We name the top summer tyres

Ten of the best options put through an exhaustive test

JUST as last year, the Covid-19 pandemic meant we had to make changes to our annual test of the tyres that the majority of UK drivers will use all year round.

Testing summer tyres, as the rest of Europe calls them, is vital for Auto Express and we were determined to ensure you have all you need to know when it comes to choosing the best replacements for your car as mileages return to pre-pandemic levels. Travel restrictions meant we had to change the way we gathered our results, though, and with the help of Continental, all the objective tests were conducted by staff at its Contidrom facility near Hanover, Germany.

With restrictions still in place, we sought the help of an independent tyre tester in Germany, who has worked for many magazines and car makers, to do our wet and dry handling tests. We were also able to back up his results with our own assessment of the tyres once travel restrictions to Germany eased. We also had to change the way that we ensure you buy the tyres that we test. With a serious risk that the test may not take place at all, we asked makers to send tyres with the proviso that we would buy samples of the top finishers to ensure we were recommending production versions. The samples we bought of our top two matched the tyres supplied.

The big-selling 225/45 R17 size was our focus this time around. We last tested these in 2018, when Continental was the winner. Could it do the double with the same PremiumContact 6?