2017 Winter Tire Tests

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I've seen Subarus with all-seasons climb the steep hills that my FWD with winters (including at that time, Nokian Hakka RSI tires) could not. That's when I had to chain up to make it up the steep hill that gets me to my house. Getting back down to the main road, even with top of the line winter studless tires at that time, it was scary going down the steep hill (even the township plows crash), which tire chains gave the control needed to not poop my pants.

I passed Subarus on mountain passes here in CO with my VW CC equipped with Bridgestone LM-60. Not sure how their tires were, but they were slower. I remember once driving thru blizzard over pass that leads to WInter Park, when they shut down I70, and only AWD with snows were faster.
But, yeah, good all seasons, and AWD should be better going forward. Problem is: what goes up, needs to come down! 99% of accidents happen not because someone could not go forward, but because they lost control in the curve or could not brake.
 
Originally Posted By: edyvw
Quote:
I've seen Subarus with all-seasons climb the steep hills that my FWD with winters (including at that time, Nokian Hakka RSI tires) could not. That's when I had to chain up to make it up the steep hill that gets me to my house. Getting back down to the main road, even with top of the line winter studless tires at that time, it was scary going down the steep hill (even the township plows crash), which tire chains gave the control needed to not poop my pants.

I passed Subarus on mountain passes here in CO with my VW CC equipped with Bridgestone LM-60. Not sure how their tires were, but they were slower. I remember once driving thru blizzard over pass that leads to WInter Park, when they shut down I70, and only AWD with snows were faster.
But, yeah, good all seasons, and AWD should be better going forward. Problem is: what goes up, needs to come down! 99% of accidents happen not because someone could not go forward, but because they lost control in the curve or could not brake.


YOu must of missed the part about going back down, which even the best studless tires at that time I spent the extra money on, gave zero control, as there was zero grip with the tires on packed snow. Where chains provided the control needed do venture back down to the main road. Which is why I always carry chains with me, even with winter tires.

Certain brands of tire focus on lateral grip of the tire in snow/ice, namely Nokian. They may give up some straight line grip, in exchange for lateral grip.
 
I agree that going down can be interesting too. When our long driveway has become an ice rink, I've used the AWD/4Wd to stick one side of the car in/on the snowbank and drive down that way which is something you can't do with fwd. I've never had been on a public road where I had to resort to that trick though, there has always been some section of the road and shoulder that has enough traction to maintain control with snow tires. Once its that icy though I normally stay home as there's other drivers with worse equipment and skills out there.
 
Originally Posted By: UG_Passat
Originally Posted By: edyvw
Quote:
I've seen Subarus with all-seasons climb the steep hills that my FWD with winters (including at that time, Nokian Hakka RSI tires) could not. That's when I had to chain up to make it up the steep hill that gets me to my house. Getting back down to the main road, even with top of the line winter studless tires at that time, it was scary going down the steep hill (even the township plows crash), which tire chains gave the control needed to not poop my pants.

I passed Subarus on mountain passes here in CO with my VW CC equipped with Bridgestone LM-60. Not sure how their tires were, but they were slower. I remember once driving thru blizzard over pass that leads to WInter Park, when they shut down I70, and only AWD with snows were faster.
But, yeah, good all seasons, and AWD should be better going forward. Problem is: what goes up, needs to come down! 99% of accidents happen not because someone could not go forward, but because they lost control in the curve or could not brake.


YOu must of missed the part about going back down, which even the best studless tires at that time I spent the extra money on, gave zero control, as there was zero grip with the tires on packed snow. Where chains provided the control needed do venture back down to the main road. Which is why I always carry chains with me, even with winter tires.

Certain brands of tire focus on lateral grip of the tire in snow/ice, namely Nokian. They may give up some straight line grip, in exchange for lateral grip.

I am going to get brain aneurism.
 
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
I agree that going down can be interesting too. When our long driveway has become an ice rink, I've used the AWD/4Wd to stick one side of the car in/on the snowbank and drive down that way which is something you can't do with fwd. I've never had been on a public road where I had to resort to that trick though, there has always been some section of the road and shoulder that has enough traction to maintain control with snow tires. Once its that icy though I normally stay home as there's other drivers with worse equipment and skills out there.

Who says that? I regularly used FWD cars to gain traction like that. Bit of engine brake, tap brakes, and you are down.
 
New tires vs Tires used for 10,000km:

Quote:
...For testing, the testers took all-season tires Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-2 and Michelin CrossClimate size 205/55 R16 and installed them on two identical VW Passat cars. After that, in these all-weather periods, it was "wound up" over 10,000 km in summer weather conditions…The tread depth of the tested tires during the summer season decreased by 1.6 mm…

...All the test disciplines were conducted in the fall of 2016....A big surprise was waiting for the testers in the tests on the braking efficiency from the speed of 50 km / h in compacted snow... Both tested worn models braked faster than their new counterparts: Goodyear - 31.1 m instead of 32.5 m, and Michelin 34.5 m instead of 38.8 m…

...when measuring the length of the braking distance from a speed of 100 km / h on a wet road, it turned out that the braking efficiency of worn-out Michelin CrossClimate tires (62.1 m) is far from the results of the new tires of the same model (57.5 m). At the same time, the length of the braking distance of the worn-out tires of the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-2 (57.0 m) by 4.7 m was shorter than that of the new tires (61.7 m)…



https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fshina.guide%2Fpress%2F12059%2F%23more-12059&edit-text=
 
Nokian will not be very happy with the test results coming from the annual winter tire tests done by Test World in Ivalo, Finland.

http://www.testworld.fi

The results are available in several foreign language publications.

The Norwegian website NAF is one source, but (free?) registration is required to see the data.

https://www.naf.no/forbrukertester/dekktester/vinterdekktest-2017/

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.naf.no%2Fforbrukertester%2Fdekktester%2Fvinterdekktest-2017%2F&edit-text=

Continental had the top overall scores for both studded and studless tires. Neither of them is available in the USA. Continental does not like to sell their best winter tires in the USA.

Nokian came in 3rd in both categories. Not an impressive debut for the new studded Hakka9, which was beaten by a Hankook studded tire. The 3rd place Nokian R2 was outscored by the Sava Eskimo Ice tire.

Quote:
...Two affordable tires from Poland and South Korea are the big surprises in this year's test. Test winners are the traditional brands...

...this year, German Continental comes out on top. Continental IceContact 2 is a clear winner among the studded tires, with top marks in most of the disciplines we've tested on snow and ice. The tire also scores well on wet asphalt.

...Korean Hankook Winter I* Pike RS + comes surprisingly as number two among the studded tires, and loses to Continental because of slightly longer braking on ice. But the tire is very good and scores clearly higher than Nokian and Goodyear. Among the non-studded tires, Continental ContiVikingContact 6 is the clear winner of the test, not least thanks to surprisingly good braking properties on ice and good grip sideways…

...All tires are purchased, when possible, from the store. In this way, we ensure that manufacturers can not specially produce tires for the test that will perform well. When new models are not yet for sale, we pick test tires at the manufacturer, but buy new sets of tires when they come to the store and perform check tests to see that the tires have similar performance.

It is easy to think that NAF is "bought and paid" in this test, but this is incorrect. Firstly, NAF has no special interest in favoring certain brands, and more players than NAF carry out the test...
 
The studless tires, from NAF report (poeng = points):

Continental ContiVikingContact 6, 8,1 poeng
Sava Eskimo Ice, 7,6 poeng
Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2, 7,5 poeng
Goodyear Ultra Grip Ice 2, 7,5 poeng
Michelin X-Ice XI3, 7,4 poeng
Hankook Winter I*Cept IZ2, 7,4 poeng
Bridgestone Blizzak WS80, 7,2 poeng
Pirelli Ice Zero FR, 7,1 poeng
Landsail Winter Lander, 6,7 poeng
Linglong Green-Max Winter Ice I-15, 6,3 poeng
Nankang Ice Activa Ice-1, 6,2 poeng

The Top Eleven studded tires:

Continental IceContact 2, 8,8 poeng
Hankook WinterI*Pike RS+, 8,7 poeng
Nokian Hakkapeliitta 9, 8,4 poeng
Goodyear Ultragrip Ice Arctic, 8,3 poeng
Pirelli Ice Zero, 8,3 poeng
Vredestein Wintrac Ice, 8,2 poeng
Yokohama Ice Guard, 8,2 poeng
Bridgestone Noranza 001, 8,1 poeng
Gislaved NordFrost 200, 8,1 poeng
Sava Eskimo Stud, 7,6 poeng
Michelin X-Ice North 3, 7,6 poeng
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: SubLGT
Nokian will not be very happy with the test results coming from the annual winter tire tests done by Test World in Ivalo, Finland.

http://www.testworld.fi

The results are available in several foreign language publications.

The Norwegian website NAF is one source, but (free?) registration is required to see the data.

https://www.naf.no/forbrukertester/dekktester/vinterdekktest-2017/

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.naf.no%2Fforbrukertester%2Fdekktester%2Fvinterdekktest-2017%2F&edit-text=

Continental had the top overall scores for both studded and studless tires. Neither of them is available in the USA. Continental does not like to sell their best winter tires in the USA.

Nokian came in 3rd in both categories. Not an impressive debut for the new studded Hakka9, which was beaten by a Hankook studded tire. The 3rd place Nokian R2 was outscored by the Sava Eskimo Ice tire.

Quote:
...Two affordable tires from Poland and South Korea are the big surprises in this year's test. Test winners are the traditional brands...

...this year, German Continental comes out on top. Continental IceContact 2 is a clear winner among the studded tires, with top marks in most of the disciplines we've tested on snow and ice. The tire also scores well on wet asphalt.

...Korean Hankook Winter I* Pike RS + comes surprisingly as number two among the studded tires, and loses to Continental because of slightly longer braking on ice. But the tire is very good and scores clearly higher than Nokian and Goodyear. Among the non-studded tires, Continental ContiVikingContact 6 is the clear winner of the test, not least thanks to surprisingly good braking properties on ice and good grip sideways…

...All tires are purchased, when possible, from the store. In this way, we ensure that manufacturers can not specially produce tires for the test that will perform well. When new models are not yet for sale, we pick test tires at the manufacturer, but buy new sets of tires when they come to the store and perform check tests to see that the tires have similar performance.

It is easy to think that NAF is "bought and paid" in this test, but this is incorrect. Firstly, NAF has no special interest in favoring certain brands, and more players than NAF carry out the test...



Sava Eskimo was always strong hard core winter tire. It is Slovenian company, subsidiary of Good Year. I had their Sava Eskimo S3, and hardly anything goes thru snow like that tire. On other hand, hardly anything is as bad in dry as that tire.
 
Originally Posted By: SubLGT
Nokian will not be very happy with the test results coming from the annual winter tire tests done by Test World in Ivalo, Finland.

http://www.testworld.fi

The results are available in several foreign language publications.

The Norwegian website NAF is one source, but (free?) registration is required to see the data.

https://www.naf.no/forbrukertester/dekktester/vinterdekktest-2017/

..


An English language summary of the test results (but without the data tables) can be found here:

http://www.skstuds.ca/2017/10/11/enter-hakka-9-the-2017-naf-winter-tire-test/#more-1070
 
Originally Posted By: SubLGT
From the UK publication Auto Express is this test of performance winters.


What I draw from that is not how good the top couple tires are..

Its the fact that between 1st and 8th there was a 4% difference... that means they were all pretty darn good.

I just wish we could get some of those tires here.. esp. the ts860 or dunlop. I would have put them on my subaru(s) in a second.
 
From VTI (Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute)

https://www.vti.se/en/news/major-test-a-lot-to-think-about-when-choosing-winter-tyres/

Quote:
VTI tested the grip performance of 50 worn winter tyres on snow and ice. The aim of the study was to determine how the ability of the various types of winter tyres to grip the road degrades with age and wear. Comparing studded and non-studded winter tyres was emphasised. Twenty-seven completely new tyres were tested in addition to worn ones. All the tyres were tested on level ice and packed snow…The tyres were divided into three main categories: studded tyres, non-studded tyres of the Nordic type, and non-studded tyres of the Central European type….

Brake tests on smooth ice in VTI’s tyre testing facility indicated, among other things, the following:

New tyres: Nordic non-studded tyres yielded 25% longer braking distances than did studded tyres. European non-studded tyres yielded roughly 50% longer braking distances than did studded tyres.

Worn tyres: The worn studded tyres yielded roughly 25% longer braking distances than did the new studded tyres.

Worn tyres: Nordic non-studded tyres yielded roughly 10% longer braking distances than did [Nordic] studded tyres. European non-studded tyres yielded roughly 30% longer braking distances than did studded gyres…

The differences between the tyre types diminish when they are worn but, despite major deterioration, worn studded tyres still clearly grip the ice better than do worn non-studded tyres. In these tests, the worn European tyres performed on par with summer tyres that were several years old. In terms of their grip on snow, the differences between the different types of winter tyres are smaller on snow than on ice. Tests of worn tyres indicate that the European tyres lose the most in terms of performance...
 
In the Tenikens Varld test, the Nokian R2 had the highest score among the studless tires for braking on ice, and controllability on ice.

This superior ice traction comes at a price however, in terms of wet pavement traction.

It scored 17th out of all 18 tires tested in wet braking, and scored 18th place in aquaplaning resistance.

The top aquaplaning score was won by the Conti TS860, which began to aquaplane at 77.7 km/hr, versus the R2, which began to aquaplane at 52.0km/hr. The Michelin Xi3 began to aquaplane at 56.2 km/hr.

No slush-planing test was performed.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: SubLGT
In the Tenikens Varld test, the Nokian R2 had the highest score among the studless tires for braking on ice, and controllability on ice.

This superior ice traction comes at a price however, in terms of wet pavement traction.

It scored 17th out of all 18 tires tested in wet braking, and scored 18th place in aquaplaning resistance.

The top aquaplaning score was won by the Conti TS860, which began to aquaplane at 77.7 km/hr, versus the R2, which began to aquaplane at 52.0km/hr. The Michelin Xi3 began to aquaplane at 56.2 km/hr.

No slush-planing test was performed.

Of all winter tires I had Continetal TS were by far the best! I had TS 780, 810, 830 and 850 on my cars in Europe and compare to other winter tires I had there and here in the U.S. they are by far the best. They do everything good, from deep snow, to dry and wet performance.
I just placed order for Nokian R2 for my Tiguan, so we will see how they do. I had WR series in Europe, and they could not compare seriously to Continental.
 
Originally Posted By: edyvw
...I just placed order for Nokian R2 for my Tiguan, so we will see how they do….


Are you getting the "R2 SUV" ? According to Consumer Reports testing, it has substantially better hydroplaning resistance than the "R2", and shorter wet braking. Not surprisingly, the better wet traction comes at the expense of longer braking distances on ice (rated "good", instead of "excellent"), compared to the R2.
 
Originally Posted By: SubLGT
Originally Posted By: edyvw
...I just placed order for Nokian R2 for my Tiguan, so we will see how they do….


Are you getting the "R2 SUV" ? According to Consumer Reports testing, it has substantially better hydroplaning resistance than the "R2", and shorter wet braking. Not surprisingly, the better wet traction comes at the expense of longer braking distances on ice (rated "good", instead of "excellent"), compared to the R2.

Sorry for not being more detailed, yes it is R2 SUV.
 
when buying winter tyres be aware that some brands have harder "rubber" under the high traction softer winter outer + they loose a LOT of traction when worn in but legally not worn out!!
 
Originally Posted By: benjy
when buying winter tyres be aware that some brands have harder "rubber" under the high traction softer winter outer + they loose a LOT of traction when worn in but legally not worn out!!


That's a characteristic of Bridgestone Blizzaks WS and DM series. The LM's are a high silica winter compound throughout the tread.
 
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