Premium Touring Tire Tests

In this test, we'll be finding out what the best premium touring summer tires on the market are!

I'm going to try and keep this as condensed as I possibly can as we have 13 sets of tires in this test including the newest and best from Continental, Michelin, Hankook, Pirelli, Bridgestone, Vredestein, Kumho, Toyo, Nankang and more! This should also be the world's first test of the Continental PremiumContact 7!

We're going to let the test do the talking for this one. The excellent Swedish testers at ViBilagare have tested eight SUV studless friction winter tires, included the new Nokian Hakkapeliitta R5 SUV and Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V3 using a Volvo V40 wearing 235/55 R18 tires. Fortunately, where the tire patterns match those in the Tire Reviews Nordic Winter Tire Test, the results are very similar!

Sadly here at Tire Reviews we've not had time to do a studded tire test for 2022, but fortunately the excellent testers at the Nordic publication Vibilagare have tested eight sets of studded winter tires to show us which of the studded tires on the market are the best! While the test size is an SUV size (235/55 R18) and the test vehicle a Volvo XC40, these results should give you an idea of the balance between the tires in all sizes.

As you would hope, the tires have been tested in the dry, wet, snow and ice. Which is of course the reason studded tires exist.

The data is interesting, and in full below, but as we saw in the Tire Reviews Studless Winter Tire Test there is a pretty clear inversion between the tires which priorities wet performance, and the tires which priorities ice performance.

Auto Bild tests are always amongst the best in the industry, and this year Auto Bild have taken things a step further. Not only did Auto Bild start with 25 all season tires in the popular 195/55 R16 size and test them in dry and wet braking to get the best 15 for the full test below, they've also tested things Tire Reviews was unable to test in the Tire Reviews 2022 all season tire test, including real world fuel use, the all important wear test, and new for this year, they tracked the abrasion of the tires to see which tire gives off the least particulates to the environment, which is separate from projected tire life!

Snow tires, studless friction tires, extreme winter tires, nordic winter tires. This category of tire goes by many names, and they have one design goal, to be the very best on snow and ice for harsh winter climates, where studded tires aren't appropriate, or for people who don't want studs.

To find out which is the best, Tire Reviews has taken 7 of the most popular tires available to both the North American and Nordic markets, and will be putting them through a full range of tests, including ice, snow, wet and dry testing to find out which is best at what. Also, to help you understand where these tires fit in the market, I'm also including the very best of the central european and studded winter tires, the Continental WinterContact TS870 and the studded Nokian Happapelliita 10.

For 2022, the excellent German test organisation ADAC have tested 15 winter tires in 185/65 R15 and 15 crossover SUV winter tires in 215/60 R16.

The results below are for the 185/65 R15 test, where we have no real surprises in the overall results. 

For 2022, the excellent German test organisation ADAC have tested 15 crossover SUV winter tires in 215/60 R16 and 15 winter tires in 185/65 R15.

The results below are for the 215/60 R16 test, where we have a few interesting quirks in the overall results. 

For this year's Tire Reviews winter tire test, we've got nine sets of the most popular winter tires, half of which are brand new tires for this year!

As always I'll be testing in the snow, wet and dry, and looking at rolling resistance, noise and comfort, to ensure you get the best overview of all the new winter tires!

Once a year, the wonderful people at the German publication Auto Bild take a huge number of all season tires through a wet and dry braking, to find the very best to include in their full test.

Fortunately, this year is no different, and below you'll find the wet and dry braking results of thirty five all season tires, and a summer and winter reference tire, with the top fifteen going through to the full test which will be on the site next week.

All season tires are trying to be one tire for every situation, but as we know no tire can excel in every category, meaning tire manufacturers often take away from one area to be better in another.

So, which all season tire is best for YOUR own needs? To find out Tire Reviews has ten of the most popular all season tires on the market, and will be testing them in the snow, dry and wet, noise, comfort and rolling resistance!

The tire size I'm testing is massively popular 225/45 R17, and while there might not be any new names in the test this year, a different size and different testing location means we're likely to get some interesting results! The Michelin Crossclimate 2 stormed to victory last year in 16", will this year be any different?

The 2022 Auto Bild SUV all season tire test has tested eleven popular all season tires in 225/50 R18 tire size and included a summer and winter tire as comparison references! 225/50 R18 is a small sidewalled tire for an SUV,  this is aimed at the more compact crossover SUV all season tire market, with Auto Bild using a BMW X2 for the testing.

Auto Express tested seven sets of 235/55 R18 SUV tires for their 2022 summer tire test.

We are very late in the season for this one, so we're not going to write too much on this. For 2022 Auto Zeitung tested ten crossover SUV tire sizes in 215/55 R17 using a Ford Puma.

The excellent testers at AZ were obviously happy with the majority of the tires tested as they gave out seven awards to the top seven tires! It's also worth noting the Continental tire in this test was the ultra low rolling resistance EcoContact 6, not the PremiumContact 6 you'd expect.

Sadly AZ didn't get the chance to do any offroad testing, not that these tires are intended for much offroad use, but if you would like to see how these sorts of tires perform on dirt and grass you can check out the Tire Reviews SUV test here.

If like me you've been wondering exactly how low rolling resistance / eco / EV tires differ from their regular counterparts, this is the test for you!

The wonderful people at the Swedish publication ViBilagare have tested ten sets of tires in the popular 205/55 R16 size, and included "normal" AND "eco / EV" tires from Continental, Michelin and Nokian. This means we have the Continental PremiumContact 6 vs EcoContact 6, Michelin Primacy 4 vs e.Primacy and Nokian Hakka Blue 3 vs Green 3 (these are the Nordic specific versions of the Nokian WetProof.)

Why no eco / low rolling resistance / EV tires from Goodyear and Bridgestone? This test highlights the different approaches of certain tire manufacturers, and while Tire Reviews isn't sure on Bridgestones philosophy, Goodyear firmly believe that EV specific tires aren't needed if you make all your tires EV Ready, by focusing on low fuel consumption and excellent grip in all conditions for every tire.

Autobild are at it again, with the best SUV / mild 4x4 summer tire test you'll see all year (Tire Reviews sadly isn't doing one)! The German publication have tested ten leading SUV tires in the popular 235/55 R18 tire size using a VW Tiguan, and have managed to test the tires in the usual range of tests covering the dry and wet performance of the tires, but also test them on grass, dirt, gravel and even sand!

To add even more awesomeness Autobild included the multiple award winning Goodyear Vector 4Season Gen 3 all season tire. There's been a number of driver reviews on Tire Reviews claiming that an all season tire is actually pretty cabible in certain offroad conditions, and now we get to see!

The 2022 AutoBild summer tire is here! As usual, the test started out as a wet and dry braking test of fifty sets of tires in the popular 215/55 R17 size, with the best twenty one moving through to this full test. Not only have AutoBild managed to test the new Hankook Ventus Prime 4 and Kumho Ecsta HS52, they've also put all twenty one sets of tires through a wear test, and included an (unnamed) all season tire as a reference in the grip tests!

The Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance 2 won the test by combining good grip in the dry and wet, very low rolling resistance and the best wear on test. Even though it wasn't the cheapest tire, when AutoBild divided the purchase price by the projected mileage it also proved to be the best value tire on test, a very impressive showing from Goodyear.

For the 2022 ADAC tire test, the German publication have chosen the small 185/65 R15 tire size usually fitted to city cars and hatchback vehicles.

Sadly, as usual there's no actual data provided behind the scores, but ADAC have graded and commented on all the tires in detail which you can read below.

For the 2022 ADAC tire test, the German publication have tested a crossover SUV size of 215/60 R16 (this test) and a smaller 185/65 R15 tire size which can be read here.

We're a little late posting this so there won't be much commentary, but hopefully someone will find it useful in 2022! In 2021, Moottori performed an excellent studded tire test, and included 8 of the best studded winter tires, including the new Nokian Hakkapeliitta 10 which goes on to win the test, with the Michelin X-Ice North 4 also performing really well. 

For the 2021 Auto Express winter tire test, Auto Express tested eight 225/45 R17 winter tires using a VW Golf.

As usual we'll keep commentary to a minimum, instead encouraging you to head over to the Auto Express website to check out the full test.

The tires included were very similar to the 2020 Auto Express winter tire test, with Bridgestone winning the test again, with the new Continental second.