Tire Tests

A modern all season tires can offer 95% of the snow ability of a dedicated winter tire, but with the promise to be able to run it year round. They could be the perfect tire for the UK climate, but which tire works best? To answer this question, Auto Bild have tested ten all season tires in 175/65 R14, and included a winter and summer tire in the group for comparison purposes.
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Winter tires shouldn't mean limited performance, and many modern winter tires are rated up to V which means they're safe to run at 149mph for extended periods.

To test nine of the best, Auto Bild equipped a Golf GTI with the recommended 225/45 R17 winter tire size in V rating, and subjected them to handling, braking and comfort tests in the dry, wet and snowy conditions.
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The 2012 winter tire test season is upon us, and the usually excellent Auto Zeitung have just realised their latest winter tire test.

Focusing on the popular 205/55 R16 tire size, Auto Zeitung have tested 8 tires - one from each of the six premium manufacturers, and a tire each from the two brands known best for their excellent winter offerings, Nokian and Vredestein.
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By their very nature, cold weather, or winter tires have more of a compromise built in than another other type of tire on the market, due to the wide range of conditions they need to perform in.

Developing a tire to perform well in snow conditions is actually relative easy for the tire manufacturers. Lots of edges, a nice wide tread pattern and you have a reasonable snow performance. It's the balance between snow and wet performance which is extremely important to a lot of European countries, where the cold wet conditions far out weigh the snowy or icy driving conditions, and where a lot of cheaper winter tires fail.


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In EVO Magazines second tire test of the year, they're testing 10 of the best tires ultra high performance summer tires in 225/45 R17 on an Audi A3.

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This years Auto Express summer tire test is probably the closest test we've seen, and with all 8 tires within 2% of each other overall even a slight change in the weighting of the test categories would dramatically change the overall result!

As usual, Auto Express have focused on the more popular size of 205/55 R16 91H, with this years test vehicle being FWD Skoda Octavia. The test was conducted at Bridgestones test facility in the south of Italy, and covered the usual thorough array of tests, including 5 wet tests, 2 dry tests plus noise and rolling resistance tests.


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While German tire tests are great at putting raw figures together, they often miss out on some of the subjective feel of the tire. This is where the Russian magazine Auto Review comes into its own, combining great data along with the subjective feel felt when driving on each tire.

In 2012 Auto Review have tested 9 touring tires on an Audi A3 in 205/55 R16 91V. Auto Review selected the newest breed of touring tires, specifically designed to save fuel without sacrificing performance in any other areas, such as wet grip.
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With every new generation of cars being fitted with larger wheels, tires are having to follow suit. While 20 inch wheels and tire were unheard of a few years ago, they are now becoming commonplace enough for the excellent German publication Auto Bild Sports Cars to investigate the options.
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While some tire tests end up testing a seemingly random selection of both new and old tires, Sport Auto seem to have hit the sweet spot with their latest summer ultra high performance tire test.

Using a VW Golf GTI, and testing 235/35 R19 tires Sport Auto took a no-nonsense approach and tested 9 of the newest, and greatest tires on the market, only omitting the brand new Dunlop Sport Maxx RT in favour of its higher performance brother, the Dunlop Sport Maxx GT.


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Traditionally, German based Auto Bild put together some of the best tire tests in the world, and in 2012 they've set a new benchmark.

Not content with picking 15 of the top tires to test, Auto Bild started with 50 of the leading tires in 225/45 R17, and subjected them to wet and dry braking, only putting through the top 15 to this test to ensure the tires on test really are the best of the best.

Subjecting just the top 15 tires from the braking tests to the usual array of handling tests have left the results closer than ever, but with some surprise tires included. Of course, with only 15 of 50 going through there's some surprise ommisions, with the Falken FK453, Yokohama Advan Sport, Vredestein Ultra Cento and Avon ZV5 not even making it to the top 25 of the knockout test.
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It's not often you get the chance to test different tires on identical vehicles, and even rarer that the tires in question are two of the newest, most exciting max performance summer tires on the market, but this is exactly what we found ourselves presented with recently at Ascari race circuit.

The tires in question are the latest offerings from Continental and Dunlop, with each of the four cars being fitted with a set of Continental Sport Contact 5s, and a set of the brand new Dunlop SportMaxx RT, all in 245/40 R18. Two of the vehicles comprised of the high performance coupe from Audi, the TT S, and the other two were the the high powered Audi S4 saloon.
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In probably the largest tire test of its type, the German magazine Auto Bild have tested 50 leading tires in both dry and wet braking.

Designed to allow Autobild to take the best 15 tires through to their 2012 max performance summer tire test, the entire table makes for a very interesting overview of the tire market.

Read on!
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Touring tires, designed for family cars and vehicles which spend most of their time on the motorway might not be the most exciting of tires, but they do make up a large percentage of tires sold in the UK.

ACE have started the year off with their annual touring tire test, covering 15 tires in the popular 205/55 R16 size. The test covers a wide range of tires, including a yet unreleased tire and a number of budget options.
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2012 has started with a bang with EVO, the UKs leading high performance car magazine, publishing its 2012 summer tire test.

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As proven in many a video, buying a 4x4 doesn't necessarily mean good winter performance. A good all wheel drive system can offer better traction than a 2wd car, however once moving if the 4x4 is on standard summer tires it will only be able to steer and brake as well as any other vehicle on the road.
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We might be well into the winter tire season, but this excellent winter tire test from Auto Motor und Sport was too good to ignore.

Covering 14 of the leading winter tires in 205/55 R16, AMS puts them through their paces with the typical thoroughness of a German magazine.
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With the UK being a true "all season" climate, people often ask if a single tire can be made to work across temperatures ranging from below freezing to 30 degree summer days. To help answer this, Auto Bild put 10 of the latest all season tires through the usual array of thorough tests!

Read on to find out!
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