Worst winter tires based on test results for the 2025/2026 season

We have already reported on the best winter tires in the tests of the past season, and now it's time for the models that showed themselves from the worst side. The anti-rating included not just tires that took the last places in the tests — the competition can be so strong that there is a chance to be on the lower lines and good tires — but specifically participants who showed openly weak results and have a significant negative impact on the level of safety.

As you might expect, the list included primarily cheap tires from Asian brands, including well-known ones on the Russian market, such as Goodride and Triangle, which are produced by the flagships of the Chinese tire industry.

Studded tires

Let's start with Goodride. The studded tires Goodride IceMaster Spike Z-506 are part of the ZC Rubber assortment, the largest tire company in China, but neither this nor the fact that the tires, as the manufacturer claims, were developed in Finland, allowed them to show good results in the Vi Bilägare test. The tires had weak performance in most disciplines, and thanks to their hard rubber compound, they work quite well on asphalt, but on ice and snow, the grip is clearly very low, and the tires readily lose it at the first opportunity.

The Mazzini Ice Leopard tires (a private brand of Mazzini owned by Best Choice International Trading with its headquarters in Beijing) are also poorly suited for winter conditions, and in the Teknikens Värld tests, they surprised by performing on ice at the level of not even friction tires of the Scandinavian type, but "Europeans", which already speaks for itself. In addition, Mazzini has low braking efficiency on dry asphalt, and in general, apart from cheapness, no other advantages were found in the tires.

The popular Triangle IcelynX TI501 tires on the domestic market also managed to surprise the testers, turning out, as noted in Vi Bilägare, to be "studded tires with a complete lack of grip on ice". This disappointing verdict was confirmed in "AvtoReview", which called Triangle "helpless" on an icy surface. At the same time, the Russian magazine added that on a snowy surface, the situation is even worse, and "the powerlessness of the tires in deep snow was especially disappointing". On asphalt, the performance is better, and, according to the experts, Triangle can only be recommended for large cities where roads are well cleared in winter, but doesn't the very purpose of buying studded tires get lost then?

Non-studded Scandinavian-type tires

Korean Kumho generally makes good winter tires (two of their models entered the rating of the best tires according to the test results of the previous season), but this does not apply to Marshal I’Zen KW31, and in Tyre Reviews, it was noted that, although the performance on dry pavement is acceptable, the tires take a very long time to stop the car on wet asphalt, worsen handling in any conditions, and show very weak performance on ice. "Given that this tire is designed for extreme winter conditions, but clearly lags behind competitors on snow and ice, it is not recommended to buy it," said Jonathan Benson, the creator of the Tyre Reviews portal.

Let's move on, and here again "China", namely the Maxtrek Trek M7 Plus tire from Zhaoqing Junhong Co., Ltd., which in the Vi Bilägare test demonstrated good longitudinal grip on snow and low rolling resistance, but that's where the positive moments ended. According to the testers, Maxtrek is extremely ineffective on ice, worsens handling in any weather, and on asphalt, "the grip is so low that when trying to turn the car, it stubbornly goes straight, and this alone could have sent the tires to the last place".

Non-studded European-type tires

While there are not many tests of tires for the northern winter, "European" tires are tested much more often, including several dozen models. So, in 2025, the All-German Autoclub ADAC, famous for its tough criteria, conducted its largest test of tires in this category, comparing 31 models and ultimately "rejecting" almost every third one. The main reason was very weak grip on wet asphalt, due to which the rating "Poor" was received by Radar Dimax Winter, Imperial Snowdragon UHP, Tomket Snowroad Pro 3, Star Performer Stratos UHP, Goodride SW608, and Syron Everest 2. In addition, the snow/ice tests "failed" the Nankang Winter Activa SV 4, Landsail Winter Lander, Petlas Snowmaster 2 Sport, and CST Medallion Winter WCP1, and the Evergreen Winter EW66 tire stood out particularly, showing unsatisfactory results both in winter conditions and on wet pavement.

Auto Bild also conducts large tests of winter tires, but divides them into two parts, and in the qualification, participants with low braking efficiency are eliminated, which has a direct impact on safety, and in 2025, according to the results of the qualifying round, 11 tires received the status of not recommended: Goodride ZuperSnow Z-507, Imperial Snowdragon UHP, Westlake SW608, Maxxis Premitra Snow WP6, Star Performer Stratos UHP-11, Tomket Snow Road Pro 3, Atlas Polarbear UHP, Sunny Winter-Max A1 NW211, Milever Winter-Max A1 MW255, Infinity EoZen, and Windforce Snowblazer UHPe. The braking distance on wet pavement was measured from 80 km/h, and the best tire stopped the car in 33.3 meters, while Windforce needed 45.1 meters for this, which is about a third more.

Although mainly the worst Auto Bild recognized budget tires from little-known brands, the presence of a model from the Taiwanese company Maxxis, which is among the top 20 largest tire manufacturers in the world, was somewhat surprising. At the same time, Premitra Snow WP6 performed poorly in the Auto Zeitung test, and experts stated that on snow, the grip is decent, but in other aspects, the performance is weak, especially on wet pavement.