime 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Best UUHP Tires
Best All Season Tires
Best Winter Tires
