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Anyone searching for 205/55 R16 tyres online will be spoiled for choice. This tyre size has been a bestseller for many years, with popular compact cars such as the VW Golf, Audi A3, Vauxhall Astra and Seat Leon wearing 205/55 R16 tyres as standard equipment. The broad range of brands and models for this dimension can complicate the process of buying replacement tyres, but Auto Bild helps here with its 2024 summer tyre test.

The 205/55 R16 tyre size reigns as the top choice across Europe, especially popular among compact car owners like those driving VW Golf, Audi A3, and similar models. Recognising this trend, Auto Bild has opted for this size in its extensive 2024 summer tyre test. With 55 tyres under scrutiny, Auto Bild hasn't concluded testing yet but has given readers a taste of things to come with “noteworthy data” from initial wet and dry braking tests.

Auto Bild has shared the results achieved by the 20 finalists in its 2023 winter tyre test. While the motoring publication’s test team found that most of these size 225/45 R18 tyres offered “really good performance” when snow and ice were present, the situation changed somewhat in conditions that motorists more typically encounter. After experiencing “surprisingly large differences in performance potential” on wet and dry roads they awarded only three tyres their top ‘exemplary’ rating. One of the 20 receives a non-recommendation.

The Auto Bild tyre test team has been busy, and in addition to evaluating 35 all-season tyres they’ve put 54 winter tyres through their paces. After a preliminary round of testing – braking from 80km/h in the wet and from 50km/h on snow – 20 tyres continue on as finalists.

As promised, Auto Bild has subjected the 16 remaining tyres in its 2023 all-season test to further and more intensive scrutiny after booting out 19 products that didn’t make the grade in a preliminary round of wet and dry braking tests. The motoring publication’s expert testers gave five of these size 225/45 R17 tyres their highest recommendation – an ‘exemplary’ rating – and declared a further three ‘good’ tyres. The remaining eight finished testing with ‘satisfactory’ or ‘conditionally recommended’ ratings.

Auto Bild is limbering up to publish its 2023 all-season tyre test, which includes a total of 35 premium, mid-range and budget products in size 225/45 R17. As in other years, the German motoring publication has whittled down this broad field of contenders by evaluating the wet and dry braking of each and every tyre in a preliminary test round. This leaves just 16 finalists to slug it out.

Auto Bild has published the second-round results of its size 225/45 R18 summer 2023 tyre test. Well, sort of. We know where each of the 20 finalists finished and have gained insights into overall performance in wet and dry conditions, as well as their value for money. But the motoring publication is keeping its readers in suspense regarding scores for individual tests and will make these known in good time.

Sharing the results of both its main summer 2022 test of 50 tyres and the performance-oriented Auto Bild Sportscars tyre test, European publication Auto Bild wrote that the days of Chinese-made tyres failing such tests due to outdated technology are well and truly behind us. The magazine’s tyre testers were particularly impressed about one product from China and look forward to pitting it against the competition at a later date.

Each of the 21 tyres participating in round two of the Auto Bild summer tyre test has already proven its ability to stop without fuss on wet and dry roads. Auto Bild's testers now turn their attention to separating the great from the good and just okay. The publication honoured three of the size 215/55 R17 tyres with its top rating of exemplary. It rated a further seven tyres good and ten satisfactory. The last-placed tyre gains just a conditional recommendation.