TCS winter tire test reveals wet-road weaknesses
TCS tested 32 winter tires in two common sizes. The differences are particularly clear on wet roads.
TCS tested 32 winter tires in the 185/65 R15 88T/H and 225/50 R17 98V sizes and found major safety differences, especially on wet roads. The assessment used 19 criteria in the main categories of driving safety and environmental balance. The smaller size fits small cars including the VW Polo, Hyundai i20, Renault Clio, Citroën C3, Skoda Fabia and Toyota Yaris. In this class, TCS rates the Continental WinterContact TS 870 and the Michelin Alpin 7 as “highly recommended”. The Hankook Winter i*cept RS3, Linglong Sport Master Winter, Optimo Winter Touring OW41, Goodyear UltraGrip Performance 3 and GT Radial WinterPro2 Evo are “recommended”. A full stop from 80 km/h on wet asphalt shows how large the differences can be: the Bridgestone Blizzak LM 005 stops after 33.5 meters, while the Rockblade Rock 868S stops only after 51.4 meters. The difference is 17.9 meters; at the point where the car on Bridgestone tires has already stopped, the vehicle on Rockblade tires is still traveling at around 47 km/h. For the 185/65 R15 size, TCS also cites a comparatively low predicted average mileage of around 31,000 kilometers.
The larger 225/50 R17 98V size is used on models including the Audi A4 and A5, Skoda Octavia, Peugeot 3008 and 5008, as well as various BMW and Mercedes models. Here, TCS rates four tires as “highly recommended”, six as “recommended” and six as “not recommended”. The best results are achieved by the Pirelli Cinturato Winter 3 and Continental WinterContact TS 870, which perform well in both driving safety and environmental balance. The Goodyear UltraGrip Performance 3 and Michelin Alpin 7 are also “highly recommended”. The Bridgestone Blizzak 6, Hankook Winter i*cept RS3, ESA+TECAR Supergrip Pro2, Dunlop Winter, Vredestein Wintrac Pro+ and Yokohama BluEarth Winter V906 are rated “recommended”. TCS advises against the Falken Eurowinter HS02 Pro, Toyo Tires Observe EWS1, Tracmax Ice-Plus S210, Aptany RW211, Royal Black Royalwinter UHP and Sunwide Snowide, because all six achieve only inadequate results for driving safety. According to TCS, Falken and Toyo show clear weaknesses primarily on wintry roads, Tracmax and Aptany particularly on wet or wintry roads respectively; Royal Black and Sunwide have significant deficits on dry and wet roads. For buyers, TCS recommends tires with at least a “recommended” rating and advises replacement if existing winter tires have less than four millimeters of remaining tread.
