Michelin and Bridgestone share honours in Tyre Reviews 2023 winter tyre test

Unusually, two tyres won this year’s Tyre Reviews winter tyre test – both the Michelin Alpin 5 and the Bridgestone Blizzak LM005. According to Tyre Reviews founder and head tester Jonathan Benson, “technically the Michelin Alpin 5 did pip the Bridgestone, but it was such a tiny margin I am calling them both test winners.”

The Michelin Alpin 5 was described as the “best in dry braking and dry handling, extremely good in the wet, best tyre overall in the snow” and offered the “highest levels of comfort”. Average rolling resistance, average aquaplaning resistance and “high levels of understeer in the dry” were this otherwise outstanding tyre’s negatives.

According to Benson, “The Michelin was almost untouchable in the snow, especially snow handling, and was untouchable in the dry and one of the best in the wet. It didn’t quite have the rolling resistance of the Bridgestone where it finished nearly 10 per cent behind, but in every other category this tyre performance was excellent. A hugely impressive tyre.”

For its part, Bridgestone’s Blizzak LM005 has once again come out on top in a winter tyre test – albeit a joint winner. Following success in WhatTyre’s Tyre of the Year 2023 awards earlier this year, Tyre Reviews found the LM005 to be the “best in wet handling and wet braking, good in the snow, high levels of comfort” and offering “very low rolling resistance.” Relative downsides included “extended dry braking and dry handling” as well as “average aquaplaning resistance”.

Nevertheless, “the Bridgestone Blizzak LM005 is an awesome tyre, it was the only tyre that could get close to the Continental’s rolling resistance levels and was the best tyre in the wet and one of the best in the snow, with excellent noise and comfort levels”, Benson observed, adding: “It wasn’t the best in the dry, but as it finished so well in almost every other category, the LM005 is proving to still be one of the best winter tyres on the market.”

At the other end of the spectrum, the Linglong-produced Leao Winter Defender UHP came 11^th and last place of the out-and-out winter tyres. Tyre Reviews cited “low rolling resistance” as its singular strength. But it also offered the lowest price point in the test as well.

However, with those two relative strengths also came the “worst grip in the dry, wet and snow”, something that resulted in “extremely long wet braking distances.” In other words, it wasn’t a surprise to that the lowest tyre tested also offered the worst performance, according to Jonathan Benson:

“Last place was the cheap tyre, its only redeeming quality was the price and the rolling resistance levels, but if you’re looking for good levels of grip in the dry, wet or snow, maybe pick another tyre from the results.”

In 12^th place the Hankook Kinergy 4S2, which is of course an all-season tyre and not an out-and-out winter tyre at all had the dubious honour of mixing it with the winter tyres. For this product, 12^th place is not last place because it was there to provide context to the other results and because it also offered some of the strongest performance in dry braking (2^nd) and wet braking (3^rd) not to mention roughly mid-table positions across the board.