2018 Auto Bild Winter SUV / 4x4 Tire Test

Surprisingly Pirelli edged out Continental to second place, with a brilliant result for the Pirelli Scorpion Winter. This tire has been on the market a number of years now, and historically hasn't tested as well as Goodyear or Continental, so there must have been and update for the 2018 winter season. The Continental Winter Contact TS850P SUV rounded out the top three, with its only real weakness appearing during the dry braking tests.

The other notable result was the new Achilles W101X. Budget tires like this Achilles historically perform excellently in snow testing, but end up with dangerously long wet and dry braking distances, but in this test the Achilles held its own, finishing second during dry braking and beating the established names of Toyo and Firestone during wet braking. Impressive when you consider a set is nearly half the price of the most expensive tire on test...

Dry

The Pirelli winter tire proved to be the master of dry testing, but still lagged significantly behind the reference summer tire again highlighting the dry penalty siped winter tires bring.

Wet

The summer tires advantage continued in the wet, albeit the gap was smaller. The top three tires overall were all stars of the wet testing, showing how important wet performance is to winter tire testing.

Snow

Unsurprisingly the summer tire was at a huge disadvantage in the snow testing. Continental proved to have the best snow braking, where Nokian was the fastest around the snow handling lap.

Environment

The Pirelli bended an excellent dry and wet performance with the lowest rolling resistance on test, an impressive feat!

Unusually the summer tire was the quietest on test.

The budget Achilles was by far the cheapest set of tires on test, with the Michelin the most expensive. Sadly Auto Bild didn't include any wear testing, so we can't judge which tire is best value overall.

Results

1^st

Goodyear UltraGrip Performance SUV Gen 1

235/60 R18

Excellent handling behavior in all weather conditions, good steering, short braking distances, average price.

Slightly noisy.

Total: 68

Dry 11

Wet 13

Snow 12

Comfort 12

Rolling Resistance 10

Noise 10

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2^nd

Pirelli Scorpion Winter

235/60 R18

Balanced performance, dynamic handling, excellent steering, low rolling resistance.

High price.

Total: 71

Dry 12

Wet 13

Snow 11

Comfort 10

Rolling Resistance 14

Noise 11

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3^rd

Continental Winter Contact TS 850 P SUV

235/60 R18

Winter specialist with excellent snow performance, dynamic sporty wet handling and low rolling resistance.

Slightly long dry braking.

Total: 69

Dry 10

Wet 12

Snow 13

Comfort 10

Rolling Resistance 14

Noise 10

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4^th

Fulda Kristall Control SUV

235/60 R18

Well-priced winter tires with well balanced a balanced performance, very good snow traction, high aquaplaning safety.

Understeer in snow.

Total: 66

Dry 11

Wet 12

Snow 12

Comfort 9

Rolling Resistance 12

Noise 10

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5^th

Dunlop Winter Sport 5 SUV

235/60 R18

Dynamic sporty wet handling, short braking distances in the wet, high aquaplaning safety.

Average snow cornering, high price.

Total: 66

Dry 11

Wet 13

Snow 11

Comfort 11

Rolling Resistance 10

Noise 10

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6^th

Nokian WR SUV 4

235/60 R18

Winter king with excellent driving on snow and ice, low rolling resistance.

Long dry braking distances.

Total: 67

Dry 10

Wet 10

Snow 14

Comfort 9

Rolling Resistance 13

Noise 11

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7^th

Michelin Latitude Alpin 2

235/60 R18

Good in the snow and wet, good steering response.

Long dry braking, high rolling resistance, expensive.

Total: 65

Dry 8

Wet 11

Snow 14

Comfort 12

Rolling Resistance 8

Noise 12

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8^th

Firestone Destination Winter SUV

235/60 R18

Very good in the snow, low purchase price.

Understeer and long braking distances in the dry and wet, average comfort.

Total: 60

Dry 8

Wet 9

Snow 13

Comfort 8

Rolling Resistance 10

Noise 12

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8^th

Achilles Winter 101 X

235/60 R18

Balance performance, very well priced.

Understeer in the wet, slow steering, high rolling resistance.

Total: 61

Dry 11

Wet 10

Snow 11

Comfort 9

Rolling Resistance 8

Noise 12

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10^th

Toyo Snowprox S954 SUV

235/60 R18

Balanced in the wet, low price.

Poor snow grip, long dry braking.

Total: 59

Dry 10

Wet 10

Snow 9

Comfort 11

Rolling Resistance 10

Noise 9

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11^th

Reference Summer

235/60 R18

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