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With starting fields of more than 50 tyres and two rounds of product evaluation, Auto Bild’s tyre tests count amongst the most thorough and authoritative in the business. Kumho is therefore justifiably proud that its Ecsta HS51 achieved outright victory in the Auto Bild 2021 summer tyre test.
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.
A set of UHP tyres can cost more than £1,000 or less than half that, but you get what you pay for. This is what Auto Bild Sportscars found in its 2021 summer tyre test – the pricier tyres finished towards the top of the results table, while the two cheapest tyre brands were also the worst performers.
Anyone who’s ever suggested that motoring magazines favour the same two or three brands in their tyre tests will be quietened by the results of the Auto Bild 2021 summer tyre test. The biggest names in the business needed to clear space on the top step of the winners’ podium for an ambitious competitor, while the runner-up Continental tyre was given a run for its money by its lower-priced sibling Semperit.
In its 2021 summer tyre test, Auto Bild Allrad looks at ten premium, mid-range and budget brands, products ranging in price from around £230 to £450 for a set of four. The test team was, by and large, impressed with the candidates’ performance and declared six of the test products either ‘exemplary’ or ‘good’. They declined to recommend just one tyre.
We’ll have to wait another fortnight to learn the winner of this year’s Auto Bild summer tyre test, but the motoring magazine has let the names of the finalists out of the bag. Of the more than 50 tyre brands that Auto Bild looked at – this year in size 205/55 R16 91V – just 20 remain for further, more intensive testing following the qualifying round. Hankook’s candidate tops the shortlist after achieving the best stopping distances in both the wet and dry braking tests.
Ten premium and mid-range brands of tyre show us what they can – and can’t – do in Autozeitung’s 2021 summer tyre test. This year the German motoring publication looks at size 225/40 R18, which is a dimension suited to around 60 vehicle models – including the new Seat Leon, which served as test vehicle.
The days are getting longer and the air outside less bitingly cold. Summer is on its way, and this also means that tyre testers have emerged from hibernation. The first comparative evaluation we’ve seen for the warmer months of 2021 comes from German car magazine Gute Fahrt, which tested the tyre size 245/40 R18 Y.
In December 2020 French group UTAC CERAM announced that it was buying British test specialists Millbrook, which also owns well-known tyre test centres such as Test World in Finland. The plan is to merge the two companies, creating “a market-leading group in vehicle testing, vehicle type approval and emerging technologies for autonomous, connected and electric vehicles”.
In addition to taking the honours in the Auto Express all-season tyre test here in the UK, the Continental AllSeasonContact is the top-performing all-season tyre in the latest tyre test from Slovakian car magazine Autozurnal. The publication rated the AllSeasonContact ‘very good’ in its joint test of winter and all-season tyres. The Bridgestone Blizzak LM005 gave the strongest winter tyre performance and Autozurnal also rewarded it with a ‘very good’ rating.
Nokian Tyres 2015-2016 board members are facing insider trading charges and the company faces a fine of up to 850,000 euros. At least that’s what the public prosecutor in Finland is demanding.
Introducing its 2020 all-season tyre test, Auto Bild Allrad comments that these particular products weren’t always highly regarded. Their reputation was tarnished with allegations of compromise; rather than a true alternative to summer or winter tyres, they were viewed as a choice best suited to drivers who demanded little from their tyres. In the words of the specialist 4×4 and SUV magazine, an all-season tyre “used to be a bad summer tyre and then, in the second half of the year, a bad winter tyre.” But its current test shows that the story is very different today.
When it comes to tyre testing, the Germans are in a class of their own. During the last few months, the country’s magazines and motoring clubs (together with their Austrian & Swiss counterparts) have put a total of 197 winter and all-season tyres through their paces. As many of the tested products are available here in Blighty, UK drivers also benefit from this methodical approach to finding the right tyre.
Finnish prosecutors have decided to press charges against six former members of the Nokian Tyres plc board as well as past president & chief executive officer Ari Lehtoranta; all were associated with the company in the period between 2015 and 2016. It additionally intends to impose a corporate fine upon the company, to a maximum of 850,000 euros. The prosecutor has also decided to press charges for suspected abuse of insider information against four persons who were employees of Nokian Tyres in 2015. In a statement supplied to Nasdaq Helsinki yesterday, Nokian Tyres stresses that “all persons charged deny their involvement in any criminal activity”
All-season tyres are growing in popularity, and suppliers of budget brands from the Far East account for a good share of sales within this segment. This trend has led some to ask whether budget all-season tyres are a good choice for motoring throughout the entire year.
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