It's finally getting cold enough to fit winter tires in the UK and Europe, so here are my favourite 9 winter tires for cars and SUV / 4x4 vehicles.
This video does not cover any summer or all season tires options, so if you feel like you might need a different tire setup, check out our "best tire type for winter driving" video first.
If you have any further questions once you’ve watched the video, head on over to the YouTube comment sections, or ask below and I’ll do my best to answer.
The Car Winter Tires in this video are:
03:49 - Continental WinterContact TS860 & TS860 S
04:57 - Goodyear UltraGrip 9 & UltraGrip Performance Gen-1
05:51 - Hankook Winter I*Cept RS2
06:30 - Vredestein Wintrac Pro
07:10 - Nokian WRD4
07:56 - Michelin Alpin 6 & Pilot Alpin 5
07:56 - Kleber Krisalp HP3
The SUV winter tires are:
08:18 - Dunlop WinterSport 5 SUV
09:01 - Continental WinterContact TS850 P SUV
09:34 - Nokian WR SUV4
Nordic and studded winter tires from 09:50.
To whom it may concern,
I just recently bought a Volkswagen T-ROC 2.0 TDI 4MOTION. After viewing your video on winter tires, I would like to know what do you recommend for my car for this coming winter season 2019? The tire size is: 215/50 R18.
The research I found so far on internet recommend the following winter tires: Continental WinterContact TS 850 P, Nokian WR A4, or Pirelli Winter Sottozero 3? Which of the three are the best when driving on ice, snow, slush, rainy and dry road conditions?
Thank you very much for your help.
Sincerely,
Carlo Marcello Alberici
Continental.
Thank you very much
Thank you very much for the video, so very helpful! What would you recommend for Land Rover Freelander 2 (2014) in 235/65R17 please? I'm looking at Goodyear Ultragrip Gen-1, Vredestein Wintrac Extreme S or Firestone Destination Winter. I would appreciate your opinion though. We see a lot of snow and ice up in the rural parts of the Yorkshire Dales. Thank you!
The Wintrac Extreme S is old now, and I'm not totally convinced on the Firestone. Given the Goodyear is the only one mentioned in the video... :)
Hello,
Are you able to offer any opinions as to the run flat versions of any of these winter tires please?
Thanks
Where runflat versions are available, they are still recommended. You will have to check your own tire size to find out what's possible for your fitment
Hi there, thanks very much for your great video. I never realised that there was so much to know about tires (not sure why I didn't). We have a motorhome, on a Fiat ducato body, and will be driving it to southern Spain over Christmas. What would you recommend as a good winter tire? Ideally I would like to leave it on for the summer too so as not to have to change it. Would you say the best would be the continental TS860s?
Any of the tires in the video will be great, but I wouldn't recommend leaving any of them on for the summer. You end up with long dry braking distances at all times, and longer wet braking as it gets warm.
If you must leave a tire on all year, check out the all season tire video :)
Good comparison, thanks :).
What about about the comfort and noise level? I know it depends on the size, but what do you think in general? I'm driving an Insignia, till now winter Matador 245/45 R18 and summer Bridgestone Potenza in same size. The winter tire was loud and I was hoping the summer tires will be quieter, but Bridgestone is even worse. My Ford Fiesta is quieter.
I've bought Dunlop Winter Sport 5 with NST technology in 225/50 R17 size and hoping it will be quieter. What is your experience in road noise inside the car? I'm thinking about to put 225/55 R17 for summer, Goodyear F1 Assymetric3 with their SCT technology
My own testing of noise testing winter tires is limited, but there's lots of good data on the sites in terms of tests which do measure internal and external dB levels of the tires :)
Marek, I am in similar situation. Insignia with 235/50 R18 tires. Conti SportContact 5 in summer and Matador MP92 for winter. My experience is that Matador is slightly more comfortable regarding ride harshness then Continentals. Regarding noise, Contis are quieter at high speeds. At speeds below 60-70 kph it feels the same.
I have to say I was expecting worse from Matador since it is a budget brand within Continental group. I am pleasantly surprised so far.
We are still waiting for the first Michelin Pilot Alpin 5 review :)
I'm trying my hardest to get a set, but I believe there's only a few OE sizes available at the moment!