Winter Premium Touring Tyre Tests

This year the German motoring organisation ADAC have tested sixteen winter tyres in the popular 185/65 R15.

While studded tyres aren't suitable for the normal UK winter, Tyre Reviews does have a lot of international readers, which is why we're covering this excellent studded winter tyre test from the Swedish publications Vi Bilägare.

Why this one? Well, they've used a Volvo V30 to test seven studded tyres in the very common 205/55 R16 tyre size, and they've also included a friction studless nordic winter tyre.

The 2018 Auto Motor und Sport [AMS] winter tyre test has tested eleven winter tyre patterns in the popular 205/55 R16 winter tyre size, using a Seat Ibiza.

For 2018, the German publication Auto Zeitung have tested nine SUV / 4X4 winter tyre patterns in 235/60 R18 using an Audi Q5.

The tyres on test covered the premium and midrange segments, with a single budget tyre included, the Wanli Snowgrip S1083. The Wanli tyre was less than half the price of the most expensive tyres on test, so it will be interesting to see whether the Chinese manufactured tyre can improve on past performances.

The 2018 Auto Bild SUV / 4x4 winter tyre test has used an Audi Q5 to test ten 235/60 R18 winter tyres, with the Goodyear UltraGrip Performance Gen-1 SUV proving to be the best tyre on test thanks to an excellent all-round performance.

Surprisingly Pirelli edged out Continental to second place, with a brilliant result for the Pirelli Scorpion Winter. This tyre has been on the market a number of years now, and historically hasn't tested as well as Goodyear or Continental, so there must have been and update for the 2018 winter season.

The Continental Winter Contact TS850P SUV rounded out the top three, with its only real weakness appearing during the important dry braking tests.

The weekly UK publication Auto Express has just published their 2018 winter tyre test! This year Auto Express have tested eight winter tyre patterns in 205/55 R16 using a VW Golf.

As in 2017, the German club ACE have tested all season and winter tyres in exactly the same tests! On test are nine 185/65 R15 winter tyre patterns, and three all season tyres in the same size, and they used an Opel Corsa as the test vehicle.

All twelve tyres were put through identical dry, wet and snow testing, and to further highlight the point that most all season tyres are interchangeable with winter tyres, the all season tyres finished second, fifth and ten places overall.

Following on from the 51 winter tyre braking test, the excellent German publication Auto Bild have promoted the best 20 tyres to their full winter test, which covers every aspect of the winter tyres performance.

As always, an (unnamed) summer and all season tyre 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…

This year the German motoring orginisation ADAC have tested winter tyres 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 tyres 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 tyres proving to offer an excellent balance of winter performances.

This year AutoBild have placed 51 195/65 R15 winter tyres through wet braking tests, with the top thirty tyres also being tested for snow braking performance. Only the top twenty have gone through to the full Auto Bild winter tyre test!

With the best winter tyre on test stopping the VW Golf in 34.3 meters, and the worst tyre on test at 49.8 meters, you can see why it's extremely important to judge a winter tyres performance as much on wet grip as it is snow grip.

While studded tyres aren't suitable for the UK climate, they are the best way of staying mobile in extreme winter conditions. Each tyre can have hundreds of studs, which bite into ice with far more grip than a studless friction winter tyre can give. There are of course drawbacks to studded tyres, they're very noisy, and they give up a lot of dry and wet performance when compared to a European winter tyre, but in climates such as Russia and the Nordic countries where you are likely to be driving on ice for weeks at a time, there's little alternative.

For 2017, the "All Road" edition of the German publication Auto Bild has tested ten 225/55 R17 winter tyres. This size is commonly used by compact crossovers, such as the BMW X1 used in this test.

The biggest interest in this test was the Chinese budget winter tyre from Pace. With the most expensive set of winter tyres costing 660 euros at time of test, the budget Pace tyres were a full 400 euros cheaper, at just 260 euros. Are the savings worth the performance drop? Read on below to find out.

For 2017 the Polish publication AutoCentrum has tested eight studless winter tyres in 185/65 R15. As with the other winter tyre tests we've featured across 2017, AutoCentrum tests the winter tyres in the dry, wet and snow, but also includes ice testing, a first for 2017.

Six of the tyres on test are European winter tyres which are available to the UK market, and two of the tyres (Debica Frigo 2 and Sava Eskimo Ice) are full nordic friction winter tyres, so it should give us a good overview of how these two different types of tyres perform, and why Nordic winter tyres aren't suitable for the UK market.

Fifty winter tyres have been put through wet braking tests, with the top thirty also tested for snow braking performance. Only the top twenty have gone through to the full Auto Bild winter tyre test!

Sadly there's very little data available for this 235/55 R17 SUV tyre test conducted by the European motoring bodies ACE / ARBO / GTU, nor are Michelin featured, but it's still worth a read if you drive a crossover vehicle such as the Ford Kuga or Volkswagen Tiguan which uses this tyre size.

This year the German motoring orginisation ADAC have tested winter tyres in 195/65 R15 and 215/65 R16.

Unusually for a winter tyre test, Continental faulter in this 215/65 R16 SUV tyre size, only finishing seventh overall. This leaves the door open for Dunlop to take first place with the Winter Sport 5 which proves to have a very balanced all round performance with no glaring weaknesses.

BF Goodrich finished in a very strong second place, winning the majority of the test categories but missing out on the top spot due to a slightly weak wet performance, where as the third placed Goodyear UltraGrip Performance Gen-1 proved to be extremely strong in the wet, but a little disappointing on snow.

This year the German motoring orginisation ADAC have tested winter tyres in 195/65 R15 and 215/65 R16.

The 195/65 R16 winter tyre test continues Continentals winter dominance, with another win for the Continental WinterContact TS860. 

Issue 1,495 of the weekly UK publication Auto Express contains their 2017 winter tyre test!

This year Auto Express have tested eight winter tyre patterns in 225/45 R17 using a VW Golf in the dry and wet, and an Audi A3 in the snow. 

Auto Express have previously asked us to keep our coverage of their tests to a minumum, so below is a summary of what went on. The full results can be found on the Auto Express website, which we will link as soon as they're online.

Overall, with just 3.9% covering the eight tyres on test, it's getting closer every year at the top.

Winter tyres aren't exclusively reserved for two wheel drive vehicles, four wheel drive cars benefit too. This year AMS have tested ten winter tyres in the popular 4x4 / SUV / Crossover size of 215/60 R17, which covers cars such as the Opel Mokka, Skoda Yeti, and the Volkswagen Tiguan.