Tire Reviews Tire Tests

Winter tire buying can be a confusing challenge, as there are now six types of tire you can realistically fit to your car. But which is best? To find out, I test summer, all season, all weather, winter, extreme winter and studded tires in dry, wet, snow and ice testing, covering handling, braking and grip.

Following on from the All Season tire market overview, Auto Bild have published their winter version of the shootout style braking test.

For the winter test, Auto Bild have tested 53 winter tires in 225/45 R17 in wet and snow braking. The two braking distances are combined, and the top twenty tires go through to a full test covering all aspects of a tires performance.

This year the German motoring organisation ADAC have tested sixteen winter tires in the popular 185/65 R15.

While studded tires aren't suitable for the normal UK winter, Tire Reviews does have a lot of international readers, which is why we're covering this excellent studded winter tire test from the Swedish publications Vi Bilägare.

Why this one? Well, they've used a Volvo V30 to test seven studded tires in the very common 205/55 R16 tire size, and they've also included a friction studless nordic winter tire.

The 2018 Auto Motor und Sport [AMS] winter tire test has tested eleven winter tire patterns in the popular 205/55 R16 winter tire size, using a Seat Ibiza.

The weekly UK publication Auto Express has just published their 2018 winter tire test! This year Auto Express have tested eight winter tire patterns in 205/55 R16 using a VW Golf.

As in 2017, the German club ACE have tested all season and winter tires in exactly the same tests! On test are nine 185/65 R15 winter tire patterns, and three all season tires in the same size, and they used an Opel Corsa as the test vehicle.

All twelve tires were put through identical dry, wet and snow testing, and to further highlight the point that most all season tires are interchangeable with winter tires, the all season tires finished second, fifth and ten places overall.

Following on from the 51 winter tire braking test, the excellent German publication Auto Bild have promoted the best 20 tires to their full winter test, which covers every aspect of the winter tires performance.

As always, an (unnamed) summer and all season tire have been included as reference, and to make a change from the past few years, it isn’t the remarkable Continental WinterContact TS860 taking the top spot overall…

This year the German motoring orginisation ADAC have tested winter tires in 175/65 R14 and 205/55 R16.

Both tests continue Continentals winter dominance, with two win for the Continental WinterContact TS860. 

This year the German motoring orginisation ADAC have tested winter tires in 205/55 R16 and 175/65 R14. 

Both tests continue Continentals winter dominance, with two win for the Continental WinterContact TS860. 

Second and third places were taken by the sisters brand Goodyear and Dunlop, with all three of the leading tires proving to offer an excellent balance of winter performances.

This year AutoBild have placed 51 195/65 R15 winter tires through wet braking tests, with the top thirty tires also being tested for snow braking performance. Only the top twenty have gone through to the full Auto Bild winter tire test!

With the best winter tire on test stopping the VW Golf in 34.3 meters, and the worst tire on test at 49.8 meters, you can see why it's extremely important to judge a winter tires performance as much on wet grip as it is snow grip.

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.

For 2017 the Polish publication AutoCentrum has tested eight studless winter tires in 185/65 R15. As with the other winter tire tests we've featured across 2017, AutoCentrum tests the winter tires in the dry, wet and snow, but also includes ice testing, a first for 2017.

Six of the tires on test are European winter tires which are available to the UK market, and two of the tires (Debica Frigo 2 and Sava Eskimo Ice) are full nordic friction winter tires, so it should give us a good overview of how these two different types of tires perform, and why Nordic winter tires aren't suitable for the UK market.

Fifty winter tires have been put through wet braking tests, with the top thirty also tested for snow braking performance. Only the top twenty have gone through to the full Auto Bild winter tire test!

This year the German motoring orginisation ADAC have tested winter tires in 195/65 R15 and 215/65 R16.

The 195/65 R16 winter tire test continues Continentals winter dominance, with another win for the Continental WinterContact TS860. 

Issue 1,495 of the weekly UK publication Auto Express contains their 2017 winter tire test!

This year Auto Express have tested eight winter tire patterns in 225/45 R17 using a VW Golf in the dry and wet, and an Audi A3 in the snow. 

Auto Express have previously asked us to keep our coverage of their tests to a minumum, so below is a summary of what went on. The full results can be found on the Auto Express website, which we will link as soon as they're online.

Overall, with just 3.9% covering the eight tires on test, it's getting closer every year at the top.

Issue 1,443 of the weekly UK publication Auto Express contains their excellent 2016 winter tire test! This year Auto Express have tested eight winter tire patterns in 205/55 R16 using a VW Golf, and like other publications have included an all season and summer tire for comparison.

Each year, the German automotive publication Autobild trump all the other European magazines by putting out a huge winter tire test, and this year is no different.

Starting out with fifty winter tire patterns, Autobild tested all the tires wet braking performance. Once the wet braking order was set, Autobild took the twenty seven patterns which stopped the car within 20% of the best through to snow braking, then the top twenty wet and snow braking results combined this, the full tire test.

Most magazines look to test around ten different tire patterns each test, with some pushing up to fifteen different tires. Auto Bild like to go a step further and this year, have tested test fifty sets of 205/55 R16 winter tires.

Once again in 2016, the German Magazine Auto Zeitung have provided one of the most exciting winter tire tests we've covered. Testing thirteen of the latest winter tires in 205/55 R16, including the Continental WinterContact TS860, Dunlop Winter Sport 5, Goodyear UltraGrip 9 and Nokian WR D4, Auto Zeitung have also included the Michelin CrossClimate summer-bias all season tire as a comparison.