Tire Reviews Tire Tests

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.

As always, we keep our coverage of the Auto Express tire tests to a minimum, instead encouraging you to go and see the full article on the Auto Express website (link in comments), but there is one aspect of the test we'd like to mention.

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.

Following on from the 27 all season tire braking shootout, Auto Bild have published their excellent 2018 all season tire test. Testing the best ten 195/65 R15 all season tires from the braking test, Auto Bild have done an incredibly thorough job putting all the tire patterns through the usual array or dry, wet and snow testing.

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.

As with the Auto Bild winter tire test, the excellent German publication have placed a large number of all season tires through wet and dry braking tests in order to find the top ten tires for the full all season tire test, which will include broader wet and dry testing, plus the inclusion of snow running.

In total 27 all season tire patterns were tested in the popular 195/65 R15 size, and the spread of best to worst proved to be worringly large!

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…

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.

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.

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 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. 

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.

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.

In 2018, German test body ADAC have tested fourteen 175/65 R14 summer tires, and sixteen in the larger 205/55 R16 size.

In this 175/65 R14 test, the mid range brands dominate! Falken impressively win the test and continue their run of recently form with the SN832 Ecorun having a very balanced overall performance. The Continental owned brand Semperit finishes in second place, owing to an excellent wet performance, and third place was the best result a premium manufacturer could manage with the Dunlop proving to be a well balanced tire.

In 2018, German test body ADAC have tested sixteen 205/55 R16 summer tires, and fourteen tires in the smaller 175/65 R14 size.

In this 205/55 R16 test, premium manufacturers take the top three places. Michelin lead the way, having the lowest wear on test and proving to be excellent in the dry, Bridgestone have a surprisingly strong performance in the wet to score second place overall, and Continental have a very balanced showing for the last of the podium spots.