New winter tyres review...

[Mercy1]

Anyone interested in an up to date WINTER tyre comparison may be interested in this week's Autoexpress. Tyres on test are Contis, Goodyear, Pirelli, Michelin, Hankook, Vredestein, Nankang and Dunlop - including a comparison with a summer tyre...

 

[Mercy1]

...sorry, left Kumho off the list (but if you have bought them, you won't want to know anyway!!)

 

[DSM10000]

The new Dunlops look like a very good overall package.

 

[PXW]

The new Dunlops look like a very good overall package.

Yes, was tempted by those based on the good results for their predecessor, but with no independent test results available at the time I ordered, I went for the Conti TS830s.

 

[Stratman]

It's here.

Do bear in mind the test was done "With the help of Continental", whose tyres by sheer coincidence scored 100/100

 

[wemorgan]

Of the winter tyres: Best 100, worst 93.5.

So were all those tyres much of a muchness or were the tests not able to differentiate between a premium and budget winter tyre?

What I mean is, the way budget tyres are spoken about I would have expected them to have been significantly worse, but 7% is slight in my view.

Conclusion: Budget winter tyres are as safe as all season tyres OR All season tyres are as dangerous as budget winter tyres

 

[Mercy1]

Of the winter tyres: Best 100, worst 93.5.

So were all those tyres much of a muchness or were the tests not able to differentiate between a premium and budget winter tyre?

What I mean is, the way budget tyres are spoken about I would have expected them to have been significantly worse, but 7% is slight in my view.

Conclusion: Budget winter tyres are as safe as all season tyres OR All season tyres are as dangerous as budget winter tyres

...and in snow all are a sight better than summers...

 

[rf065]

Not really any surprises to be honest, 4 good quality winter tyres at the top, budget winter tyre (Nankang) way behind amongst the all seasons which are jack of all trades, masters of none.

And bringing up the rear, the summer tyre with a positively lethal score of 60 compared to the 90 - 100 the rest scored.

Russ

 

[grober]

No Vredestein TRUE winter tyre just their "all season" No Nokians either and where is the Michelin Alpin 4 individual review? Mmmmmm.

 

[wemorgan]

Russ: Interesting conclusions you make. I'm not trying to say who's right or wrong here. But when you say the Nankang is way behind at 93.5, at what score would you say it would be near enough to be comparable to the premium tyres? I interpreted 7% as quite a narrow spread of results.

I was also supervised how close the all season tyres were to the winter tyres.

I'd go further and say there is probably a greater variation in driver skill in snow conditions than senn in those tyre tests.

 

[Troon]

Haven't we just wound down a thread on "discussing" the merits of winter tyres? Let's not start that again.

Good to see the Hankook's do well. I've just had those fitted, and am looking forward to trying them out in the snow. They seem very noisy, but I think I've got suspension problems that may be to blame - certainly worn ball joints and a leaky caster arm bush. Incidentally, the unseasonal heatwave we had at the end of September was directly caused by me switching to all-season tyres...

 

[rf065]

Russ: Interesting conclusions you make. I'm not trying to say who's right or wrong here. But when you say the Nankang is way behind at 93.5, at what score would you say it would be near enough to be comparable to the premium tyres? I interpreted 7% as quite a narrow spread of results.

Although 7% sounds close, this is the reality of such a small percentage,
Nankang review,

"While it was better than the summer Conti on the snow handling track – at least it made it round – it didn’t offer the grip of the other winter tyres, with the nose easily pushing wide and wheels spinning under acceleration.There was a similar lack of grip in the wet,"


The summers at 60% could not even complete a lap, defeated by the first slope.


Russ

 

[wemorgan]

It seems the words are more telling than the scores alone. I think Autoexpress need to revise their scoring system or make the words match the flavour of the scores.

 

[Mercy1]

No Vredestein TRUE winter tyre just their "all season" No Nokians either and where is the Michelin Alpin 4 individual review? Mmmmmm.

The Michelin Alpin 4 was there and placed 4th. There is more detail on individual reviews in the mag than there is on the website.

My own conclusion from the survey is that some winter tyres fared better than others in demanding tests (as you would expect), but the percentage difference was not that great, and they were ALL far superior to summer tyres where it will matter... snow braking, snow traction and snow handling.

So it ought to follow that in the white stuff all of us with winter tyres of whatever make will be pretty impressed!!

 

[rf065]

No Vredestein TRUE winter tyre just their "all season"

I have seen winter tests where they have stated that the Vredestein Wintrac Xtreme would have been the recommended choice but due to the difficulty of sourcing them they could only recommend tyres which were readily available.

Also seen a few tests for Michelin Alpins and Nokians GR2's which were only given average marks for snow, so no guarantee that they would have scored higher either.

Russ

 

[grober]

I have seen winter tests where they have stated that the Vredestein Wintrac Xtreme would have been the recommended choice but due to the difficulty of sourcing them they could only recommend tyres which were readily available.

Also seen a few tests for Michelin Alpins and Nokians GR2's which were only given average marks for snow, so no guarantee that they would have scored higher either.

Russ

One thing missing from the survey are the prices! While these have perhaps have no influence on tyre performance they may heavily influence purchase. E.g. would you buy an "adequate" performance [ i.e. by definition far superior to any summer tyre] winter tyre over a "top" performer winter if it was half the price [ and looking at Mytyres that's not that far off an approximation ] sort of law of diminishing returns arguement?

 

[moonloops]

Now you know not to always trust magazine tests/reviews. I bet continental had a few big adverts in that edition of auto express

 

[GP801]

Now you know not to always trust magazine tests/reviews. I bet continental had a few big adverts in that edition of auto express

No ad in my copy but there is for Vredestein.
Just this week sourced winter tyres for the SLK. It was unusable in the snow last year and I have a spare set of wheels. Could only find 2 types in the right sizes Kumho at £438 fitted or Dunlop at £720 + fitting. The car does very few miles but is vital for my wife's work in the NHS. Went with the Kumhos on the basis that they may not be the greatest winter tyres they will be vastly better than the summer tyres were last year.
Interestingly the CLK was fine last year running on the same size summer tyres.

 

[Mercy1]

No ad in my copy but there is for Vredestein.

Why would they bother, with free publicity across 12 pages ??

One thing missing from the survey are the prices!

For what it's worth, the website version is only a summary. The mag version does quote all the prices.

 

[Stratman]

You can get the full test, including the price for a 225/45R17, by clicking on the individual tyre names in the pale blue box top right