Tire Reviews Tire Tests

For the 2021 Sport Auto summer tire test, the German publication have tested eleven tires in the relatively small 195/55 R16 tire size. As this tire size is intended for smaller vehicles such as the Audi A1, Ford Fiesta, Peugeot 208 and other similar sized cars, Sport Auto used a Seat Ibiza for testing, and placed all eleven sets of tires through the usual dry, wet and environment based tests.

The 2021 Auto Bild All Rad SUV test has tested ten SUV tires in the popular 215/60 R17 size. While the German publication used a Jeep Renegade for testing, this size is also fitted to vehicles like the Nissan Qashqai, VW Transporter, Renault Kadjar, Toyota C HR and many other popular crossover SUVs.

As always Auto Bild have done a great job testing, as not only have they tested in the dry and wet, they've also conducted FIVE off-road tests. Given these sort of vehicles rarely see any activity outside of the school run, the tests have a low weighting in the overall results, but it's certainly excellent data if you ever plan to take your crossover SUV on grass, gravel, sand or mud!

For the 2021 ADAC summer tire tests, the German organisation selected the popular 205/55 R16 and 225/50 R17 summer tire sizes.

As usual with ADAC tests there is little raw data provided, instead the testers grading each tire with a score, but this year we do get wear data (below) and even some of the testers subjective thoughts on the tires, which is an excellent addition.

Without fail, each year German publication Auto Bild provides the most comprehensive overview of the summer tire market by testing a huge amount of tires ability in the dry and wet, in order to work out which twenty tires deserve to be tested in their full summer tire test.

For 2021, Auto Bild have tested 53 tires in the most popular tire size in Europe, 205/55 R16.

All 53 sets of tires have their wet and dry braking results below, with the shortest 20 combined braking distances progressing to the full test, which will be on the website shortly.

All season VS winter tires is a hotly discussed topic, and while we've done our own test at various temperatures, it sadly didn't include any ice testing, or things like wet handling and rolling resistance testing.

Fortunately, our friends at Vi Bilagare once again have us covered. During their Nordic winter testing in 2020, the magazine included an all season and "european" winter tire alongside their usual selection of Nordic friction and studded winter tires.

As the all-season and European winter tire were being tested from a Nordic perspective, they had a significant testing on ice, which is a rarity for an all-season tire.

The results... well, I’m sure you can guess how each of the four tire types performed on each surface, but it's really cool to see all this data from one source.

Sadly there are very few professional tire tests conducted in North America, however the magazine Consumer Reports does an excellent job of educating the market with a number of huge tire tests every year.

While the public data is limited, you have to be a member to see the full results, we thought it would be important to database the information we have to help our American audience pick the right winter tire.

The 2020 Consumer Reports Winter Tire Test has tested seventeen of the best winter tires on the market in the popular 215/60 R16 size.

If you need to keep your van mobile year round, all season tires are an increasingly popular solution, which is why German publication Pro Mobile have tested seven commercial all season tires in the popular 225/70 R15C tire size.

On test they have all the manufactures you'd expect from a car all season tire test, with Continental, Falken, Goodyear, Maxxis, Michelin, Pirelli and Vredestein included in the test.

For the 2020 Auto Express all season tire test, Auto Express tested six 225/45 R17 all season tires using a VW Golf.

For their second winter test of 2020, the excellent Vi Bilagare have tested eight Nordic friction (studless) winter tires.

As with the studded version, Vi Bilagare have performed a thorough test covering dry, wet, snow and ice, and should be considered one of the benchmarks for extreme winter testing in Europe. 

This test is particularly interesting as it has the new Michelin X-Ice Snow, Bridgestone Blizzak Ice, Pirelli Ice Zero FR and Nexen Winguard Ice Plus WH43 placed up against the established Nordic winter tires from Continental, Goodyear and Nokian.

For the 2020 Vi Bilägare Winter studded tire test, the Swedish magazine has tested 8 of the most extreme studded winter tires in 205/60 R16.

As this is a studded winter tire test, the testers placed much more emphasis on snow and ice performance, so if you're in a region that sees a lot of compacted snow and ice on the road during normal winters, this is a very useful test.

The 2020 Auto Bild crossover SUV all season tire test has tested 11 of the best all season tires in the rather small 215/60 R16 tire size, using a VW T-Roc. 

Auto Bild have also included a reference summer and winter tire, so we can see the difference performances between the three tire types, but sadly haven't shared which tires were used as the reference tires.

Here are the Tire Reviews best winter tires for the 2020 winter tire season.

As usual, all these tires have been picked based on data from Tire Reviews testing, other tests from around the world, and user reviews - think of this as one big meta-analysis of the best winter / snow / studded tires on the market. This video covers European, Nordic and North American winter tires / tires, and covers cars, SUV's and Electric vehicles (EVs.)

The 2020 Auto Zeitung has tested fourteen winter tires in 205/55 R16, including new winter tires from Bridgestone, Goodyear and Maxxis, as well as a low cost retreaded tire.

While all the tires were tested in the dry, wet and snow, sadly Auto Zeitung didn't include any handling data, instead just providing subjective feel scoring.

Motorcycle tire testing is the most difficult type the tire testing available, and as such we don't get a many good motorbike tire comparison tests as we do for car and SUV.

Fortunately in 2020 the UK motorcycle magazine MCN managed to test six of the best sports touring motorbike tires using a BMW R1250RS.

The only objective test included was a 70-0 mph dry braking (below), the rest of the results were taken from a 22 mile road route over many different surfaces, which two riders tested blind and rated the tires for steering, confidence, stability, ride quality and feel.

The 2020 Sport Auto all season tire test has covered seven of the best all season tires in 225/45 18, using a new BMW 3 Series.

Most of the tires on test were also included in the 2020 Tire Reviews all season tire test, however as Sport Auto used a different size and vehicle, this test still makes for interesting reading!

If you're planning on undertaking a massive Nordic friction and studded winter tire test, having the right facilities to conduct the test in is key. Fortunately for Test World, they own one of the best independent arctic testing facilities in the world which is why we're super excited to see this 21 tire test, covering all the key friction studless and studded winter tires on the market.

All tires are in the popular 205/55 R16, and were tested using a VW Golf. There were some interesting new tires in the test, including the first test of the studless Michelin X-Ice Snow.

For the 2020 Auto Express winter tire test, Auto Express tested nine 205/55 R16 winter tires using a VW Golf.

The 2020 ACE / ARBÖ / GTÜ winter tire test has tested nine winter tires in the popular 225/50 R17 size using a BMW 3 Series.

The 2020 Auto Bild SUV Tire test has tested ten crossover SUV / 4x4 winter tires in the popular 225/55 R17 size, with a summer tire included as a reference.

Of the ten tires on test, the top four tires were given the "Exemplary" award, which included the new Goodyear UltraGrip Performance+, the much improved Bridgestone Blizzak LM005, the new Michelin Alpin 6 and the Vredestein Wintrac Pro.

The test winning Goodyear had a good all round performance, with the testers noting the winter tire felt precise and dynamic in all conditions. The Bridgestone LM005 performed well in the dry and wet to secure second place, while the joint third Michelin and Vredestein pair performed well in all tests, but either cost more to buy (Michelin) or used more fuel (Vredestein.)