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The Auto Bild tyre test team has been busy. In addition to evaluating 35 all-season tyres they have put 54 winter tyres through their paces. After subjecting all to a preliminary test round – on this occasion braking from 80km/h in the wet and from 50km/h on snow – 20 tyres remain as finalists.
In its latest joint winter tyre test, motoring association Auto Club Europa (ACE) describes the Bridgestone Blizzak LM005 as being “close to the perfect winter tyre,” having displayed “more than rock solid performance” in all test disciplines. The Bridgestone tyre was the only product to gain ACE’s ‘very recommendable’ rating. The association gave a ‘recommendable’ rating to six tyres and ‘conditionally recommendable’ to one product but declared a further two ‘not recommendable’.
Auto Bild will soon publish its 2023 all-season tyre test, which includes a total of 35 premium, mid-range and budget products in size 225/45 R17. As in other years, the German motoring publication has whittled down this broad field of contenders by subjecting each and every one of them to a preliminary round of wet and dry braking tests. When the dust and water spray settled, just 16 finalists remained to slug it out for supremacy.
AutoBild Allrad’s 2023 test of 10 all-season SUV tyres gave four tyres the top “exemplary” grade, with two joint-winners. In Germany, all-season tyres have grown with the most recent product generations’ improved technology, despite the traditional strength of its seasonal tyre change market. The magazine, one of Germany’s leading consumer automotive publications, said the top-ranking tyres in its latest test have “matured into true heroes of road traffic.” At the other end of the scale, three of the size 235/65 R17 108 V/W tyres were described as “not recommended”, while three other tyres gained “satisfactory” and “good” final verdicts. So which all-season products could AutoBild Allrad “unreservedly recommend” to motorists?
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.
Today isn’t 1 April and no legs were pulled during the writing of the above headline. Swiss motoring magazine auto-illustrierte has published a tyre test – and every single protagonist is a Goodyear tyre. Who stood where on the podium is nonetheless interesting.
Anyone striving to make an informed purchase can learn much from tyre test results. In recent months, motoring publications and associations throughout Europe have evaluated no less than 185 current products. To help you choose the right tyres, we’ve brought all summer 2023 test candidates together in one table that clearly shows the tyres that impressed – and those that didn’t.
Sometimes a tyre test resembles a day with the mean kids at school, with a low-priced budget tyre invited to hang out – only to be later mocked as vastly inferior to its peers. But not the latest comparative evaluation from European motoring associations ACE, ARBÖ and GTÜ – while everybody doesn’t win a prize, all present are commended for one characteristic or another.
Campervans based upon vehicles such as the VW Transporter are a popular choice for those wishing to see more of the countryside, and Auto Bild gave them some deserved attention in a recent tyre test. The publication looked at 12 all-season tyres in size 235/55 R17. It fitted these to a VW T6 and then found out how the tyres performed in dry, wet and snowy conditions. Three products gained the top ‘exemplary’ rating and Auto Bild opined that they, along with four ‘good’ rated tyres, are well-suited to the task at hand.
Continental’s SportContact 7, WhatTyre Tyre of the Year 2022, added to its impressive tally of test victories as it was named the “outstanding” tyre in the Sportauto summer tyre test 2023. Elsewhere there was a very notable showing for the “very good” Firestone Firehawk Sport, one of only two tyres to record above-average ratings in all three disciplines rated in Sportauto’s final analysis – wet, dry and environmental. The tyre infiltrated the group of five premium brands in the top half of the rankings, beating its Bridgestone stablemate, the Potenza Sport, and the Pirelli P Zero PZ4. The magazine tested eleven tyres in size 225/40 R18 92Y XL mounted on an Audi S3.
Auto Bild has published the second-round results of its size 225/45 R18 summer 2023 tyre test, and thanks to cost factors contributing 20% to the final score, participating tyres gained an opportunity to demonstrate their price-performance ratio. This year’s winner is the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6, a tyre that not only impressed the publication’s test team in wet and dry conditions – its purchase price and mileage potential ensured a second victory as economy champion.
For its summer 2023 test, Auto Bild Sportscars lined up a baker’s dozen of size 225/40 R18 tyres and fitted them to a Toyota GR Yaris, a car that highlighted “both the sporting qualities and the weak points” of each and every candidate after “just a few bends” of track. When the dust & water spray had settled, five tyres proudly wore Auto Bild Sportscars’ top ‘exemplary’ rating.
ADAC has published the results of a golden anniversary tyre test in which it evaluates one product for each year since entering the tyre testing game. It looked at 205/55 R16 V – currently the most popular dimension. In readiness for the next 50 years and as a nod to the increasing significance of environmental & sustainability issues, the motoring organisation also overhauled its system of scoring.
Congratulations to Hankook for its table-topping performance during the preliminary wet & dry braking component of Auto Bild’s 2023 summer tyre test, and well done to the other 19 finalists that also progress to the second and main round of testing. But what about the 30 tyres that didn’t make the grade – how well or poorly did they perform?
German motoring association ADAC will soon publish its 50th anniversary tyre test together with partner clubs in Europe. To honour the occasion, it has tested 50 tyres in two sizes instead of the usual 30 or so. The half-century milestone is also accompanied by a shift in focus: In addition to safety-relevant driving qualities, in future it will place a greater emphasis upon each tyre’s environmental and sustainability characteristics.
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