Tire Reviews Tire Tests

The UK climate represents a difficult challenge for car tires. Warm enough to require a tire that works well at higher temperatures, but not warm enough to make a summer tire the best choice year round.

Until recently, tires have fallen into three distinct categories: summer, all season and winter tires. Traditionally, all season tires have been developed from a winter tire origins, which give them excellent snow performance but can impact dry and wet performance, especially in the warmer months. This year, Michelin have released the CrossClimate, which if the marketing is to be believed, promises to be a second type of all season tire, one which started life as a summer tire and has been gifted winter capabilities.

Is a summer and winter tire combination the only safe option? Has the second generation Goodyear all season moved the game on? Can the new Michelin CrossClimate live up to the marketing hype? That's what we're here to find out.

There's not much we can say about the excellent 2015 Auto Express Winter Tire Test, other than head over to the Auto Express site and check out the full review!

Based on a combined snow and wet braking performance, this year Auto Bild have taken the best eightteen 185/60 R15 winter tires through from their 2015 Winter Tire Shootout, and one all season tire, the Pirelli Cinturato All Season.

From the fifty tires tested, there were some surprise drop outs. The Vredestein Snowtrac 5, Yokohama W.Drive, Toyo Snowprox S943 and Avon Ice Touring were a few of the 32 tires which failed to make the grade. Equally, tires like the Semperit Speed Grip 2, Barum Polaris 3, Gislavel Euro Frost 5 and Viking Snow Tech II were are few surprise inclusions, it will be interesting to find out if they can live up to the established competition in the full winter tire test.

Most winter tire tests cover sizes up to 16 inch wheels, as these are by far the most common winter tire sizes fitted across Europe. Unfortunately, if you're looking to keep your performance car mobile over winter, these tests are largely useless as a reference, as tire patterns and performances can drastically change as the sizes increase.

Luckily Auto Bild Sportscars have us covered with their latest ultra high performance winter tire test. Auto Bild have taken eight UHP winter tires in 225/40 R18 and tested them on a RWD Mercedes C Class across the usual range of snow, wet and dry tests and have included a summer tire as reference.

The 2015 Auto Bild all season tire test is here, and it's the first test to include the new Michelin CrossClimate and Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-2.

The 2015 winter tire test season is here, and as usual the German magazine Auto Bild have done an excellent job of giving us an overview of this years contenders.

Testing 51 tires in 185/60R15, Auto Bild put each tire through a wet braking test, then took the top 28 tires through to the snow braking test. Once the snow braking results were in, the magazine combined the wet and snow distances to give an over all result, taking the top 15 tires through to their full 2015 Winter Tire Test.

2015 has been called the year of the all season tire, and Auto Express have just confirmed it with their first ever all season tire test.

Testing six all season tires, and a class winning summer and winter tire, Auto Express put all eight tires through fourteen tests covering the snow, wet, dry abilities of the tire, and included noise, rolling resistance and price too.

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. 

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!