2021 Auto Bild Winter Tire Test

The 2021 Auto Bild winter tire test started its life as a fifty tire wet and snow braking test, with the best performing twenty tires proceeding to this test. This means the twenty tires in this test are some of the best winter tires for 2021 on the market!

Additionally Auto Bild have included the usual reference summer tire, but also a budget winter tire. It wasn't clear from the article how this tire was chosen, but I imagine it was one of the worst tires from the fifty tire braking test intended to highlight just how bad cheap tires can be. The results confirm the theory, with the cheap winter tire performing well below average in nearly all tests.

The results, as always, were close at the top, with the new Continental WinterContact TS870 narrowly beating the Michelin Alpin 6. The new German tire had a very consistent test, performing well in nearly all categories, and having the best wear on test!

In joint third are the Kleber Krisalp HP3 and Vredestein Wintrac. Both these tires performed extremely well considering their "mid range" price point, and they beat the premium tires from Bridgestone, Hankook and Goodyear.

Auto Bild are one of the few publications able to do wear tests. Rather than very expensive real world wear, the wear test for this was done on a drum. As always, it highlights certain running theme in tests, Continental are up there with Michelin in wear, and Bridgestone make excellent tires with outstanding grip in the wet, especially wet braking, but it comes at the expense of treadlife.

Dry

A summer tire will nearly always beat a winter tire in the dry, whatever the temperature, however in this test the summer tire had an impressively big advantage in the dry, stopping the car over seven meters before the best winter tire from just 100km/h (62mph.) 

The Vredestein Wintrac was the best winter tire in the dry braking test, and placed fifth in dry handling maing it an impressive performance for the new Dutch tire.

The budget winter tire actually performed ok in the dry tests, finishing midpack, where as the Fulda, BFGoodrich and Firestone tires struggled.

Wet

In the wet, the winter tires performed better against the reference summer tire, with six winter patterns beating the summer tire in wet braking.

The Bridgestone Blizzak LM005 continued its run of impressive wet braking results, stopping the test vehicle two meters ahead of the second placed Hankook, with the new Firestone WinterHawk 4 also performing well.

The budget winter tire really highlighted how poor value cheap winter tires can be, taking 14 meters longer to stop the car than the Bridgestone!

The summer tire reclaimed its lead in wet handling, narrowly beating the Hankook, Bridgestone and Vredestein winter tires. 

Snow

On average across the three snow tests, the BF Goodrich, Bridgestone, Continental and Hankook all has consistent results.

Snow braking had the Dunlop narrowly beating the Goodyear and Continental tires. The cheap budget tire continued to perform poorly.

Snow traction moved Bridgestone and Michelin to the top two places, with Continental remaining third.

Hankook led BFGoodrich is the important snow handling test, with the Laufenn I Fit+ (a Hankook sub brand) also performing well. 

Environment

Nexen, Hankook, Bridgestone and Vredestein were the only tires to beat the summer tire in the external noise test.

Barum and Nokian had a small lead over the rest of the tires on test when it came to fuel use, and five of the winter tires had a lower rolling resistance than the reference summer tire.

Wear

The wear test once again highlighted just how far Continental have come in tread life compared to their tires five years ago by dominating the test and having a predicted 5,300km advantage over the second placed Michelin Alpin 6.

The two best wearing tires on test were also the most expensive to buy.

When comparing mileage against purchase price, the Barum Polaris 5 offered the lowest price per 1000/km, but even with the high purchase price, the Continental WinterContact TS870 was still the fifth best valuet yre overall.

Results