Ring’s RTG4 Digital Keyring Tyre Pressure Gauge has won Auto Express’s tyre gauge test with the product becoming Auto Express’s ‘Best Buy’ 2024 and being awarded five out of five stars.
For its 2024 summer tyre test, Auto Express focused on the popular 225/45 R17 size, a dimension it hasn’t looked at for three years. This year’s test features eight tyres, including new models from Michelin, Goodyear, Continental, and Bridgestone. Reigning 225/45 R17 champion Hankook also returns, along with Falken, Pirelli and Vredestein. Auto Express put all eight brands through their paces at Goodyear’s proving ground in Montpellier, France.
Lighting specialist, OSRAM, reminds workshops and factors to focus on bulb sales this winter, especially as the component is more likely to fail in colder temperatures. With more than 110 years in the automotive sector, Osram highlights why bulbs are more likely to fail in winter and why factors and workshops should be informing their customers of these facts, so pre-empting bulb failure and improving their bulb sales.
Following on from Philips RacingVision GT200 scooping Headlamp of the Year and H7 Best Buy honours in the previous Auto Express product mega test and awards, the latest edition of the Auto Express Headlamp Bulb tests – which in 2023 covers both H4 Halogen bulbs and D3S HiD Xenon headlamp bulbs – Philips bulbs have won the coveted ’Best Buy’ status across the board.
The Continental WinterContact TS 870’s strength in wet and dry conditions proved just enough for Auto Express to make it the winner of its Winter Tyre Test 2023. Competing against six other global manufacturers’ products, the Conti tyre beat the Bridgestone Blizzak LM-005 – the reigning champion of many European tyre tests and Tyrepress’ sister consumer tyre advice website, WhatTyre’s Winter Tyre of the Year – by a narrow 0.3-point margin overall. None of the seven tyres tested disgraced itself, with the last-placed Vredestein Wintrac Pro only 3.2 points out of 100 behind the Conti tyre: the differences between seven of the top-performing winter tyres proved largely down to different interpretations of what performance characteristics a winter tyre should target; both by the manufacturers and Auto Express test lead Kim Adams. The tyres were tested in size 225/45R17 at Pirelli’s Sottozero winter testing facility in Flurheden in northern Sweden and at Continental’s Pferdsfeld proving ground. In its report, Auto Express detailed the shipping challenges associated with sourcing tyres to conduct tests have not yet fully relented; while manufacturers supplied their own tyres for the winter tyre test, the top three were checked against tyres bought on the open market.
The best-selling tyre size in the UK is still 205/55 R16 and this is the dimension Auto Express selected for its summer 2023 tyre test. In association with Blackcircles.com, tyre tester Kim Adams and the Auto Express team headed to the Contidrom proving ground in Germany and compared the performance of 11 brands of tyre.
Three of Hankook’s flagship tyres have been recommended in consumer motor magazine Auto Express’s Product of the Year Awards. The all-season Kinergy 4S 2 won the all-season tyre category, following its tyre test victories in 2022 and 2021.Hankook’s Ventus S1 evo 3 SUV tyre and new Winter i*cept RS3 also received the magazine’s “Commended” rating in other categories. “Once again, we are delighted with these Product of the Year awards from Auto Express and this proves that Hankook tyres are a great choice for our UK customers all year round. Hankook is committed to ongoing investment in research and development to continue improving our portfolio of products and their performance,” comments Chang Yool Han, managing director of Hankook Tyre UK.
Ring’s MAGflex Utility Inspection Lamp, RIL3700HP, has won Auto Express’s inspection lamps mini test alongside two other products. The lamp was designed to be versatile so that professionals in any industry can use it and benefit from its extra features. It is rechargeable, cordless and has dual 180° ratcheting and 360° twist functions, to direct light exactly where it’s needed, as well as hanging hooks and multiple magnetic bases for hands-free working, providing up to 1,000 lumen light output and two and a half hours operating time.
Ring Automotive’s 12V tyre inflators have received plaudits in the latest product tests in Auto Express, with Ring’s RTC1000 being awarded the title’s Best Buy title and the RTC450 a recommended status.
It’s not every day that Michelin finishes last in a tyre test, but this was the case when Auto Express recently examined half a dozen winter tyres. But tester Kim Adams assures that the Alpin 6 is by no means a poor performer – instead, the result reflects the high standards amongst the tyres featured in this year’s test.
Bridgestone’s newest ultra-high performance tyre, the Potenza Sport offered the best results in wet and dry performance in the latest Auto Express tyre test. The tyre was able to make the most of its home field advantage as the magazine used Bridgestone’s Aprilla proving ground, just besting Goodyear’s Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6 by 0.5 per cent. Another notable result was the third-place finish of the Maxxis Victra Sport 5, which adds to a growing list of test successes proving that the brand is increasingly able to hold its own against the traditional premium brands. The test was conducted on the biggest selling 18” tyre size, 225/40R18 92Y. This UHP tyre test of seven products was split from the “UUHP mini test” of three of the highest-performing road tyre products, won by the new Continental SportContact 7. For the UHP test, Auto Express weighted its results to reflect UK driving needs: wet tests counted for 50 per cent of the final mark, dry 40 per cent, and the remaining 10 per cent on noise, fuel economy and price.
Hankook Tyre UK was the headline sponsor of the Auto Express New Car Awards 2022, presented in London on 5 July. Car manufacturers competed across 27 categories to be nominated as best in class, while the electric Nissan Ariya was made the overall winner. Hankook has launched a new brand for electric car tyres, iON, with a Ventus iON summer tyre and a Winter i*cept iON winter tyre already announced. The tyre maker was also presented with three Auto Express Product of the Year Awards in May, winning the summer (Ventus S1 evo 3) and all-season (Kinergy 4S 2) categories.
With a grand total of three contenders, the latest comparative evaluation from Auto Express may be able to claim kudos for being the smallest tyre test ever. The motoring publication examined the new SportContact 7 in size 235/35ZR19 91 Y at Continental’s Ulvade providing ground in the USA, fitting the tyres to a VW Golf GTI and pitting them against two rivals from the ultra-ultra-high-performance segment, the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S and the Pirelli P Zero PZ4.
Philips RacingVision GT200 has once again been awarded coveted “Recommended Buy” status by Auto Express in its annual bulb mega-test. In awarding the Philips RacingVision GT200 this accolade, Auto Express reported that bulb had scored highest for both the widest usable beam of light and for producing the brightest spot of light for the road ahead.
Déjà vu aplenty in this year’s Auto Express all-season tyre test. The publication returned to the 205/55R16 size it last looked at in 2019, and the Hankook Kinergy 4S2 that participated in the test two years ago was back as a contender in 2021. Same tester, same tyre, same size. But this is where the similarities end; whereas the Hankook tyre finished seventh in the 2019 test, this year it won.
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