German Magazine annual winter tire test

[Yii]

Wow i was gonna get Blizzaks as well... i live in NYC and the snow here sometimes are tremendous but i have no idea what i should get? winter tires or ice and snow?

[AzNMpower32]

I do like the ContiWinterContact TS830s on my mom's 325i. A good well-rounded winter tire that's stable in the dry yet lots of (controlled) fun in the powdery stuff.

Unfortunately due to budget issues I'm probably going to have to stick it out with summer tires on my X3 this winter. Praying for no snow here in NC........

[MINIz guy]

I wanna try those Goodyear Ultra Grip WRT's now. Very reasonable price and might be better than Blizzak WS70's. Its got a cool tread pattern too but that isn't a deciding factor.

[snowsurfer]

also debating trying the good years...was there a link to the actual test somewhere? did I miss it?

[TriX5]

The test is printed annually in the German magazine Auto-Motor-und-Sport. I receive and read this in German.

Here is a link to the article, unfortunately it does not seem to contain the tables with results that came in the printed mag.

Großer Winterreifentest: Premium-Marke gleich Premium-Sicherheit? - AUTO MOTOR UND SPORT

[snowsurfer]

Is the ultra grip wrt and the ultra grip 8 the same thing is the 500 dollar question..

[snowsurfer]

Ended up getting a set of Blizzak DM-V1's we'll see how they do

[MINIz guy]

I bought General Altimax Artic's as they were available at my local ETD Discount Tire. Got through that nor-easter NJ had just fine which was especially important as I'm a volunteer firefighter for my town.

[TriX5]

The 2012 test was in the late September issue. Sorry for being late on the update but here goes in order of the test performance.

Highly recommended

Nokian WR D3 (won the test)
Continental Winter Contact TS850
Semperit Speed Grip2
Dunlop SP Wintersport 4D
Goodyear Ultragrip 8

Recommended

Toyo Snowprox S953
Michelin Alpin 4
Fulda Kristal Control HP
Pirelli Snow Control III

Somewhat recommended

Vredestein Snow Trac 3
Hankook Icept RS

NOT recommended

Bridgestone Blizzak LM 32
Nankang NK Snow SV-2


All those trumpeting the Nokian seem to be on to something. I drove ia couple of pretty bad winters on Contis and have very positive impressions from them. Goodyear is slipping a bit but still considered very good.

Bridgestone as always brings up the rear. My personal experience with B'Stones is very bad so I am not surprised they keep scoring poorly.

[AzNMpower32]

The problem is that more and more tire manufacturers are either reducing their US snow tire models or differentiating them to the point where it's hard to find the same model from Europe being sold in the US. I had quite a bit of trouble choosing my most recent purchase (Pirelli Ice & Snow) because Continental has essentially split apart its offerings (almost none of the ContiWinterContacts are available anymore) the remaining offerings from Dunlop and Nokian are bleedingly expensive for something I'll use 3 months a year.