Who is the winter king of Middle Europe? Continental WinterContact TS 870 vs Bridgestone Blizzak LM005

Continental WinterContact TS 870 vs Bridgestone Blizzak LM005: When it comes to the middle European winter tires, there are 2 big giants which dominates the market. As previously written before, both these products commands a win rate of 50% on whichever test they have participated. Continental’s TS 860 which has been a household name in this segment and has recently been upgraded to TS 870 in 2021. While its arch nemesis, Bridgestone’s Blizzak LM005 also made a name for itself in the press test arena with an equally impressive win rate was launch in 2019. Let’s compare them head to head and see who is really the middle European winter king. We will use the test magazine results of 2021 Auto Bild middle European winter tire test as our basis for comparison.

The graph above shows the comparison between WinterContact TS 870 vs Blizzak LM005. The WinterContact TS870 was set as a reference hence at the 100% mark. The tire size chosen for the test is the highly popular 205/55 R16 which is commonly used by Volkswagen Golf (2018) and the Toyota Corolla Altis (2018).

Snow

As the middle European winter is relatively mild compare to the Nordic regions, snow performance is of high importance as snow usually forms around 0 to 2°C. Things are neck and neck as TS870 was 1.4% ahead in snow braking but Blizzack LM005 was 2.1% better in snow traction. Both of them are equally good in snow handling as the margin was razor thin.

Blizzak LM005:

• -1.4% in snow braking
• +2.1% in snow traction
• -0.2% in snow handling

Wet

Apart from snow, the next big requirement is wet as it does rain quite often in middle Europe. This is where Blizzak LM005 truly shines with a huge 6.4% advantage in wet braking while also performing well in wet handling (+1.2%). It however was just slightly off in aquaplaning but the margin is quite minute (<1%)

Blizzak LM005:

• +6.4% in wet braking
• +1.2% in wet handling
• -0.7% in aquaplaning

Dry

While Blizzak LM005 was strong it wet, TS870 managed to edge its counterpart in both dry braking and dry handling.

Blizzak LM005:

• -1.9% in dry braking
• -0.7% in dry handling

Wear

Wear results are hard to come by as its a really expensive test but we were lucky enough that Auto Bild has included it into its testing portfolio. It was quite shocking to see Blizzak LM005 being down 30% in comparison to TS870. The Blizzak LM005 has an expected mileage of 31,300 km compared to the 45,400 km of the TS870. This is by far the biggest deficit among all the performed test.

Blizzak LM005:

• -31.1% in wear

Rolling Resistance

As both the tires have a label “C” rating, we would expect not a big difference when it comes to the rolling resistance test. Blizzak LM005 had a deficit of 2.9% compared to TS870.

Blizzak LM005:

• -2.9% in rolling resistance

Noise

Both tires were tested for external noise and they are were only separated by 0.5 dB with the Blizzak LM005 being slightly quieter than the TS870.

Blizzak LM005:

• +0.7% in noise & comfort

Price

Based on the test report, the prices of the tires were also noted down.

Tire size: 205/55 R16

Blizzak LM005: € 86

TS870 : € 95

Difference: -10% cheaper for Blizzak LM005

Summary

The Blizzak LM005 performed really well in snow traction, wet braking & wet handling while it is also 10% cheaper than the TS870. However the TS870 has a 30% advantage in wear and also have an edge when it comes to dry and snow traction. If you are looking for a strong wet tire which performs well in snow Blizzak LM005 would be your choice. On the other hand, if you are looking for a long lasting wear tire which could perform well in snow and dry, TS870 would be the right fit. There is no clear winner this time as both of them excels in different performance segments.