What is PTI — the Pneutesty Index
Two winter tyres, same size. One costs sixty euros, the other a hundred and forty. On the shop page they look identical — black, round, both with a snowflake on the sidewall. Which one stops sooner when somebody steps out in front of you?
That is the question PTI answers. It is a number from 4 to 10 and it says one thing: how the tyre held up against its rivals in independent tests.
We measure nothing ourselves. No test track, no fleet of cars, no ambition to own either. What we do have are the test results published over the last eight years by ADAC, Auto Bild, TÜV, DEKRA, Sport Auto and others — and the statistics that turn hundreds of partial results into a single figure.
How to read PTI
| PTI | Rating |
|---|---|
| 9.0 and above | outstanding |
| 8.5 – 8.9 | excellent |
| 8.0 – 8.4 | very good |
| 7.5 – 7.9 | good |
| 6.5 – 7.4 | average |
| below 6.5 | below average |
A nine is not a medal for perfection. It is first place in a particular field — and the field is crowded. Don't look for a gulf between 8.4 and 8.5; between 6.4 and 9.4 you are driving a different car.
Where PTI comes from
We rate a tyre in six disciplines: snow, wet, dry, ice, running costs — rolling resistance and wear — and quietness. All-season tyres are weighted differently from summer ones, because you expect something different from each.
Newer measurements count for more than old ones. A tyre from 2019 may still be good, but the market has moved on and a win from back then says less about today.
And one input that is not a measurement: the brand class from our catalogue. It can nudge a premium brand's PTI up and pull the cheapest ones down — never the other way round. It is the only part of the calculation that does not come from a measurement, and we put it here so that you know about it.
What changes with the size
PTI is a single number. A tyre carries the same one in a 15-inch and in a 20-inch size. What changes is the company it keeps: the list of models, the ranking, the percentiles and the “beats X of Y” figure.
That sounds like a detail — until you try to buy the winner. Four models from the winter top ten are not sold at all in 205/55 R16, the first one included. A ranking that keeps quiet about this sends you shopping with a list of tyres your car will never take.
What pulls PTI down
- A safety gap. A model that falls well behind on snow, in the wet or on dry roads gets capped, and then pushed lower. One gap cannot be patched over with quietness or low fuel use — a quiet tyre does not stop any shorter.
- An old last test. The longer it has been since anyone measured a tyre, the more carefully we treat its number. Most of all with winter tyres, where compounds move fastest.
- Few measurements. One good result is a good result. It is not proof.
What PTI ignores
- Customer reviews. You will find them on the site and they are worth reading, but they stay out of PTI. Driver satisfaction and braking distance are two different quantities.
- Price. A cheap tyre is not punished for its price tag and an expensive one gets no credit in advance.
- Manufacturer claims. Brochures, in-house measurements and lines like “up to 15 % shorter braking distance” stay outside the door.
- Manual edits. We do not rewrite the ranking. Not even when we dislike it.
When a tyre has no PTI
When a measurement is missing, we do not invent it. So no number goes to a model that has never been through an independent test, to one with a single test, or to one missing a measurement in a required discipline.
There are surprisingly many models on the market without a single test — and most of them sell perfectly well. Where measurements are thin, we also show the range the data allows. Admitted uncertainty beats pretended precision.
The small print
PTI is a guide for comparison, not a binding statement about an individual tyre. Test results apply to the size and conditions tested; how a tyre performs for you depends on the car, the size, the pressure, your driving and your maintenance. We update the data continuously and do not guarantee that it is complete or error-free.
Want to quote PTI?
Please do — with a credit and a link to the page the number comes from. If you are working on an article and a different cut of the data would help, tell us which. A specific size, a season, a price bracket: we will put it together.