Five winter tyres received an "Exemplary" rating in the new Auto Bild Allrad test

Auto Bild Allrad conducted a comparative test of 12 sets of winter tires in the size 245/45 R18 for crossovers and SUVs, with five participants receiving an "Exemplary" rating. At the same time, there was also a "black sheep" among them, with one tire having such weak traction on snow and wet surfaces that it earned a "Not Recommended" rating.

The snow tests were carried out at the Ivalo test center in Finland, 300 km north of the Arctic Circle, while the wet and dry tests were conducted at the ATP and TRIWO test facilities in Germany. The list of participants included models from the "premium" class (Bridgestone Blizzak 6, Continental WinterContact TS 870 P, Goodyear UltraGrip Performance 3, Michelin Pilot Alpin 5, Pirelli P Zero Winter, and Vredestein Wintrac Pro), "medium" class (Falken Eurowinter HS02 Pro, Giti GitiWinter W2, Hankook Winter i*cept evo3, Kumho WinterCraft WP52, and Maxxis Premitra Snow WP6), and "economy" class (Imperial ice-Plus S210).

In the snow tests, one tire clearly dominated, and it was the Michelin, which won in all disciplines, and high ratings for good safety levels were also received by premium tires from Continental, Goodyear, Bridgestone, and Vredestein. The worst were the budget Imperial (a private brand of the Belgian trading company Deldo Autobanden), but even they were much more effective than the summer tires taken for comparison.

On wet surfaces, Continental took the first place in the test of braking efficiency, while Imperial had such weak traction that it posed a safety risk. In the tests of handling and lateral stability, Goodyear became the leader, and the best resistance to aquaplaning was demonstrated by Maxxis, Giti, and Continental.

Finally, in the dry surface tests, in which winter tires with their soft compounds and numerous lamellas cannot be compared to summer tires, Michelin was recognized as the best, and the other participants also did not allow themselves serious weaknesses. Fuel efficiency was also evaluated, and the most economical among the tested tires were Goodyear, Continental, and Bridgestone.

As already mentioned, five tires were recognized as "exemplary" based on the results of the entire test, and this list included Michelin (which won the overall standings), Continental and Goodyear (which shared second place), as well as Bridgestone and Hankook. The first four tires have an excellent balance of characteristics and combine an excellent level of traction in any conditions with low rolling resistance, and their only drawback is the high cost. At the same time, Hankook is offered at an attractive price, but they turned out to be quite noisy.

Vredestein, Kumho, and Giti received a "Good" rating and noticeably lagged behind the leaders, as they performed poorly in disciplines related to safety. Thus, Vredestein and Kumho have relatively low resistance to aquaplaning (and the first tires also have a long braking distance on wet surfaces), and Giti worsen handling on dry roads (and have increased rolling resistance).

The "Satisfactory" rating was awarded to the Falken, Maxxis, and, surprisingly, Pirelli tires, which relatively poorly resist aquaplaning and increase the braking distance on dry surfaces. At the same time, Falken demonstrated "average suitability for winter conditions", and Maxxis had problems on dry and wet asphalt. As for the "not recommended" tires, they were expectedly the budget Imperial, which work poorly on snow and have dangerously low traction on wet surfaces.

Source: Auto Bild.