We tested ten winter tires for SUVs extensively on snow and ice, as well as on wet and dry surfaces. Which band performs the best overall?
In many cases cheap is expensive. This is often the case, but when it comes to purchasing a set of tires, that does not mean that buyers will immediately switch again if they are heavily disappointed with the performance of the rubber after driving a few hundred kilometers with a fresh set of tires. After all, who gets almost new tires from under a car and then invests a lot of money in tires of better quality that do perform well? Of course no one does. And that’s why a tire test like this one is so important. Because here you can read, for example, that you can save as much as € 385, or 63 percent, by not going for an expensive tire from Michelin, but choosing the low-budget tire from the largely unknown manufacturer Duraturn. But you also read clearly in this test that it is ultimately not such a good idea to choose a budget tire. The low purchase price of the Duraturn winter tire may be very attractive and while it delivers acceptable performance on snow, the braking distance on wet roads is an almost endless 58.5 meters with this tire. The cheap tire simply offers too little wet grip, so that even the effective ABS of the BMW X1 with which we conducted the tests can do little more. Compared to the best-performing tire on this test item, the Bridgestone, the extra braking distance is no less than 15.1 meters, or more than three car lengths. In other words: during an emergency stop at the end of a traffic jam, the cheap tires will hit the vehicle in front at a speed of 50 km / h. This not only costs a lot of money, it also causes a lot of stress and loss of time. Not to mention possible injury. With a good tire none of that would have happened, because that would probably have brought the car to a halt just in time.
So it is absolutely advisable to invest money in good tires. In this test, the tires of the brands Goodyear, Bridgestone, Michelin and Vredestein take the lead. If you choose these brands, you may pay between € 500 (Vredestein) and € 615 (Michelin) for a set of four tires, but that expenditure is certainly justified. This is not yet apparent in the tests on snow, because under those conditions the low-budget tires from Duraturn and Syron are also convincing. In our country, however, you rarely find snow and ice on the road in winter, you mainly drive on dry or wet roads. And under those conditions the wheat is separated from the chaff. Despite all the modern technology, it is still very difficult for tire manufacturers to find a rubber mix that offers good performance on snow and grip on wet surfaces at the same time.
The Goodyear Ultragrip Performance + performs best in this test. Not only do they provide good stability on snow, but they provide such a pleasant steering feel and such good braking performance on wet and dry roads that they also subjectively approach the driving feeling that summer tires offer. Because good quality winter tires are characterized by one characteristic: if there is no snow, you will not notice much difference with summer tires in terms of driving. In addition to the Goodyear, the Bridgestone Blizzak LM005, the Michelin Alpin 6 and the Vredestein Wintrac Pro are also rated ‘excellent’.
The complete Techzle SUV Winter Tire Test 2020 with all candidates and all measurement results, can be read this week in Techzle 45 (4-11 November), or is available digitally at the bottom of this article.
Price comparator
With the Techzle Car tires Price comparison we offer you a handy tool to find the best deals on winter tires. Currently, the price comparison site provides an overview of the full range of twenty different tire providers. All tire tests from previous years can also be found here.
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