Winter tire test 215/55 R17 from ADAC (2024)

The German automobile club ADAC tested 16 sets of European-style winter tires in the size 215/55 R17 for compact crossovers like the Volkswagen T-Roc.

As usual, the tires were tested on several types of surfaces, and numerous additional parameters were evaluated. Three tires received a "Good" rating in the 2024 test: Goodyear UltraGrip Performance 3, Dunlop Winter Sport 5, and Vredestein Wintrac Pro. The first two tires provide the highest level of safety, but Goodyear had a better environmental rating (the tire, for example, has a high resource and low noise and rolling resistance), so it took first place. As for Vredestein, they excelled with very high grip in winter conditions, but lost to the leaders in terms of dry and wet asphalt, as well as environmental friendliness.

Seven participants finished the test with a "Satisfactory" rating: Semperit Speed-Grip 5, Hankook Winter i*cept RS3, Continental WinterContact TS 870 P, Pirelli Cinturato Winter 2, Yokohama BluEarth Winter V906, Giti GitiWinter W2, and Firestone Winterhawk 4, all of which are decent options and, most importantly, do not present the driver with unpleasant surprises in difficult conditions.

Three more tires earned a "Fair" rating after testing: Viking WinTech, Kumho WinterCraft WP52, and Maxxis Premitra Snow WP6, all of which performed poorly on dry asphalt. All tires have a sufficiently high resource, but this is not enough to compensate for the shortcomings that affect safety.

Finally, at the bottom of the rating, three tires with a "Poor" rating were placed, which are not recommended for purchase: Triangle WinterX TW401, Kenda Wintergen 2 KR501, and Davanti Wintoura+. All three have unbalanced characteristics, and, for example, Triangle and Kenda work quite well on snow, but at the same time, they are openly bad on wet asphalt (Kenda's braking distance from 80 km/h in similar conditions was 41.1 meters, while Pirelli's result was 34.2 meters). In turn, Davanti showed weak performance on all types of surfaces, and the relatively high resource is clearly a weak consolation.

Tires of size 215/55 R17 can be used on cars like Audi Q2, Hyundai Kona, Skoda Superb, Toyota Yaris Cross, Volkswagen Touran, etc.

Source (including photos): ADAC.