Tyre News

Goodyear UK has put its Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-3 on TV. The campaign is set to reach 50 million impressions across UK drivers, including viewers on Quest, DMAX, Discovery Turbo, Eurosport and Food Network.

Hundreds of cars were denied an MOT this year because they were too dangerous – or too excessively dirty – to test. A Freedom of Information request to the DVSA revealed that in the first five months of 2023, more than 7,000 vehicles suffered an embarrassing “MOT refusal” – distinct from an MOT ‘fail’, since testers refused to test the vehicle in the first instance. Of that figure, 526 vehicles were ordered to turn around because they were simply “too dirty to examine.” Select Car Leasing made the FOI request for the top reasons for MOT refusals in 2023 between January and May 2023. 

300,000 tyres, 700 brands and 9 categories later it is virtually impossible to choose and outright winner. But the 2023 WhatTyre Tyre of the Year awards wouldn’t be what it is without, well, a flagship Tyre of the Year. So, a decision must be made, and this year Michelin’s CrossClimate 2 SUV is the worthy winner of our overall accolade. Before we get into the detail of why the Michelin CrossClimate 2 SUV has won, it is also worth setting that particular tyre’s victory in some overall context.

The sharp end of the performance tyre spectrum is the domain of the supersports or ultra-ultra-high performance (UUHP) tyre. Completely road legal but also designed to deliver superior performance on the track, these products are tasked with the weighty remit of providing a dynamic yet safe driving experience to the world’s most powerful cars in both wet and dry conditions. WhatTyre has identified five supersports tyres that excel at this.

With budget brands now accounting for 38 per cent of 17- and 18-inch tyre purchases in the UK, it is more important than ever to recognise products that deliver the handling and stopping performance required by executive and performance saloons. To identify our favourite Performance Tyres of 2023, WhatTyre has looked at the three most popular sizes for 17-inch and larger rim diameters, 225/45 R17Y, 225/40 R18Y and 205/45 R17W. As was the case in 2022, this year we have separated tyres aimed at the highest echelon of the performance car world into their own category – Supersports Tyres.

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.