Best Tires for the Volkswagen Arteon Shooting Brake 1.4 TSI eHybrid

Great tires, but not a good match with this car.
When a changed tires from Fulda Ecocontrol HP to Conti PremiumContact 6 on my previous car (Ford Focus), I was delighted with the dynamic capacities of the PC6 (grip, feedback). I didn’t like the comfort aspects at all (noise, damping) and the aquaplaning resistance, but the PC6 made the car fun to drive. They really matched the dynamic set-up of the car.
Changing jobs, I got to drive this car (VW Arteon Hybrid) which came with Uniroyal 4-seasons in the front and Conti EcoContact in the rear. Strange combination indeed. Changing the tires, I hoped that the PC7 would give me more driving pleasure. The Arteon is a very comfort oriented car. It is very heavy and doesn’t give you road or handling feedback. Helas, even with the PC7, the car hardly passes any information back to the driver. In terms of grip, the PC7 is indeed fabulous. I still don’t know what the limits of the tires are. Because of the excellent grip in the dry and the wet, and the lack of road or balance feedback by the car, I don’t dare to push it to the limits on a public road. So I still don’t know how the car will behave on or over the limit. That makes me a bit uneasy. But, let’s just conclude that the dry and wet grip is more than ok. One can go really fast, feeling like you’re on rails.
The downsides of the PC6 in terms of comfort have vastly improved with the PC7, but the (improved) noise level of the PC7 is more annoying in this silent car, also because I often drive electric. Then the tire noise becomes quite present. In terms of damping road imperfections, the PC7 is way better than the PC6 (or is it this car’s suspension?).
Aquaplaning resistance is also way better than the PC6. It is on the safe side now.
Fuel/electricity consumption has gone up with about 5% compared to the Uniroyal/Conti Ecocontact set-up.
Conclusion: I can only affirm the test findings: The PC7 offers excellent grip on dry and wet roads, It has gotten more comfortable and aquaplaning-safe compared to the PC6, but it still isn’t the most comfortable or fuel saving tire in it’s class. So it’s a perfect tire for “drivers cars” with a more dynamic set-up. For comfort oriented cars, however, where you don’t get to benefit from the dynamic capacities of the tires, one could find alternatives that better align with the filosofy of such a car.
Still, I don’t regret buying the PC7. The grip is great.

These came factory-fitted to my Arteon Shooting Brake 1.4 eHybrid, and are being replaced by the lease company at 8,000 miles, as I have no confidence in them in cold, wet conditions... Let's start with the good, they're quiet, comfortable and have massive rim protection - good for 19" diamond cut alloys with low profile tires! The hybrid Arteon is a big and heavy lump (just over 1.8 tons) and in the dry it grips very well, sticking in corners more than a car of its size and weight should. I can't comment on wear, as they've only been on the car for 8k miles, but had 6mm tread at 7.5k miles, so will consider that as pretty good. I'm on the fence with regards to braking; they've always stopped the car, but with a bit of weaving and wandering, and the stopping distance is a lot longer than in my old car, but that was a much lighter Octavia vRS 4x4...which always slowed down in an arrow-straight line. Now the bad... When I first got the car, I thought the alignment might be out slightly, as the car wandered and tracked oddly, so had that checked when it was in for some warranty items. Apparently everything checked out fine, and I was told that I just needed to get used to the car. In the wet, they're just unpredictable - they feel like they have loads of grip while driving, but pull away from a junction and they can just light up and lose traction with a very light throttle, so feedback, in my opinion is non-existent. I've given them a rating of 3 for wet grip, just because I don't know if and when they're going to let go. The past couple of weeks have seen the temperature drop to low single digits in the UK, and yesterday I was coasting to a to a roundabout, saw that I could head on to it without stopping, accelerated gently and the front wheels just let go! We'd just had a heavy downpour, but the roads weren't flooded, and I'd gone at it gently...just to check it wasn't me, I came to another roundabout, and at about 20mph accelerated, with a little more gusto than before and the tires lit up again! I have to point out that this was with the car set to pure EV mode - with a whopping 113bhp, and acceleration that couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding from VW's hybrid powertrain at my mercy, the last thing I'd expect is loss of traction in a straight line! As such, I called the lease company to air my concerns, and at their instruction, have it booked in to have Michelin Cross Climate 2 all-seasons fitted next week. It'll be interesting to see how these work out as I had the Cross Climate + fitted to my previous car for a couple of years (an Octavia vRS 4x4), and they saw me through all four seasons very well, feeling safe, dependable and comfortable in all conditions. To summarise, I think the P Zeros are a great tire in dry, warm conditions - a proper summer tire(!), but get them near the cold and wet and they transform into an unpredictable liability... As such, I'm sure the P Zeros are a brilliant choice for a fast toy that's only used in the summer months, but for an everyday mile-muncher used all year round, I can't recommend them at all.