Passenger Car Tyre Tests

2010 marks the start of the UK automotive magazine industry taking winter tyres seriously with the largest weekly magazine publishing the 2010 Auto Express winter tyre test.

Auto Express launched its interest of winter tyres with style, testing 6 premium winter tyres against 13 rigorous tests and included an all season and summer tyre for comparison. All tyres were tested in 205/55 r15 on a VW Golf.






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In 2010 Auto Motor Und Sport [AMS] visited Sweden to test ten 205/55 r16 winter tyres. On test were the usual mix of premium and mid range tyres, including the TyreReviews favourite Nokian WRG2.

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For the second time in 2010 EVO have published an excellent summer tyre test. The first test, published in July concentrated on a RWD MX5 running 205/45 17 tyres and was won by Continental with the ContiSportContact 3. In this tyre test EVO have used a Renaultsport Megane 250 Cup wearing massive 235/35 r19 tyres to test 9 ultra high performance / max performance tyres...







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Auto Bild are known for their excellent tyre tests, so when they take 14 winter tyres, 1 summer tyre and 13 different tests you know you're in for a good write up!

This year Auto Bild chose the 195/65 R15 tyre size and used a fleet of FWD VW Golfs as the test beds. All 6 premium tyre manufacturer were represented along with 4 mid range brand tyres (Vredestein, Toyo, Kumho and Firestone) and 4 budget brands.


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The European winter tyre test is the largest of the year, covering 28 tyres in 2 different sizes, 225/45 r17 and 185/65 r15.

This year the tests were more stringent than ever. Not only did the 28 tyres have their dry, wet, snow and ice grip tested but they were also scored on their wear, fuel consumption and comfort properties.

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Winter tyres are a hot subject at the moment, with new tests being released weekly. Usually winter tyre tests focus on the smaller tyre sizes winter tyres are often used in, meaning if you drive a performance car and are interested in ultra high performance winter tyres you have to hope the tyres tested in the smaller sizes have the same attributes in the larger sizes.

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This year the 2010 winter tyre reviews season was opened by Auto Zeitung who put 14 different 195/65 r15 winter tyres on a Ford Focus to the test.

The good news for UK drivers is that this years report included a slush test which rates how the tyres cope with the road surface when the packed snow is melting and it's a mix of snow and standing water.

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With fuel prices sky high, "Eco Tyres" (or ultra low rolling resistance tyres) are a hot topic. Traditionally eco tyres have been just like normal tyres only with a harder rubber compound. While this is an effective way to save fuel, the harder the tyres compound the less grip it produces meaning people were having to consider whether the risk of low grip tyres was worth the savings in fuel.

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This years Auto Express UHP Summer tyre test comes at a rather odd time - issue 1131 released 8th September. While it might have come at a time when the country is starting to think about winter tyres, Auto Express have still done an excellent job writing 9 pages dedicated to 12 performance summer tyres over 10 different disciplines. To carry out these tests Auto Express borrowed the Contidrom in Germany, a fleet of Skoda Octavia test cars wearing the optional 225/45 r18 sized tyres and purchased 2 sets of each tyres tested at random to ensure the manufactures didn't send "special tyres".

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Here are the results from the 2010 Autocar tyre tests for the RWD section of the test. To read commentary, and the results of the FWD tyre test click here

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It's always nice to have a tyre test from British Magazine, and this week the Auto Car have provided us with not one, but two excellent tests.

Testing both 205/55 r16 tyres on a FWD VW Golf and 225/45 r17 tyres on a RWD Mercedes C280, Auto Car visited Uvalde test track in Texas, USA to put the chosen tyres through seven different disciplines.

On test were tyres from Bridgestone, Continental, Dunlop, Goodyear, Michelin and Vredestein echoing Auto Cars message from 2008 - budget tyres aren't worth the risk, especially in a wet climate like the UK.

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Providing an enjoyable change from the usual Ultra High Performance tyre tests, Auto Zeitung have rated 10 Premium Touring tyres across the usual range of wet and dry tests. As with its other 2010 tyre tests, they have included a rolling resistance test ensuring the fuel economy of the tyre is included in the final score.

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This is part 2 of the 2010 European Summer Tyre Test - 185/65 r15. To read the reaction, and see the results of tyres sized 225/45 R17 please read Part 1
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Keen to help tyre buyers select the best tyre for the 2010 warm season, the German auto club ADAC, Switzerland's Touring Club (TCS) and Austrian magazine AMTC (Automobile, Motorcycle and Touring Club) have already published this years group summer tyre test. The usual dry and wet performance tests have been performed, along with scoring for fuel consumption, wear rates and tyre noise in this extremely comprehensive test.

Like the AMS tyre test the major brands have once again dominated the results table with Pirelli, Dunlop, Continental, Michelin, Bridgestone and Goodyear taking 10 of the top 12 positions.

Both Nokian and Hankook have once again proved their strength in the midrange category and finished the tests amongst the "big 6", where as the budget brands Goodride, Wanli and Sunny were described as being dangerous thanks to their woeful dry and wet performance.
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If you're interested in premium, ultra high performance sports tyres this is the tyre test to read. Germanys leading car publication Auto Bild has thoroughly tested no less than 7 premium ultra high performance road tyres on a 457bhp 6.3 litre Mercedes C63 AMG.

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In the past few years budget and mid range brands have taken the tyre market by storm. Tyres like the Falken FK452, Toyo T1R and Uniroyal Rainsport 2 have proven to be excellent performing and cost effective compared to some of the premium offerings. This year however, it seems the premium manufacturers have stepped up a notch and all released excellent updates to their ranges. The 2009 Auto Motor und Sport [AMS] tyre tests was dominated by premium brand tyres and AMS believe premium cars, like the Mercedes E-Class used in this tyre test, should be run with premium tyres.

Most tyre innovations come from the big 6 manufacturers and patents are quickly awarded stopping the budget manufacturers replicating their discoveries. Due to this, AMS decided to test tyres from what it considers to be the "top 10" premium manufacturers. The big 6 are Goodyear, Pirelli, Continental, Dunlop, Bridgestone and Michelin and also included in the test is Uniroyal who are part of Continental, Vredestein which have been recently been bought by the Indian giant Apollo Tires, Nokian who are an independent manufacturer from Finland and Hankook, a Korean "mid range" brand who are quickly moving into the premium sector.

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EVO magazine has a huge amount of respect in the industry, making their tyre test in 2007 one of the most talked about tyre tests of the year. Since 2007 the Germans have put out a number of excellent group tyre tests, but the pages of EVO have remained strangely devoid of the black boots. Thankfully this month that has all changed.

Feeling the high expectations the EVO writers selected 9 tyres to test and visited the Contidrome in Germany to put them through their paces over 9 different tests.

As EVO chose an MX5 as their test mule which has relatively small rear tyres (205/45 r17), the choice of high performance tyres was somewhat limited and the final mix a little bizarre.

Tyres on test:
- Bridgestone Potenza RE050A
- Continental Contisportcontact 3
- Hankook Ventus K12 EVO
- Kumho Ecsta LE Sport KU39
- Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2
- Uniroyal Rainsport 2
- Vredstein Ultrac Cento
- Yokohama Advan Neova AD08
- Zeetex HP103

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It might still be August, but after an unusually snowy start to 2010 talk has already turned to winter tyres in the UK.

While we're waiting for the magazines to put together their 2010 winter tyre tests, here's one of the more interesting articles from 2009. This test is particularly good as it uses a powerful RWD car (Mercedes SLK350) which wears relatively wide 225/45 r17 performance tyres.

Each of the 8 tyres were tested in the snow, on wet roads and in the dry with the scoring emphasis bias towards wet weather and snow performance (these are winter tyres after all!)

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The Continental Winter Contact TS 830 once again proves it's the snow king, scoring a massive 98 points out of the possible 100 in the snow tests. It also proves extremely strong in both the wet and dry road tests, meaning it really is a tyre you could use all year round. The Goodyear Dunlop brands have placed second and third respectively with the Goodyear Ultra Grip Perf 2 proving the strongest tyre in the wet and the Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D a good all round scorer.
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