summer tyres

To avoid surprises, best stick to the brands and products you know. This may well have been the auto motor und sport (AMS) approach to tyre testing recently, as the German publication selected products from the “eight most popular tyre brands” in its local market for its 2024 summer test. These are the Bridgestone Turanza 6, Continental PremiumContact 7, Falken Azenis FK 520, Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance 2 SUV, Hankook Ventus S1 Evo³ SUV, Maxxis Victra Sport 5 SUV, Michelin Primacy 4+ and Vredestein Ultrac.

The Bridgestone Turanza 6 summer touring car tyre is designed with regular motorists’ needs and expectations. Suitable for combustion engine-powered cars or the latest electric vehicles, the tyre harnesses Bridgestone’s efficiency and sustainability boosting Enliten technology to enhance battery range or reduce fuel consumption, while also offering “best-in-class” wet grip. The tyre builds on Bridgestone’s award-winning Turanza T005 and the T001 Evo, with a tyre well balanced for UK road conditions and the wide range of cars now on the country’s highways.

With the launch of two new products, Nokian Tyres is refreshing its summer tyre range. The Nokian Tyres Powerproof 1 and Wetproof 1 will debut in time for summer 2024 in a range of 99 car, CUV and SUV fitments for 15” to 20” rim diameters and T, H, V, W and Y speed ratings.

Around 35 million passenger car tyres are sold in the UK each year, depending on exactly what you include in your sums and which sources you consult. Whichever way you look at it, that’s a huge number of car tyres and most of them are what we call summer tyres. Despite the name, summer tyres are mostly used all year round. And that’s for two reasons: because we are a fairly temperate island; and because not everyone knows about the year-round benefits of all-season tyres (see separate section for more on those). Whatever you call them, summer tyres perform best when its warm, offer the best dry performance and typically last well. Many are also tweaked to offer strong performance in the wet too, something that is highlighted on the European tyre label as well as in magazine tyre tests.

Supercars may turn heads and hog the social media limelight, but it’s an army of humble hatchbacks and saloons that keep the country moving. These underappreciated vehicles need tyres that are all things to all people, delivering safe and efficient performance in a range of conditions and at an acceptable price. The summer tyre, we salute you, and in this category of the WhatTyre tyre of the Year Awards we celebrate the best of the bunch.

Safer, more comfortable, better performance. These three qualities are what Pirelli says drivers can now expect from its Scorpion range of SUV tyres following a recent revamp, which the tyre maker undertook to address anticipated global growth in SUV sales over the coming years.

In recent months almost 200 models and sizes of car and SUV tyre have been tested to see how they stop and handle, and how much efficiency and comfort they offer in the process. The results reflect the broad choice presently available to tyre buyers, with the test experts rating 41 of the products – including some affordably-priced models – as very good or even outstanding tyres. At the other end of the scale, they declined to recommend 16 tyres altogether.

Auto Bild Sportscars has marked the arrival of spring driving weather by testing 15 tyre combinations. The publication examined 11 brands in the all-round size 225/45 R18 and four as a mixed 225/45 (front) and 255/40 R18 (rear) fitment, taking each set “to the limit and a bit beyond” with a series of performance tests on wet and dry surfaces. The goal was to identify the “tops and flops” available for purchase this season.

Auto motor und sport (ams) now uses the adjective ‘phenomenal’ to describe the tyres that impress its testers the most, and the first product to gain this new top rating is a recent release from Goodyear. During testing for its 2022 summer test, ams found the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6 to be a tyre that delivers a balanced spectrum of performance. The ams testers particularly praised its precise and easily controllable handling on dry roads. “Goodyear’s newcomer convinces with much safety and top dynamics,” states the German motoring publication.