Cars with 19-inch rims were still something special even ten years ago, but not these days. This size is standard for many manufacturers, particularly on their sportier models. Auto Bild Sportscars has selected 245/35 R19 for its summer 2025 test, a dimension that is a popular optional fitment for the now-retired Audi TT.
After conducting no less than six all-season and winter tyre tests in recent months, Auto Bild is well positioned to identify and acknowledge the tyre makers who have consistently produced safe, well-performing tyres. It has now done so, naming Pirelli its star amongst the all-season tyre makers for 2024/25 and Michelin the leading manufacturer of winter tyres. Continental and Goodyear also secure a podium place for both categories.
In its latest test, Auto Bild Sportscars fits ten brands of winter tyre in the size 235/35 R19 on a BMW M135i to assess their performance across a range of conditions. Testers Henning Klipp and Dierk Möller encountered significant progress in winter tyre technology, particularly in snow and ice performance, but their testing but also highlighted ongoing challenges for some brands of winter tyre in wet and dry conditions.
Sales of all-season tyres continue to grow, with these products finding favour with both private and fleet customers. For UK motorists, their appeal stems from the reality that the weather isn’t warm and sunny every day of the year; in other parts of Europe, all-season tyres offer an alternative to seasonal tyre swaps. But do all-season tyres meet the high expectations of performance car drivers? Auto Bild Sportscars has tested 11 brands of size 225/40 R18 all-season tyres to find out.
Who likes tyre tests? Continental does, and with good reason. Continental products have won seven of the nine European passenger vehicle tyre tests that we’ve encountered in recent weeks and achieved a none too shabby second place in the eighth. As for the ninth test, no Continental tyre took part, giving other brands a chance to get acquainted with the podium.
Tyres are much of a muchness these days, at least to look at. Auto Bild Sportscars laments that tyre brands are no longer easily identifiable by their tread patterns, as the diversity of former times has been replaced by a “yawning boredom in the uniformity of unimaginatively cut longitudinal groove patterns.” But an absence of aesthetic outliers doesn’t mean all tyres offer the same levels of performance or safety.
Winter tyres are niche products in the UK but make a lot of sense in particular situations. High-powered performance cars, for example, may benefit from the added grip that season-specific rubber provides. Auto Bild Sportscars has evaluated 11 brands of tyre in size 225/40 R18 to gauge performance in snowy, wet and dry conditions. Four tyres gain the motoring publication’s highest recommendation, but Auto Bild Sportscars also warns against bad eggs in the basket.
For its summer 2023 test, Auto Bild Sportscars lined up a baker’s dozen of size 225/40 R18 tyres and fitted them to a Toyota GR Yaris, a car that highlighted “both the sporting qualities and the weak points” of each and every candidate after “just a few bends” of track. When the dust & water spray had settled, five tyres proudly wore Auto Bild Sportscars’ top ‘exemplary’ rating.
When sharing the results of both its main summer 2022 test of 50 tyres and the performance-oriented Auto Bild Sportscars tyre test, esteemed European publication Auto Bild commented that the days of Chinese-made tyres failing these tests due to outdated technology are well and truly behind us. Auto Bild spoke about one product from China in particularly favourable tones.
With summer approaching, Auto Bild Sportscars has delivered a timely test of 15 tyre combinations. The publication examined 11 brands in the all-round size 225/45 R18 and four as a mixed 225/45 (front) and 255/40 R18 (rear) fitment, taking each set “to the limit and a bit beyond” with a series of tests in wet and dry conditions. The goal was to identify the “tops and flops” on the market this season.
After conducting no less than five comparative evaluations for various Auto Bild titles, testing specialists Dierk Möller and Henning Klipp possess a solid understanding of which all-season and winter tyres are worth recommending, and which aren’t. Auto Bild has presented a summary of Möller and Klipp’s testing for the current season in its 42/2021 issue and at the same time has named its leading manufacturers in the all-season and winter categories. Three brands occupy the podium’s upper step.
Performance car magazine Auto Bild Sportscars has evaluated a dozen brands in its 2021 winter tyre test, and also looked at an all-season tyre and a summer tyre for comparative purposes. It chose the front axle size 225/45 R18 and rear size 245/40 R18, testing these on a Mercedes C-Class for performance in dry, wet and snowy conditions.
The results of comparative tyre tests are a familiar site on the pages of Tyrepress.com during the autumn, with numerous motoring associations and publications releasing the results of their all-season and winter tests at this time of year. Hankook was present in many of these and victorious in two, the Auto Bild Sportscars winter test and Auto Bild Allrad all-season evaluation. UK site Tyre Reviews also gave the Hankook entrant is editor’s recommendation, exclaiming that the brand seems “to be on a roll at the moment.”
More than a year after its counterpart for conventional saloons came to market, Goodyear is introducing the UltraGrip Performance+ SUV. This new tyre range covers the growing SUV and crossover market by offering consumers a “technology-packed winter tyre that increases the versatility and contributes to the safety of their vehicles.”
Bridgestone is tickled pink that its new flagship performance tyre, Potenza Sport, has been named winner of Auto Bild sportscars’ 2021 summer tyre test. Scoring ahead of eight other brands of tyre, the Bridgestone Potenza Sport, tested on a Ford Mustang 5.0 in the size 265/35 ZR 20, gained the overall best score in the wet and top ratings on dry roads and was classed as ‘exemplary’ by the German magazine.
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