Tire Reviews Tire Tests

The Swedish news paper Aftonbladet have tested thirteen 205/55 R16 touring summer tires using a VW Passat.

Sadly the data is a little lacking in this test, but as the driving was done by the experts at Test World, you can be sure it was a proper tire test.

The ACE / GTU tire test is always a funny one, as they go to a lot of effort to test the tires, but then provide no data at all, only the overview scores.

For this reason, we always keep the commentary low, but it's important to have the test results on Tire Reviews, as the more tests published the better right?

Finnish magazine Moottori have recently compared eight 205/55 R16 tire patterns that sit in the midrange price category!

While midrange tires are cheaper than their premium rivals, they're not the cheapest tires available on market, so in theory should still provide a reasonable level of performance, just offering better value.

Auto Bild's second summer tire test of 2019 has tested eleven 245/45 R18 tire patterns using a BMW 5 Series. This tire and vehicle combination isn't an often tested setup, and has yielded some interesting results!

The Pirelli P Zero PZ4 (Sports Car variant) dominated the testing, with the shortest dry and wet braking, fastest wet handling lap and second fastest dry handling lap.

For 2019, Sport Auto Magazine has tested eight ultra high performance summer tires in 245/30 R20 using a Civic Type R.

Sadly the new Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport wasn't included in the test, and instead the twice replaced Asymmetric 2 was left representing Goodyear. This meant the Continental SportContact 6 and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S could fight it out for the top spot overall.

The 2019 Auto Motor und Sport tire test has tested eleven crossover SUV tires in 215/55 R17. While this fitment isn't the most exciting fitment in the world, usually being found fitted to vehicles like the Vauxhall Mokka, Skoda Karoq, Seat Ateca, Hyundai Kona and Audi Q2, it is a high growth segment thanks to the huge sales of these types of cars.

The results of this test are fairly straight forward, with only one note. The Continental PremiumContact 5 tested has been replaced by the PremiumContact 6, which undoubtably would have fared better than the seventh place overall.

The 2019 Auto Bild AllRad SUV tire test tested ten 225/55 R17 tire patterns using BMW X3, covering dry, wet, gravel, mud and grass performance! 

As with other tests in 2019, the gap between the best and worst tires on test is getting ever smaller, and while the new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 took another win, three tires were awarded the second place slot!

The Continental PremiumContact 6, Hankook Ventus Prime 3 and Nokian PowerProof all were deemed "exemplary" buy Auto Bild, with each tire having a slightly different balance of performance overall, but all equally as recommended.

This is going to be a long test! The German publication Auto Bild often perform the most thorough tire tests of any of the traditional publications, and 2019 is no exception. After taking fifty three 225/45 R17 tire patterns through wet and dry braking testing to establish the top twenty available in the market, Auto Bild have run the best of the 17" tires through an extremely thorough full test, and even included the often omitted wear test!

For 2019, the German publication Gute Fahrt has tested ten 225/40 R18 summer tire patterns using a VW Golf, but unlike in 2018 where they included all season tires in the test, this year they've included a 17 and 19 inch comparison tire.

Every year Auto Bild test over fifty tires in wet and dry braking testing to decide which twenty tires make it through to the full summer tire test. In 2019 they have tested 53 patterns, using the popular 225/45 R17 summer touring tire size.

For the 2019 summer season Auto Zeitung have tested nine 235/45 R18 summer tires, and included the summer-bias all season Michelin CrossClimate.

The stand out performances go to the new Continental Premium Contact 6 and Michelin Primacy 4, both showing extremely well balanced test results, and also the new Maxxis Premitra HP5. The quality of Maxxis tires has quietly improving quickly over the past 12 months, and it's great to see the Premitra HP5 prove it's excellent price / performance ratio.

It's also worth noting, which the Michelin CrossClimate only finished seventh place overall, this is the only tire on test which has any sort of ability in the snow. The trade for snow performance is often dry grip, but the CrossClimate held its own in a full summer tire test, which makes it unique amongst all season tires.

In what might be a first for a main publication, ADAC have tested sixteen 215/65 R16 C cargo / commercial tires designed for vans, people carriers and vehicles such as the popular VW Transporter.

Sadly, ADACs findings aren't overly positive, with no tire pleasing the testers overall due to a general lack of wet performance.

The 2019 summer tire test season is underway, and as always the first published is by the German motoring organisation ADAC!

This year ADAC have tested sixteen 185/65 R15 summer tire patterns using a VW Polo, and interestingly included the Michelin CrossClimate instead of the Michelin Energy Saver+ as the Michelin "summer" tire.

EVO are the only publication to put out their summer tire test so late in the season, and while the timing is less than ideal, the content is always excellent.

2018 is no different, with the September EVO issue covering six 235/35 R19 UUHP / max performance tires using a Ford Focus ST (we recently used the same car to test Michelin PS4 vs PS4S vs Cup 2 here)

The test winning Michelin was no surprise, the Pilot Sport 4 S always performs excellently when tested, but it was a surprise to see the Continental Sport Contact 6 bested by the aging Goodyear and Dunlop pairing. Perhaps there was some home advantage as the test was conducted at Goodyear's incredible test facility in Miraval, France.

What's the fastest trackday tire? What's the best track day semi slick tire to use on the road and track? I take 3 very different track day tires and put them on a BMW M2 to see which is best in the dry and wet. The video was shot at MIRA and Cadwell Park in the UK.

The 11th July 2018 issue of Auto Express magazine tested ten 225/45 R17 summer tires, using a VW Golf at the Continental test facility in Uvalde, Texas. The end result was closer than ever, with the worst tire on test just 3.7% overall behind the test winner.

This year the Hungarian publication Auto Navigator have tested fourteen 205/55 R16 summer tires, but also included an all season tire (the Michelin CrossClimate), a full winter tire, and most interestingly worn summer and winter tires.

It's important to note that the worn winter tire used was from last years test, whereas the worn summer tire was 7 years old and had been stored in "sub optimal conditions". While the tread depth of each of the worn tires isn't exactly clear, the worn summer tire was at a huge disadvantage due to age and storage conditions. 

All tests were performed around 15c air temperature. Sadly aquaplaning wasn't tested by the magazine.

Sadly, this years Auto Review tire test is behind a paywall, but given the range of tires they tested, the overall results were worth covering.

They also made a rather interesting youtube video of the test, so if your Russian is up to scratch, follow this link.

The full results are on the AutoReview.Ru website, if you're a paying subscriber.

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.