This year Sport Auto magazine have tested six performance winter tyres in 235/40 R18.
Due to the limited number of patterns in the test, and no all season or summer comparison, we'll forgo the usual commentry and just present the results below.
Results
Continental WinterContact TS 850 P
235/40 R18
All discipline results (5)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Overall | — |
Goodyear UltraGrip Performance Gen 1
235/40 R18
All discipline results (5)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Overall | — |
Dunlop Winter Sport 5
235/40 R18
All discipline results (5)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Overall | — |
Pirelli Winter Sottozero 3
235/40 R18
All discipline results (5)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Overall | — |
GT Radial Champiro WinterPro HP
235/40 R18
All discipline results (5)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Overall | — |
Vredestein Wintrac xtreme S
235/40 R18
All discipline results (5)
| Test | % |
|---|---|
| Dry | — |
| Wet | — |
| Snow | — |
| Rolling Resistance | — |
| Overall | — |
Vredestein have really lost the plot these days. Few years ago they were pretty much dominating the market and spooking the big boys, now, theyre just a mid-range brand again, but with a much higher price tag. Shame, always liked vred's...
The general consensus is their new owners Apollo have moved all the smart people to the Apollo brand, and will leave Vredestein as a second brand. It's sad they have fallen, as you pointed out they used to be up there with Nokian in terms of winter tyres.
Indeed, I've said before it is since apollo have taken over. Makes little sense, keep the good brand with the sound reputation maling their name, then use the revenue and r&d team to develop the budget brand into something also market leading. Yes the budget brand are the owning company and im sure theyd like their name to be as good as Vredestein was, but this way you'd win twice, rather than reduce reputation and sales of the successful company to mildly bolster a relatively unknown budget brand... My two penneth anyway!