2010 Auto Express Winter Tyre Test
2010 marks the start of the UK automotive magazine industry taking winter tyres seriously with the largest weekly magazine publishing the 2010 Auto Express winter tyre test.
Auto Express launched its interest of winter tyres with style, testing 6 premium winter tyres against 13 rigorous tests and included an all season and summer tyre for comparison. All tyres were tested in 205/55 r15 on a VW Golf.
Snow Performance
The snow tests covered the braking, traction and handling of the various tyres on a snow covered frozen lake. Braking was tested first, and of the winter tyres the Goodyear was the only tyre to dip below 18 metres. The rest of the winter tyres were extremely close, stopping within 2 metres of the Goodyear while the all season tyre needed another 5 metres.The summer tyre stopped in a massive 43.14 metres, 25 metres longer than the winter tyre! This means when you had stopped on the winter tyre, you would still be doing 20 mph on the summer tyre having both braked from 25mph!
The Goodyear also outperformed the rest of the tyres in the traction test, with over 3 times the grip of the summer tyre. The snow handling lap was very close, with all 6 winter tyres finishing within seconds of each other over the 100 second lap. Unsurprisingly summer tyre was a handful, offering very little grip and took over 160 seconds to get the car to the finish.
Wet Performance
For the UK climate a winter tyres wet performance is more important than the snow performance, with wet braking being the top priority.At near freezing temperatures the Dunlop and Continental winter tyres out performed the summer tyre during the wet braking test. At 7+c this result was reversed, but in both tests the results were extremely close.
The summer tyres more sporty tread design helped it win the wet handling course (at 7+c) but the Nokian was an extremely close second thanks to sporty handling and good feel. Once again, the results were close with just 3 seconds between the best time and the worst time, which was set by the all season tyre. Unfortunately the wet handling course wasn't run again in colder temperatures as the wet braking run was.
The Goodyears aggressive tread design won the aquaplaning tests with the all season scoring poorly in last place. The Nokian was the last of the winter tyres due to a tread pattern optimised for clearing slush rather than water.
Dry
Unsurprisingly, the summer tyre won the dry tests in the relatively warm temperatures, winning the braking test by stopping the car in just 39.2 metres. Reflecting other summer VS winter tests, the best winter tyre stopped approximately 10% behind the summer tyre at 44 metres. The dry handling test was much closer, with the Dunlop and Nokian just 2% behind the summer tyres laptime.Fuel Economy and comfort
Proving once again that winter tyres aren't noisy fuel guzzlers, four of the six winter tyres had a lower rolling resistance than the summer tyre while two of the winter tyres were actually quieter than the summer counter part.Overall
Auto Express have done a great job highlighting the importance of winter tyres to the UK public. Auto Express thoroughly recommend winter tyres for the UK climate thanks to the increased safety they bring. You can find the full write up in issue 1138.
Total: 961.9
Dry
186.2
Wet
288.4
Snow
299.7
Comfort
98
Rolling Resistance
89.6
Total: 969.3
Dry
184.8
Wet
295.8
Snow
294.7
Comfort
100
Rolling Resistance
94
Total: 952.7
Dry
188.3
Wet
295.2
Snow
288.2
Comfort
99.1
Rolling Resistance
81.9
Total: 953.1
Dry
186.4
Wet
291.5
Snow
285.7
Comfort
98.8
Rolling Resistance
90.7
Total: 941.1
Dry
185
Wet
279.4
Snow
281.5
Comfort
95.2
Rolling Resistance
100
Total: 948
Dry
185.3
Wet
294.9
Snow
277.7
Comfort
97.3
Rolling Resistance
92.8
All Season Tyre
Total: 921.1
Dry
188.2
Wet
282.6
Snow
264.6
Comfort
99.1
Rolling Resistance
86.6
Summer Tyre
Total: 718.8
Dry
200
Wet
282.6
Snow
46.6
Comfort
99.1
Rolling Resistance
90.5
I have a Renault master 2009 plate, if I fit winter tyres is there any research on loss of MPG? Or advise please?
From the winter tyre tests which include MPG, the conclusion is the MPG should be around the same as your summer tyres, depending on what summer and winter tyres you have.
I am looking at options for changing to winter tyres. Please can you explain when it is necessary to replace the wheels also.
People usually change wheels for convenience, or when they're changing to a smaller wheel size for the winter weather.
I need to replace 4 tyres on a secondhand car I am buying. as I live in NE Scotland I am considerng fitting winter tyres. Could I use these all year round? What would be the drawbacks?
Continental recommend if you're only going to use one set of tyres, to use winter tyres.
Traditionally the draw backs are poor warm wet weather performance and poor tread wear over the summer months, though modern winter tyres designed for our climates (not extreme Northern climates) are much better.
We'd suggest looking at a good all season tyre like the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons or the Vredestein Quatrac 3 featured in this article.
http://www.tyrereviews.co.u...
http://www.tyrereviews.co.u...
Just fitted some Ultra Grip7+. Have only been able to test them on snow and sub-zero so far! (This is December 2010). They have been great - nearly as much control as chains in deep snow. One note of caution - the feeling of control on snow is better than the actual stopping power. Stop distance may be under half that of summer tyres, but you are tempted to go much faster because you don't fishtail. So when you hit the brakes, that 18metres feels longer than you expected. Although was able to ABS steer through a small gap when this happened - something summer tyres never would have done. (and I learned my lesson!)
Good in thewet too - very good grip on cold wet roads.
Prepare to be really annnoyed how slow everyone else is going though.
It looks as though at least some and possibly all of the tests were undertaken in temperatures above 7 degrees C. Surely not a very helpful test then, since part of the point of winter and all-season tyres is that they perform better below 7 degrees than summer tyres?
Sorry, clearly not all tests (snow!) but the wet handling test at least seems to have been undertaken in warm conditions...
Agreed. It was noted that the braking test was re-done by Continental at near freezing temperatures to give it cold weather accuracy.
We're pushing for data to show the differences at set temperature intervals, but as I'm sure you can imagine getting that data can be quite tricky!
All of the tested tyres are more or less crappy,, If studdless, go for the Continental ContiViking 5. If studds, go for the Nokian Hakkapeliitta 7.. Don´t know how cold the winters in GB gets,, but i used the GY UltraGrip 7+ last winter. Totaly useless, really dangerous when the temperature gets below -10 celsius, on ice or in snow. Can´t use tyres like that in Sweden...
We've no doubt a Nordic type winter tyre is far better for your conditions in Sweeden, however in the UK we need dry and wet performance in temperatures up to 10c over the winter, which is where something like your "useless" Ultragrip 7+ excels.
Snow performance is a small part of the winter tyre role in the UK, and all the above tyres will out perform a traditional summer tyre many times over on snow and ice.
Just put winter tyres on my Boxster S. Waiting to see how they cope in the snow due tomorrow! I had lots of trouble getting hold of winter tyres here in the UK, ended up buying them online from Germany and getting them shipped over! More info on how easily obtainable they are would be good on next year's test.
Hi Phill,
I hope your winter tyres performed well, there's so much positive feedback flying around at the moment it's hard to imagine they didn't but it would be good to hear your experiences!
We'll look at doing something next year regarding availability. For now there's always www.tyresearcher.com where you can filter by winter tyres in your size.
Hi Phil,
Sorry to hear you had to import your winter tyres from Germany online.
Continental WinterContact TS830
Available now from Kwik Fit at 25% discount.Bargain for top winter tyres.
http://www.kwik-fit.com/
Safe winter driving on your winter tyres.
Best regards,
Dave
I don't understand the scoring system here...if highest overall number = best performer, then the Conti TS830 is surely the winner?? And the Nokian and Pirelli would also swap positions. Could someone from Tyrereviews please clarify? Thanks
Hi,
Auto Express scored on more categories than our database could handle which is why you see variations in the overall score. It's something we're working on in the future.
I hope this clears it up for you.
Jon
It is good to see a winter tyre test in the UK. I agree that testing of more tyre types would be really helpful, as this just covers the usual suspects that ADAC et al have tested many times. However testing of more tyres comes at a cost. The major ommission in this test is the lack of testing on ICE. The give ratings for Dry Wet and Snow, with snow being a rarity in the UK, ICE is much more common and is the most likely situation where a winter tyre will make a difference.
For what it's worth, the snow section of the test was conducted on a snow covered lake, so the tyre would have been biting into a mix of snow and ice.
I think this test is pretty rubbish. Why didn't they include mid-priced and budget tyres too? Instead they have 2 versions of Continental and Vredestein??
Because they are specifically testing winter tyres. The only reason the Quatrac and Premium Contact are in is as a control to see how a variety of winter tyres compare to an all-season tyre and a summer tyre.
Great test, nice to see winter tyre info in the uk