Tire Tests

When it comes to trying new things in tire tests, the German publication Auto Bild leads the way, and with their latest SUV 4x4 all season tire tire test they are once again pushing new ground.

Not only do they test six all season tires in the SUV / 4x4 size of 235/60 R18 and include reference summer and winter tires, but they also include two all terrain (AT) off-road tires. These AT tires aren't specifically designed to work in snow and ice like the all season tires have been, instead they have a more off-road bias to their performance bend. Even with this added off-road performance, they still qualify as legal all season tires thanks to them being marked with the "three peaks mountain and snowflake" symbol.

As a result, the AT tires have a very different performance blend to the all season tires on test, and while their snow performance was surprisingly OK, this test shows how badly they perform on-road, specifically in the wet.

Read on for the full details! For reference, the two AT tires are the Yokohama Geolander AT G015, and the General Grabber AT3.

The 2018 ADAC all season test has tested nine 175/65 R14 all season tires, with a summer and winter tire as comparison. All eleven tires were put through dry, wet, snow, ice and wear testing, and unusually the hugely successful Michelin CrossClimate finished in last place!

The 2018 Auto Motor Und Sport (AMS) summer performance tire test uses an Audi A3 to test eleven 225/45 R17 tire patterns.

As in previous years, AMS have included subjective handling data in their testing, which is important to help us understand how a tire feels. Even with this extra element of testing the winning tire was no surprise - the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 takes its eighth win out of eight tests thanks to a dominant performance in the dry and wet.

It's not often you see a tire test where the highest placed premium manufacturer is placed in fifth place, and often test winning Goodyear and Michelin brands are eighth and ninth respectively, but that's exactly what the 2018 ACE / GTU 235/45 R18 tire test shows.

It's rare you find tire tests specifically scoring subjective handling qualities as it's a very difficult thing for tire testers to quantify, but this latest tire test from the Finish publication Test World scores the tires subjective behaviour out of a possible ten points in both the dry and wet. This is particularly interesting if you're not worried about that final 0.1 seconds of dry lap time, but do rate the subjective qualities of a tire such as steering feel, feedback and car balance.

This test covers sixteen 225/45 R17 UHP tire patterns using an Audi A3 - perhaps not the last word in dynamic handling but it is still an insight to the tires we don't usually get.

Thanks to the explosion in SUV type vehicles, tire companies are feverishly updating their SUV and 4x4 product lines. To see which manufacturer is currently doing the best job, Auto Bild Allrad have tested eight of the latest patterns in the large 265/60 R18 size.

The 2018 Gute Fahrt test is a confusing tire test for a number of reasons. Firstly is tests both summer and all season tires in the same dry and wet tests, but fails to include the all season class leading Michelin CrossClimate. 

This year Auto Bild have covered both 19 and 20" UHP tires, and while we've covered the 20" test already, we delayed covering the 19" test for a few weeks.

In those few weeks, Sport Auto Magazine released their 19" tire test, and it uses exactly the same 245/35 R19 and 265/35 R19 tires, on the same BMW M2, and tests the same six UHP tires at the same location.

The logical question would be why publish this version of the test, as the results should be exactly the same? Well, they're not. Whether it be down to driving style, test parameters or just the weather on the day, Sport Auto and Auto Bild have managed to come up with two different test results using the same vehicle and tires, proving just how close the very best tires on the market are.

There's a lot of tires in the 2018 Auto Bild 195/65 R15 test, so we'll keep the intro as short as possible and let the data do the talking.

It's worth keeping in mind, the twenty tires chosen for this test have been through a 51 tire wet and dry braking pretest. This means the tires included in this test are some of the best tires available on the market, had Auto Bild included some of the worst tires in the pretest, the gap between the best and the worst tires overall would have been much larger.

The latest trend of combining two tire tests into a single result seems to be continuing, with the brilliant German publication Sport Auto combining six ultra high performance tires and three track day tires into a single test!

Using a BMW M2, Sport Auto used the M2 OE sizes of 245/35 R19 front and 265/35 R19 rear, and objectively tested wet and dry performances while also scoring the subjective handling and feel of a tire.

As you would expect, the track day tires dominated in the dry, were the weakest in the wet, and generally had the highest rolling resistance and were the nosiest. Some of the road tires were surprisingly close to the track day rubber during dry testing, and they were leagues ahead in the wet testing.

Read on for the full results!

2018 is setting up to be an excellent year for tire testing, with the epic German publication Auto Bild already delivering three excellent tests. Of the three, this 20" tire test is perhaps the most interesting of the trio.

For this investigation, Auto Bild have bought eight 245/30 R20 tire patterns and placed them through the usual array of wet and dry tests using a Mercedes E Class.

While the internet favourite Michelin Pilot Sport 4S takes its traditional top spot, there is a strange result for the Continental Sport Contact 6, a great result for the ten year old Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 (not 3!), and Bridgestone make a return to tests with the old Potenza S001.

Read on for the full results!

Every year Auto Bild test over fifty tires in wet and dry braking test to decide which twenty tires make it through to the full summer tire test. In 2018 they have used the popular 195/65 R15 summer touring tire size.

The spread of dry braking results was higher than usual this year. The best dry braking tire on test, the Hankook, stopped the car from 62mph in 34.5 metres, and the worse 42.4 metres. This 7.9 metre difference might not sound like a huge amount, but it is the difference of stopping or hitting an object at around 26 mph!

The spread in the wet was even larger. The Bridgestone was best in the wet, stopping the car from 50 mph in 34.3 metres, where as the worst tire on test took a massive 17.6 metres further, totaling 51.9 metres. That's over 4 car lengths further and a huge residual speed at time of accident.

In 2018, German test body ADAC have tested fourteen 175/65 R14 summer tires, and sixteen in the larger 205/55 R16 size.

In this 175/65 R14 test, the mid range brands dominate! Falken impressively win the test and continue their run of recently form with the SN832 Ecorun having a very balanced overall performance. The Continental owned brand Semperit finishes in second place, owing to an excellent wet performance, and third place was the best result a premium manufacturer could manage with the Dunlop proving to be a well balanced tire.

In 2018, German test body ADAC have tested sixteen 205/55 R16 summer tires, and fourteen tires in the smaller 175/65 R14 size.

In this 205/55 R16 test, premium manufacturers take the top three places. Michelin lead the way, having the lowest wear on test and proving to be excellent in the dry, Bridgestone have a surprisingly strong performance in the wet to score second place overall, and Continental have a very balanced showing for the last of the podium spots.

The first tire test of 2018 is rather unique. German publication Auto Zeitung have tested six summer tires and three all season tires all in the same test, and while it's going to make the Tire Reviews version of the result at the bottom of this page read slightly wonky, it's a really interesting way of comparing the dry and wet performances of the two tire types.

Keep in mind, the nine tires were only tested in the dry and wet, there was no snow or ice testing to highlight the all season tires year-round abilities. This means this test should just be looked at to see how the all season tires compare to the summer tires in summer conditions, rather than making a purchase decision for year-round motoring.

While studded tires aren't suitable for the UK climate, they are the best way of staying mobile in extreme winter conditions. Each tire can have hundreds of studs, which bite into ice with far more grip than a studless friction winter tire can give. There are of course drawbacks to studded tires, they're very noisy, and they give up a lot of dry and wet performance when compared to a European winter tire, but in climates such as Russia and the Nordic countries where you are likely to be driving on ice for weeks at a time, there's little alternative.

We're a little bit late with this one, as it's likely the UK has had most of its bad weather for winter 2017/18, however we can't resist covering a winter ultra high performance tire test, especially when they use a RWD Toyota GT86 as the test car!

For this test, Sport Auto magazine fitted the GT86 with ten different patterns of 225/40 R18 sports winter tires, and put the tires through the normal dry, wet and snow testing.

Everyone knows tire performance changes with wear, with the biggest change in tire performance coming from all season and winter tires in snowy and icy conditions.

The drop in performance can be so vast after 4mm that certain countries where "three peak mountain and snowflake" tires are a legal requirement for winter driving, they can lose their legality after 4mm, meaning you only get to use half of your tires tread.

Should this be the case? Michelin have been making alot of noise recently regarding the negative impact of having to scrap a tire with half its tread life remaining, and their arguments are compelling. Not only are you costing the customer more, but you're also causing a much higher negative environmental impact by doubling natural resourse usage and doubling waste.

For 2017, the "All Road" edition of the German publication Auto Bild has tested ten 225/55 R17 winter tires. This size is commonly used by compact crossovers, such as the BMW X1 used in this test.

The biggest interest in this test was the Chinese budget winter tire from Pace. With the most expensive set of winter tires costing 660 euros at time of test, the budget Pace tires were a full 400 euros cheaper, at just 260 euros. Are the savings worth the performance drop? Read on below to find out.

The 2017 Auto Express all season tire test is a wonderful mix of eight 205/55 R16 all season tires, the Dunlop Sport BluResponse summer tire and the Continental WinterContact TS860 winter tire.

A new feature for 2017 is wet testing at over, and under the magic 7c mark the tire manufacturers recommend we change our tires at.