Top 5 Winter Tyres for 2011
This year’s Auto Bild tyre test looked at 12 premium winter/all-season 225/45 R17 tyres to see how they fare against snow, wet and dry roads, and comparing their performance with regard to wear rate, noise and comfort.
Here are the top 5 in order:
The top-scoring tyre was the Michelin Alpin A4, which had the best all round performance, excellent mileage, handling and ride comfort. It lost points with a slight weakness for aquaplaning but still came top of the tests.
In second was the Bridgestone Blizzak LM32, which provides fantastic grip on snow, and precise steering in both wet and dry weather. However it scored averagely for wear.
Next was the Dunlop SP WinterSport 4D tyre, which aced its snow performance tests and provides the shortest wet-breaking distance. Like the Michelin Alpins, its weaknesses lie in aquaplaning.
4th was the Goodyear Ultra Grip Performance 2, which give reliable and stable cornering and traction on snow, and excellent response on wet roads. Its negative points were that it is one of the noiser tyres with average wear.
And the Uniroyal MS plus 66 came in 5th, with good handling and cornering on snow, excellent value for money and decent mileage. It was marked down for its average performance on wet roads, however.
The lowest scoring tyre in the Auto Bild test was the one all-season tyre to compete – Goodyear’s Vector 4Seasons which provided only average ride quality and failed to match up with the snow performance of the winter tyres, despite having good handling and short braking distances (on dry roads) and being excellent value for money.
Which just goes to show that for winter conditions … you really need a winter tyre!
Grippy can provide full winter tyre fitting, wheel alignment and balancing to get your car winter-worthy this year.