Introducing its 2022 summer tyre comparative test, Auto Bild Allrad comments that SUV tyres really can “make a noticeable hole in the household budget.” – but motorists can nevertheless save money by choosing the right tyre.
After conducting no less than five comparative evaluations for various Auto Bild titles, testing specialists Dierk Möller and Henning Klipp possess a solid understanding of which all-season and winter tyres are worth recommending, and which aren’t. Auto Bild has presented a summary of Möller and Klipp’s testing for the current season in its 42/2021 issue and at the same time has named its leading manufacturers in the all-season and winter categories. Three brands occupy the podium’s upper step.
The results of comparative tyre tests are a familiar site on the pages of Tyrepress.com during the autumn, with numerous motoring associations and publications releasing the results of their all-season and winter tests at this time of year. Hankook was present in many of these and victorious in two, the Auto Bild Sportscars winter test and Auto Bild Allrad all-season evaluation. UK site Tyre Reviews also gave the Hankook entrant is editor’s recommendation, exclaiming that the brand seems “to be on a roll at the moment.”
According to Auto Bild Allrad, winter tyres continue to improve in regards to their performance – but are also becoming pricier. The specialist SUV and 4×4 publication thus asks whether these products are worth buying. In order to provide an answer, it tested ten premium, value and budget tyres in size 235/55 R18. What Auto Bild Allrad found is that it is still possible to get “good performance at a fair price” when buying winter tyres. It rated the two best-scoring performers as ‘exemplary’ products and named them this year’s joint winners.
In the preamble to its latest tyre test, Auto Bild Allrad comments that the “future belongs to all-season tyres” and notes the evolution of these products into a true alternative to dedicated summer or winter tyres. This year, the German magazine for 4×4 and SUV enthusiasts tested ten brands of all-season tyre in size 215/65 R17. Victory was claimed by the Hankook Kinergy 4S2 X, a tyre that Auto Bild’s testers declared an “exemplary compromise” for safe driving in all weather conditions.
More than a year after its counterpart for conventional saloons came to market, Goodyear is introducing the UltraGrip Performance+ SUV. This new tyre range covers the growing SUV and crossover market by offering consumers a “technology-packed winter tyre that increases the versatility and contributes to the safety of their vehicles.”
Three of the top ten best-selling cars in Europe are SUVs. The growth of this market is such that the meaning of the terms has come to encompass a broad range of vehicle applications. Broadly though, a motorist can expect an elevated driving position, hatchback practicality mixed with some degree of all-terrain ability, and rugged looks. Handling a wide range of conditions and environments is a big part of their appeal, meaning tyre technology in the SUV segment needs to support these applications, as as Thomas Gesenhoff, technical project manager at Goodyear, explains.
In its 2021 summer tyre test, Auto Bild Allrad looks at ten premium, mid-range and budget brands, products ranging in price from around £230 to £450 for a set of four. The test team was, by and large, impressed with the candidates’ performance and declared six of the test products either ‘exemplary’ or ‘good’. They declined to recommend just one tyre.
An absence of alps, frequent sub-zero temperatures and heavy snowfalls make winter tyres a hard sell in the UK. And just as our football fans’ capacity to brave the cold has earned them bemused respect throughout Europe, the average British motorist is content to soldier on with summer tyres even when the mercury drops. But for those who decide to invest in a set of dedicated winter tyres, it’s worth making sure you know what you’re getting.
In the spring, Auto Bild looked at the wet and dry braking results from five of its latest summer and all-season tyre tests. Tyre brands that had participated in at least three tests received an average percentage value for all braking tests results, and based on these values the motoring magazine named Michelin its ‘Manufacturer of the Year’. With winter now approaching, Auto Bild has reached for its pocket calculator again to work out which products are “the best tyres for the cold season”.
The team at Auto Bild Allrad faced a problem when it came to performing their annual winter tyre test – they couldn’t find enough snow. To get around this shortcoming, the testers travelled to Japan with their equipment and ten brands of European market winter tyres. They also took a set of summer tyres with them for comparison and to serve as a warning to anyone tempted to drive on them in the snow and ice.
Past tyre tests have on occasion presented all-season tyres as a compromise solution, a jack of all trades but master of none. But is this always the case? German car magazine Auto Bild Allrad doesn’t think so – in its current test of seven size 235/55 R19 SUV tyres, the publication opines that all-season products are no longer a “lazy compromise”. While noting that a single tyre that can do everything well at all times of year still doesn’t exist, Auto Bild Allrad found one that came close.
Look at recent tyre test results from Auto Bild and Gute Fahrt and you might assume there’s no such thing as a bad tyre these days, but you’d be wrong. Auto Bild Allrad has evaluated ten SUV tyres, and while six were awarded the top ‘exemplary’ rating, one certainly wasn’t recommended and another hesitantly so. The upshot is that it still pays to do your homework when buying replacement tyres.
Ten winter SUV tyres – from premium brands to a so-called “budget tyre from the Far East” – were put to the test in this year’s comparative evaluation from Auto Bild Allrad. The German 4×4/SUV publication examined size 235/60 R18 107H/V products, fitting the tyres to an Audi Q5 for testing in wet, dry and snow disciplines. Happily, the testers found no truly dreadful tyres within the candidates’ ranks.
It was a victory for Goodyear in the all-season SUV tyre test published by Auto Bild Allrad this month. The publication voted the Vector 4Seasons SUV Gen-2 the winner of its six-tyre comparative evaluation, honouring the Goodyear rubber with the only ‘exemplary’ rating of the test.
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