Summer Tire Tests

Off road vehicles don't always spend all their time off road, and the new generation of "soft-road" vehicles can go their entire lives without seeing so much as a muddy verge.

For this reason, the German "Off Road" magazine have chosen to test six 215/65 R16 tires on an Audi Q3, which are designed to spend 99% of their life on the road.

With SUV and 4x4 vehicles quickly becoming the most popular vehicle type in Europe, more and more magazines are providing dedicated tire tests for SUV sizes.

This year, Auto Motor und Sport have tested nine SUV tires in the crossover 215/60 R17 size using a VW Mokka.

This year the German AutoBild magazine have taken the 15 best tires from their 205/55 R16 50 tire braking shootout through to the full test, and the result is another impressive win for Hankook!

The 2016 Auto Bild SUV and 4x4 tire test looks at seven of the latest tires for the quickly growing "softroad" vehicle segment. These latest softroaders have sporty driving characteristics, and spend most of their time on road, yet should still retain some performance on grass or gravel.

One VW Golf wearing 205/55 R16 tires, 50 different tire patterns, and a lot of wet and dry braking tests gives us a good overview of the market in 2016. The dry test was braking from 62 mph, and the wet from 50 mph.

The test we've all been waiting for is here, and it's round one to Continental.

The 2016 Auto Bild Sports Cars tire test placed six maximum performance tires through their paces on a Jaguar F-Type, in 255/35 R20 front and 295/30 R20 rear sizes.

The new Continental Sport Contact 6 was tested against the reigning performance tire king, the Michelin Pilot Super Sport, and the result was surprising.

Testing in 225/45 R17, the GTU test is the first test to include the new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3, Dunlop Sport Maxx RT2, Falken Azenis FK510, Toyo Proxes T1 Sport+ and GT Radial SportActive amongst the fourteen tires tested! Sadly, the new Michelin Pilot Sport 4 was absent from the test, but we can't have everything at once.

Much like the 225/45 R17 test ADAC published at the same time, the ADAC 185/65 R15 tire test looks at sixteen premium and mid range tires, but this time has selected tires intended to be fitted to smaller town and city cars.

The biggest surprise of the test was this time delivered by Vredestein, with the Sportrac 5 dominating the test, and beating the wet weather master Continental Premium Contact 5 in the wet tests. The Vredestein must have gone through a life cycle update, as in 2015 the best result it could manage was fifth overall, and over placed near the bottom of the tests it took part in.

The 2016 ADAC 225/45 R17 summer tire test is a classic ADAC by-the-numbers tire test, with the results driven from data rather than subjective scoring.

Of the sixteen tires tested, at least three patterns have already been replaced, with the Michelin Pilot Sport 3, Toyo Proxes T1 Sport and GT Radial Champiro HPY already superseded by the Michelin Pilot Sport 4, Toyo Proxes T1 Sport+ and GT Radial Sport Active in late 2015.

Goodyear and Dunlop are also noticeably absent from this test, with the newly released Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 and Dunlop Sport Maxx RT2 missing.

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.

The best tire test from the UK press is finally here - the EVO 2015 tire test.

The 2015 Auto Express tire test covers eleven patterns in the popular 225/45 R17 size.  Testing at Continentals test track in Texas, Auto Express used the benchmark VW Golf to carry out nine thorough tests covering dry and wet performance, along with rolling resistance and cabin noise.

The Russians always put on an interesting tire test. Usually, their tire tests crun big, ultra high performance tires on powerful cars, and give an excellent account of just how each tire feels on the limit. This time, it's a little bit different...

It's not often we report on tire tests from across the pond. The tires, roads, and driving conditions can be very different, especially in North America, however this test from the Australian magazine "Australian Motor" was too interesting / random to miss.

We like technical data, and Auto Bild Belarus have gone the extra mile with their 2015 215/55 R16 tire test. 

With the UK being the largest optional "big wheel" upgrader in Europe, you'd have thought the likes of EVO and Auto Express would test a bigger tire size than the usual 17" size they choose! Fortunately, Germany has the answer, and this year Sport Auto Magazine tested seven patterns in 235/35 R19, the most common 19" tire size on the market, using a VW Golf R. 

The 2015 Off Road Magazine SUV and 4x4 tire test covered 9 tires in 225/55 R18 on a Mercedes ML250. 

Following on from the 53 tire wet and dry braking shootout, Auto Bild have tested the top 18 tires more thoroughly, putting them through the usual mix of wet, dry, wear and NVH tests in 185/60 R15 on a VW Polo.

 With over two hundred different tires available for the chosen 225/50 R17 tire size, Auto Motor Und Sport decided to pick the top nine best European label scoring tires to test on their Mercedes C Class, presuming they would be getting the top nine tires on the market. 

For the 2015 ultra high performance tire test, Auto Bild have chosen the new BMW M4, wearing 275/35 R19 rear and 255/35 R19 fronts. While this limits the amount of tires available to test to just seven, it is a very good test car as the M4 is the benchmark for the current breed of big-wheeled super-saloons!