Tire Tests

Fifty winter tires have been put through wet braking tests, with the top thirty also tested for snow braking performance. Only the top twenty have gone through to the full Auto Bild winter tire test!

The 2017 Auto Bild winter tire test started with fifty 225/50 R17 winter tire patterns which Auto Bild tested for wet braking performance, and then dropped the worse twenty tires from the test.

The next phase was testing the remaining thirty patterns for snow braking, which was then combined with the wet braking distances to allow the ten worst tires to be dropped. This left twenty winter tires which Auto Bild regarded as the best winter tires on the market, and deemed worthy enough to take through to the full testing.

As ever with Auto Bild testing, they undertake all the usual dry, wet and snow testing, but also including important factors such as wear and cost per 1,000 km, which a lot of tests are unable to include.

The results as closer than ever, and you'd be hard pressed to classify any of the top 10 tires as bad tires, but three in particular rose to the top.

Sadly there's very little data available for this 235/55 R17 SUV tire test conducted by the European motoring bodies ACE / ARBO / GTU, nor are Michelin featured, but it's still worth a read if you drive a crossover vehicle such as the Ford Kuga or Volkswagen Tiguan which uses this tire size.

This year the German motoring orginisation ADAC have tested winter tires in 195/65 R15 and 215/65 R16.

Unusually for a winter tire test, Continental faulter in this 215/65 R16 SUV tire size, only finishing seventh overall. This leaves the door open for Dunlop to take first place with the Winter Sport 5 which proves to have a very balanced all round performance with no glaring weaknesses.

BF Goodrich finished in a very strong second place, winning the majority of the test categories but missing out on the top spot due to a slightly weak wet performance, where as the third placed Goodyear UltraGrip Performance Gen-1 proved to be extremely strong in the wet, but a little disappointing on snow.

This year the German motoring orginisation ADAC have tested winter tires in 195/65 R15 and 215/65 R16.

The 195/65 R16 winter tire test continues Continentals winter dominance, with another win for the Continental WinterContact TS860. 

The 2017 Auto Bild all season tire test has tested ten 205/55 R16 all season tires touring tires, using a VW Golf. This is also the first test to include the new Continental AllSeasonContact tire.

Issue 1,495 of the weekly UK publication Auto Express contains their 2017 winter tire test!

This year Auto Express have tested eight winter tire patterns in 225/45 R17 using a VW Golf in the dry and wet, and an Audi A3 in the snow. 

Auto Express have previously asked us to keep our coverage of their tests to a minumum, so below is a summary of what went on. The full results can be found on the Auto Express website, which we will link as soon as they're online.

Overall, with just 3.9% covering the eight tires on test, it's getting closer every year at the top.

The German publication Auto Zeitung have just published their 2017 all season tire test, and it might be the most UK relevant tire test we've ever seen.

First, they're testing in the most popular 205/55 R16 size using a FWD Audi A3, which represents a large slice of our car market. Then, they've managed to include ten all season patterns, which is more than most all season tire tests manage, but the icing on the cake is the winter tire included for reference is the multiple award winning Continental WinterContact TS 860.

There's one more summer tire test left to cover in 2017, and this time it's the American publication Car and Driver testing five 245/40 R18 maximum performance summer tires using a BMW 430i.

The first winter tire test of 2017 has been published! The German publication Auto Motor und Sport [AMS] have tested ten ultra high performance winter tires in 225/40 R18. This extremely popular 18" tire sizes is fitted to performance saloons such as the Audi A4, Skoda Octavia VRS, and the 232 bhp BMW 430i Grand Coupe used for this testing.

We'll keep the words low and data high for this Australian ultra high performance tire test. All tires tested were 235/35 R19, and the magazine used a Ford Focus RS.

The 2017 Auto Bild All Season Tire Test puts eight 225/50 R17 all season tires through the usual dry, wet and snow testing, and includes a reference summer and winter tire for benchmarks.

The two all season heavyweights of the industry, the Michelin CrossClimate and the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-2, trade results to tie overall in first place. As each of these all season tires approaches year round motoring in different ways, we'll concentrate on the top two places for this write up.

The 2017 EVO magazine summer tire test tested nine 225/40 R18 ultra high performance tires using a VW Golf GTI.

As with previous years, the overall result is 60% subjective and 40% objective, making it quite a different test from the traditional tire tests which rate objective data above subjective. This means that while the raw objective figures from the wet and dry tests are still important, how the tire feels subjectively with regards to steering speed and car balance has an even more importance on the overall result.

The excellent 2017 Auto Express summer tire test has just been published! This year Auto Express tested eleven 205/55 R16 tire sizes, ranging from the premium end of the market to the budget end.

This year's winner is the Continental Premium Contact 5. This tire has always tested well, but with the newer Premium Contact 6 having already been on the market for 6 months at time of test, it would have been interesting to see just how well the latest version of the Premium Contact range would have done!

The German publication Auto Bild have just tested five 235/35 R19 track day tires using a Ford Focus ST, and included a "normal" maximum performance road tire as comparison.

Given the location of the test (Continentals proving grounds in Texas), and the performance of the included road tire, we're going to assuming the tire was the Continental Sport Contact 6, and it demonstrates just how good road tires have become!

With the SUV sector booming, tire manufacturers are starting to merge their car and SUV lines into one product. The latest, and according to this test by the Swedish magazine Vi Bilägare, greatest example of this, is the new Continental Premium Contact 6.

The first test featuring the new Bridgestone DriveGuard runflat tire has been published!

Testing ten 205/55 R16 touring tires on a VW Golf, Polish Motor magazine included the new generation Bridgestone DriveGuard runflat tire against the traditional non-runflat competition. 

We've currently very few details about this years ACE / GTU SUV Summer tire test, but we do know some things.

The testers tested eleven 215/60 R17 tires using a the crossover SUV Vauxhall Mokka. No offroad tests were done, as crossover SUVs spend most of their lives on the black stuff.

The German publication Auto Bild have published their third tire test of 2017, this time testing nine UHP tires in 245/40 R18 using an Audi TT. Without a budget tire included in the test, this is one of the closest tire tests we've seen in years, and highlight just how close the latest generation of tires have become in terms of raw performance.

How much faster are track day tires compared to the best road tires? The German publication Sport Auto have produced the answer by taking seven of the best maximum performance road tires and three of the best track day tires, and placing them all through the same testing on a Toyota GT86 (225/40 R18).