The editors of AutoBild focused on a total of ten tyres of different price classes in intensive practical tests. Mounted on a Jeep the candidates had to prove themselves on grass, gravel, mud and crushed rock. The Goodyear EfficientGrip 2 SUV drove to victory with “exemplary performance on all the different surfaces, sporty-dynamic dry handling, precise steering behaviour, short wet and dry braking distances” as well as “fuel-saving rolling resistance”.
Closely behind and in second place one could find the Michelin Primacy 4: “Outstanding performance on wet and dry roads, good safety reserves during aquaplaning, precise dry and wet handling”. There was only a little bit of criticism concerning an apparently “moderate traction on sand”. The Bridgestone Turanza T005 in third position got a lot of praise too (“dynamic handling with high steering precision on dry and wet roads, short dry braking distances, fuel-saving rolling resistance) and belonged to the trio of exemplary tyres. The testers mentioned “moderate grass traction” as only weakness.
Conti, Nokian and Falken are “good”
Continental’s PremiumContact 6 was the leader of the group of “good” rubbers. “An outstanding handling on all the surfaces” as well as “short dry and wet braking distances” was in opposite to “moderate traction on grass and crushed rock”. In the fifth position, the Nokian Wetproof SUV also received a “good” rating (“good safety reserves during aquaplaning, high traction on grass and crushed rock”; “slightly delayed steering reaction”) and so did the closely following Falken Ziex ZE310 EcoRun (“brand tread with balanced performance potential”; “moderate traction on crushed rock and mud”). Moreover, the test crew testified “increased rolling resistance” for both candidates.
“Satisfying” trio
An overall “satisfying” rating was achieved by the Maxxis Premitra 5 HP5 in seventh position (“best safety reserves during aquaplaning”; “understeering driving behaviour and delayed steering behaviour in wet conditions”), as well as by the BF Goodrich Advantage SUV (“high traction on gravel and mud”; “limited steering precision and feedback”) and the Toyo Proxes Comfort (“high traction on sand”; “moderate off-road capability”) both sharing the eighth position.
The Imperial EcoSport SUV was the only tyre in the test classified as “not recommendable”. AutoBild Allrad discovered “considerable weaknesses in wet conditions”, ”imbalanced oversteering wet handling” and “diffuse steering”.
