It’s 1973 and the tyre business in Europe is a very different and disconnected affair, with each national market a self-contained operation. For Jos Delcroix, this structure represented an opportunity, and in October of that year he founded Deldo, a company that has grown to become one of the largest tyre wholesalers in the region and an up-and-coming player worldwide.
AutoBild Allrad’s 2023 test of 10 all-season SUV tyres gave four tyres the top “exemplary” grade, with two joint-winners. In Germany, all-season tyres have grown with the most recent product generations’ improved technology, despite the traditional strength of its seasonal tyre change market. The magazine, one of Germany’s leading consumer automotive publications, said the top-ranking tyres in its latest test have “matured into true heroes of road traffic.” At the other end of the scale, three of the size 235/65 R17 108 V/W tyres were described as “not recommended”, while three other tyres gained “satisfactory” and “good” final verdicts. So which all-season products could AutoBild Allrad “unreservedly recommend” to motorists?
To put the weirdness of 2022 into perspective, consider that tyre wholesalers must contend with the impact of both rising costs and falling costs. And this contradictory situation is but one of a host of challenges in a year that tore up the rulebook. Antwerp-based wholesaler Deldo recently shared its experiences with us.
In its annual winter tyre performance survey, German motoring publication AutoBild narrows a wide field of 49 winter tyres and two all-season tyres with wet and snow braking measurements before conducting a full test of a range of characteristics. 19 tyres made it through to the 2015/16 season test, conducted using the tyre size 185/60 R15.
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AutoBild Allrad