2017 Auto Express Summer Tire Test

11 Premium Touring Summer tires tested in 205/55 R16 | Published July 18th, 2017 by Jonathan Benson

Test Summary
Wet Braking	Continental Premium Contact 5 Hankook Ventus Prime 3 K125
Dry Braking	Continental Premium Contact 5
Wear	Continental Premium Contact 5

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 scored.

Positions two and three were taken by the Dunlop Sport BluResponse and Bridgestone Turanza T001 EVO. The Dunlop aced the dry testing and finished just 0.5% behind the Continental overall, whereas Bridgestone have upped their wet weather performance for the T001 EVO, finishing only 0.1% further back.

The entire test was separated by just 6.2% overall, which highlights how the gap between the budget tires and premium tires is still closing. As a cavveat, it's worth keeping in mind the last placed budget Syron tire needed over 10 meters further to stop in the wet, and over 5 meters in the dry when compared to the best on test, that's the difference between stopping safely, and a very big crash.

As always with the Auto Express tests, we recommend heading over to the excellent Auto Express website for the full results of the test, as we've only summarised the basic information below.

The Results

Click here to view Results as a single table and adjust the score weighting based on your own driving needs!

1st: Continental Premium Contact 5
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 300 Dry: 100 Wet: 100 Overall: 100 Read Reviews Buy from £97.22
2nd: Dunlop Sport BluResponse
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 296.3 Dry: 99.9 Wet: 96.9 Overall: 99.5 Read Reviews Buy from £70.03
3rd: Bridgestone Turanza T001 Evo
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 296.4 Dry: 98.6 Wet: 98.4 Overall: 99.4 Read Reviews
4th: Kumho Ecsta HS51
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 291.3 Dry: 97.2 Wet: 95.6 Overall: 98.5 Read Reviews
5th: Hankook Ventus Prime 3 K125
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 291.7 Dry: 100 Wet: 94.4 Overall: 97.3 Read Reviews Buy from £76.69
6th: Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 291.2 Dry: 98.4 Wet: 95.6 Overall: 97.2 Read Reviews Buy from £71.19
7th: Falken ZIEX ZE914 EcoRun
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 285.3 Dry: 97.2 Wet: 91.4 Overall: 96.7 Read Reviews
8th: Pirelli Cinturato P7 Blue
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 290.2 Dry: 99.7 Wet: 93.9 Overall: 96.6 Read Reviews
9th: Toyo Proxes CF2
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 289.8 Dry: 99.8 Wet: 93.5 Overall: 96.5 Read Reviews
10th: Nankang Sportnex AS2+
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 290 Dry: 98.4 Wet: 96.1 Overall: 95.5 Read Reviews Buy from £74.24
11th: Syron BlueTech
205/55 R16 3PMSF: no	Total: 285.9 Dry: 98.4 Wet: 92.7 Overall: 94.8 Read Reviews