A middle European winter battle: Continental WinterContact TS 870 vs Michelin Alpin 6

Continental WinterContact TS 870 vs Michelin Alpin 6: No press test can be fully completed without facing off the undisputed tire technology leader Michelin. After beating its nearest challenger Bridgestone Blizzak LM005, TS 870 face its toughest challenge against Alpin 6 which was launched in 2018. Let’s compare them head to head and see who whether TS 870 can maintain its status as 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 Continental WinterContact TS 870 vs Michelin Alpin 6. TS 870 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. Alpin 6 was clearly lacking when it comes to snow braking (-5%) however it was just slighly better when it comes to snow traction. While in snow handling Alpin 6 was 1% slower than TS 870. Overall the snow TS 870 is the best snow performing tire with an outstanding snow braking.

Alpin 6:

• -5% in snow braking
• +1% in snow traction
• -1% in snow handling

Wet

Apart from snow, the next big requirement is wet as it does rain quite often in middle Europe. Unlike Blizzak LM005, Aplin 6 wet performances lack of TS 870 in all wet categories. Slight marginal differences in wet braking and handling while the biggest deficit comes in aquaplaning (-5%)

Alpin 6:

• -2% in wet braking
• -1% in wet handling
• -5% in aquaplaning

Dry

With disappointing results in both wet and snow performances, Alpin 6 finally shines when it comes in dry braking beating TS 870 with a margin of 3%. Alpin 6 however lacks in dry handling with a 1% margin to TS 870.

Alpin 6:

• +3% in dry braking
• -1% 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. From the previous evaluation, we know that TS 870 has an outstanding wear performance with an expected mileage of 45,400 km. Michelin Aplin 6 was unable to match the TS870 with only an expected mileage of 40,100 km (-12%). Michelin has been traditionally known to be top in the class when it comes to wear, however they are only the 2nd best as they are unable to match Continental’s superior mileage performance. Kudos to Continental !

Alpin 6:

• -12% 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. However as the “C” spread is huge, Alpin 6 had a deficit of 9% compared to TS 870 which demonstrates that the EU label can be sometimes quite misleading.

Alpin 6:

• -9% in rolling resistance

Noise

Both tires were tested for external noise and they are were only separated by 0.3 dB with the TS870 slightly ahead of Aplin 6

Alpin 6:

•  -0.4% in noise & comfort

Price

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

Tire size: 205/55 R16

Alpin 6:: € 96.25

TS870 : € 95

Difference: +1.3% more expensive for Alpin 6

Summary

Apart from snow traction and dry braking, TS 870 pretty much come out on top on everything else. With an outstanding snow performance and mileage, TS 870 is the clear winner !