The first summer tire test of 2016 is a curious one. ACE, the Automobile Club Europa, are often first to publish their regular summer tire tests, but this year their first tire test exclusively features midrange tires.

Testing ten 195/65 R15 tires on a VW Golf, ACE argue that the most important consideration for 90% of motorists is price, which is why they've chosen to tests tires as cheap as 35/euros per tire.

Sadly, ACE didn't include a reference premium tire manufacturer to benchmark the performance of the midrange group, but did include Hankook and Nexen tires, both companies now making excellent products, and winning OE approvals on premium car manufacturers such as BMW.

The Results

In the dry, the results were close. Dry performance is a relatively easy task for cheap tire manufacturers to master, and of the ten tires on test the Nexen N'Blue HD+ took the top spot, the Hankook Kinergy ECO K425 in second and the Sava Intensa HP and Pneumant Summer HP4 joint third.

In the wet the field spread was much wider. Wet performance is harder to master than dry performance, which was dramatically highlighted when the worst performing tire, the GT Radial Champiro FE1 stopped the car more than 15 meters behind the test winning Nexen N'Blue HD+. The Hankook and Pneumant tires which scored highly in the dry also scored strongly in the wet, taking the top three positions, with only the Barum Brillantis 2 in fifth having a much better time in the wet than it could manage in the dry.

All ten tires were relatively close when looking at fuel efficiency and ride comfort, but this time the test-losing GT Radial scored best overall.

Finally, when looking at price, the test-winning Nexen and second placed Hankook were the most expensive tires on test, reaffirming you largely get what you pay for with tires. This is a view the ACE testers agreed with, noting the extra purchase price was more than justified for the higher performance of the tires.

Full results below. Please note the "Misc" column is the combined rolling resistance, noise and comfort scores.

1st: Nexen N Blue HD+
195/65 R15 3PMSF: no	Total: 152 Dry: 49 Wet: 63 Misc: 40 Read Reviews    Buy from £62.95
2nd: Hankook K425 Kinergy Eco
195/65 R15 3PMSF: no	Total: 146 Dry: 46 Wet: 58 Misc: 42 Read Reviews    Buy from £68.99
3rd: Pneumant Summer HP4
195/65 R15 3PMSF: no	Total: 146 Dry: 47 Wet: 60 Misc: 39 Read Reviews
4th: Debica Presto
195/65 R15 3PMSF: no	Total: 133 Dry: 43 Wet: 48 Misc: 42 Read Reviews
5th: BFGoodrich gGrip
195/65 R15 3PMSF: no	Total: 130 Dry: 44 Wet: 46 Misc: 40 Read Reviews
6th: Barum Brillantis 2
195/65 R15 3PMSF: no	Total: 130 Dry: 38 Wet: 53 Misc: 39 Read Reviews
7th: Viking CityTech II
195/65 R15 3PMSF: no	Total: 129 Dry: 39 Wet: 50 Misc: 40 Read Reviews
8th: Sava intensa hp
195/65 R15 3PMSF: no	Total: 128 Dry: 46 Wet: 40 Misc: 42 Read Reviews
9th: High Performer HS3
195/65 R15 3PMSF: no	Total: 117 Dry: 41 Wet: 36 Misc: 40 Read Reviews
10th: GT Radial Champiro FE1
195/65 R15 3PMSF: no	Total: 104 Dry: 41 Wet: 18 Misc: 45 Read Reviews