Comparative tyre tests can cost thousands to perform and require the involvement of experts. Magazines and motoring associations therefore regularly collaborate with partners. This is the case for German company car magazine Firmenauto, which has based its latest winter tyre test upon auto motor und sport’s recent comparative evaluation. To give the test greater relevancy to its readers, Firmenauto added cost as a fifth test criterion.
Auto motor und sport has taken a look at winter tyres for compact SUVs in its latest comparative test. The tyre size it evaluated is 215/55 R17, a dimension worn by the VW T-Roc test vehicle as well as the Audi Q2, Fiat 500x, Hyundai Kona and others. The German magazine’s experts subjected 11 brands of tyre to various tests in wet, dry and snow conditions, with performance in each of these three areas contributing 30 per cent to the final result. The remaining ten per cent came from rolling resistance and tyre/road noise performance.
For its 2019 summer tyre test, Auto Motor und Sport (AMS) looked at 215/55 R17, a size favoured by compact SUVs. It tested 11 tyres on a VW T-Roc. What it found was a group of tyres that largely performed well, but failed to dazzle. None of the candidates received the German motoring publication’s top ‘highly recommended’ rating. The good news is, however, that no less than seven were ‘recommended’.
Debuting in 1946 and featuring US army runabout the Jeep in its first issue, auto motor und sport (ams to abbreviation-happy Germans) has grown into one of Germany’s leading motoring publications and a regular feature in the tyre testing landscape. After publishing its 2018 all-season test in the first half of September, ams has turned its attention to winter tyres.
Tyre testers have labelled all-season tyres a ‘compromise’ purchase in past years for their inability to deliver the performance of both summer and winter tyres whenever the weather snaps its fingers and demands this. In its evaluation of the current generation of all-season rubber, Germany’s auto motor und sport harbours no illusions that such a compromise still exists. It wanted to know, however, whether the compromise can be effectively reduced through considered choice of product – the answer, the publication shares, is that it can.
A total of 7.2 million readers in Germany have been asked to name the best oil brand, with Auto Bild, Auto Motor und Sport, Auto Zeitung and Motor Klassik all receiving Liqui Moly as the answer. “This clear vote is an award and an obligation at the same time,” says Ernst Prost, CEO of the company.
Following on from its double victory in Autozeitung’s size 225/45 R17 91/94 W/Y combined summer and all-season tyre test and the size 205/55 R16 V summer test conducted by the ADAC, Michelin recently enjoyed another win with Auto Motor und Sport (AMS). The Pilot Sport 4 was named victor in the test of 11 summer tyres published by the German car magazine late last month, the second consecutive year it has been bestowed this honour. Size 225/45 R17 94Y was the selected dimension for the AMS comparative evaluation and an Audi A3 served as test vehicle.
The outcomes of comparative tests published by car magazines and motoring associations influence many drivers’ purchasing decisions. Tyre tests are no exception here, and therefore the pride Goodyear shows in its tyres’ test performance is understandable. The tyre maker reports that, in 208 magazine tyre tests carried out by 37 well-known European publications and organisations over the past five years – including Auto Express, ADAC, Auto Bild, Auto Bild Allrad, Auto Zeitung, Gute Fahrt, Auto Moto and ACE/GTÜ – Goodyear tyres were recommended in more than 80 per cent of them. Goodyear was named test winner in 43 of these tests.
Alain Prost believes that allowing Formula 1 teams to combine different compound tyres on the same car, and giving them the option to compete without switching to a different compound, would make for a race with more surprises and greater freedom for drivers. But Pirelli isn’t having any of this. Pit stops are viewed as integral to the F1 spectacle, and the F1 tyre supplier dismisses the mixing of tyre types as impractical.
The 2017 summer tyre test season is over and the winners and losers have been determined. While the winter tyre tests last autumn were dominated by a handful of premium manufacturers, most notably Continental, during the current test season the products from many more tyre makers gave convincing results. Falken, Fulda, Toyo and Vredestein are […]
Following its test of all-season SUV tyres, German car magazine auto motor und sport (ams) has now turned its attention to dedicated winter tyres. The same model vehicle, an Opel/Vauxhall Mokka, saw service once again as test car for the comparative evaluation of ten size 215/60 R17 H/V winter products. The tyres were tested for snow, wet and dry performance, with each of these counting 30 per cent towards the final score, with the remaining ten percent reserved for environmental criteria.
A recent comparative test of all-season tyres from Germany suggested these products deliver less than optimal performance when driven on dry roads. The question of all-season versus dedicated seasonal fitments has once again arisen in the latest tyre test from auto motor und sport magazine. In this evaluation of four size 215/60 R17 H/V tyres – the sort of rubber often found on SUVs such as the VW Tiguan, Skoda Yeti or Vauxhall Mokka (which served as test vehicle) – only one protagonist gained the top ‘recommended’ rating.
Mixed results are the order of the day in a test of nine tyres for compact SUVs published by ‘auto motor und sport’. The German motoring magazine fitted the size 215/60 R17H tyres to an Opel Mokka and evaluated them for wet and dry performance as well as comfort and environmental criteria. The Goodyear EfficientGrip SUV narrowly beat the Continental PremiumContact 5 to snatch test the winner’s garland; both tyres were rated ‘highly recommended’, as were the Michelin Primacy 3 and Pirelli Scorpion Verde.
If the latest tyre test published by auto motor und sport teaches us one thing, it is that consumers shouldn’t blindly trust the European tyre label. The German magazine tested nine highly-ranked summer tyres, yet some of the test results were at odds with the figures printed on EU tyre labels. The Kumho tyre – which achieved an ‘A’ label rating for wet grip – effectively failed the test, while the Bridgestone participant was only ‘conditionally recommended’. Auto motor und sport awarded top test honours to Continental’s SportContact 5.
The latest edition of Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport contains its annual summer tyre test, and 2014 is something of a jubilee year – the magazine published its first tyre test exactly 50 years ago, a test that pitted modern radials against conventional cross-ply tyres. This year’s winner in the size 205/55R16V comparison – a size unimaginable half a century ago – is the ContiPremiumContact 5. Tyres that were “recommended” include (in order) the Uniroyal Rainsport 3, Pirelli Cinturato P7, Dunlop Sport BluResponse, Toyo Proxes CF2, Hankook Ventus Prime 2 and Michelin Energy Saver+. The Premiorri Solazo and – surprisingly and disappointingly – the Bridgestone Turanza T001 were only “conditionally recommended”. The Westlake Radial RP 18 and GT Champiro VP1 E/C were labeled “not recommended”. The tyres were tested fitted to a VW Golf.
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