Tire Reviews Tire Tests

The 2018 Auto Motor Und Sport all season tire test has tested seven all season tires, and a summer and winter tire through the usual range of dry, wet, snow and environmental tests.

The unique twist this year? For some reason, the summer and winter reference tires are in 205/55 R16, while the seven tested all season tires are in 225/45 R17. Strange.

In spite of the curious size choices, it's an interesting test. The tires chosen for the test, and the final results are very close to the Tire Reviews All Season Tire Video, so be sure to check that out too.

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.

All season tires try to be a tire without compromise, but does such tire exist? In this latest video I take a look at exactly how good all season tires are in 2018, and seven of the best tires in the all season category.

This video does not cover any summer or winter tires options, so if you feel like you might need a different tire setup, check out our "best tire type for winter driving" video first.

If you have any further questions once you’ve watched the video, head on over to the YouTube comment sections, or ask below and I’ll do my best to answer.

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 ADAC all season test has tested nine 175/65 R14 all season tires, with a summer and winter tire as comparison. All eleven tires were put through dry, wet, snow, ice and wear testing, and unusually the hugely successful Michelin CrossClimate finished in last place!

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.

It's not often you see a tire test where the highest placed premium manufacturer is placed in fifth place, and often test winning Goodyear and Michelin brands are eighth and ninth respectively, but that's exactly what the 2018 ACE / GTU 235/45 R18 tire test shows.

It's rare you find tire tests specifically scoring subjective handling qualities as it's a very difficult thing for tire testers to quantify, but this latest tire test from the Finish publication Test World scores the tires subjective behaviour out of a possible ten points in both the dry and wet. This is particularly interesting if you're not worried about that final 0.1 seconds of dry lap time, but do rate the subjective qualities of a tire such as steering feel, feedback and car balance.

This test covers sixteen 225/45 R17 UHP tire patterns using an Audi A3 - perhaps not the last word in dynamic handling but it is still an insight to the tires we don't usually get.

The 2018 Gute Fahrt test is a confusing tire test for a number of reasons. Firstly is tests both summer and all season tires in the same dry and wet tests, but fails to include the all season class leading Michelin CrossClimate. 

This year Auto Bild have covered both 19 and 20" UHP tires, and while we've covered the 20" test already, we delayed covering the 19" test for a few weeks.

In those few weeks, Sport Auto Magazine released their 19" tire test, and it uses exactly the same 245/35 R19 and 265/35 R19 tires, on the same BMW M2, and tests the same six UHP tires at the same location.

The logical question would be why publish this version of the test, as the results should be exactly the same? Well, they're not. Whether it be down to driving style, test parameters or just the weather on the day, Sport Auto and Auto Bild have managed to come up with two different test results using the same vehicle and tires, proving just how close the very best tires on the market are.

There's a lot of tires in the 2018 Auto Bild 195/65 R15 test, so we'll keep the intro as short as possible and let the data do the talking.

It's worth keeping in mind, the twenty tires chosen for this test have been through a 51 tire wet and dry braking pretest. This means the tires included in this test are some of the best tires available on the market, had Auto Bild included some of the worst tires in the pretest, the gap between the best and the worst tires overall would have been much larger.

The latest trend of combining two tire tests into a single result seems to be continuing, with the brilliant German publication Sport Auto combining six ultra high performance tires and three track day tires into a single test!

Using a BMW M2, Sport Auto used the M2 OE sizes of 245/35 R19 front and 265/35 R19 rear, and objectively tested wet and dry performances while also scoring the subjective handling and feel of a tire.

As you would expect, the track day tires dominated in the dry, were the weakest in the wet, and generally had the highest rolling resistance and were the nosiest. Some of the road tires were surprisingly close to the track day rubber during dry testing, and they were leagues ahead in the wet testing.

Read on for the full results!

2018 is setting up to be an excellent year for tire testing, with the epic German publication Auto Bild already delivering three excellent tests. Of the three, this 20" tire test is perhaps the most interesting of the trio.

For this investigation, Auto Bild have bought eight 245/30 R20 tire patterns and placed them through the usual array of wet and dry tests using a Mercedes E Class.

While the internet favourite Michelin Pilot Sport 4S takes its traditional top spot, there is a strange result for the Continental Sport Contact 6, a great result for the ten year old Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 (not 3!), and Bridgestone make a return to tests with the old Potenza S001.

Read on for the full results!

Every year Auto Bild test over fifty tires in wet and dry braking test to decide which twenty tires make it through to the full summer tire test. In 2018 they have used the popular 195/65 R15 summer touring tire size.

The spread of dry braking results was higher than usual this year. The best dry braking tire on test, the Hankook, stopped the car from 62mph in 34.5 metres, and the worse 42.4 metres. This 7.9 metre difference might not sound like a huge amount, but it is the difference of stopping or hitting an object at around 26 mph!

The spread in the wet was even larger. The Bridgestone was best in the wet, stopping the car from 50 mph in 34.3 metres, where as the worst tire on test took a massive 17.6 metres further, totaling 51.9 metres. That's over 4 car lengths further and a huge residual speed at time of accident.