Best Tyres for SUVs

When you are looking to buy a new set of SUV tyres, it can sometimes feel like the category is one of its own. With seemingly its own rules and its own specific shelf. However, contrary to perhaps popular beliefe, it mostly isn't.

Essentially "SUV" describes a load rating rather than a kind of grip.

What makes a tyre right for a Kuga, a Tiguan, an XC60 or a Model Y is how much weight it's rated to carry. As well as how the casing is built to carry it.

Once that's determined, the rest of the decision is the same one every driver makes - what type of driving are you buying for?

Testing SUV Tyres

Magazine tests often only cover one size and one car on one day.

In this article, we've leaned instead on DriverReviews - which measures what tyres do over months of ordinary driving.

Its 2026/27 Customer Choice Awards they drew on over 546,000 verified reviews covering more than 1.4 billion kilometres. And in their most recent  2026/27 Winter awards, the results were drawn from over 730,000.

Every review on the DriverReview platform comes from a verified purchase. DriverReviews is certified to ISO 20488 and AFNOR NF522, the standards for how online reviews are collected and published.

Start with the load index

Let's take the Michelin CrossClimate 3 to help explain. This range has two variants - passenger car, and 4x4/SUV. Where load index is a big differentiator. 

But what is the load index? This is the two or three digits after the rest of the tyre size. On a 255/45 R19 100V, 100 is the load index and V the speed rating.

The GOV.UK load index table converts them into what an axle can carry: 100 supports 1,600 kg across a single-wheel axle, 110 supports 2,120 kg. Per tyre, 800 kg and 1,060 kg.

A two-tonne SUV with a roof box, four adults and a full boot asks a lot more of that margin than a hatchback does.

Three things remember when looking at tyres and their load index:

1. Don't go down. Swapping a 103 for a 99 because it was cheaper or in stock is the easiest mistake to make here.
2. XL or Reinforced isn't a luxury on a heavy car. It's extra load capacity at a higher pressure.
3. Check with the fitter if the numbers differ. Michelin notes that replacement ratings can differ slightly from the vehicle label, and that a fitter should tell you when they do and whether pressures need adjusting.

This applies to premium tyres too.

In Auto Bild Allrad's - they listed the downside for the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 SUV in the size it tested was exactly this: restricted load capacity and a V speed rating. More on load ratings here.

What SUV drivers rate highest

Based on DrivewReview awards and reviews:

Three of the four winners aren't SUV-badged tyres. The Turanza 6 is a family car tyre, the CrossClimate 3 has no SUV suffix, and the Alpin 7 is Michelin's car winter tyre. They're all sold in SUV load ratings.

All-season SUV Tyres

All season tyres: designed to cope with various weather conditions and deliver a reliable performance throughout the different seasons.

EV approved tyres: electric vehicle (EV) tyres are a category of car tyre that has been developed by several manufacturers to meet the specific requirements of an electric vehicle.

Michelin CrossClimate 3

The Michelin CrossClimate 3 is a premium all-season tyre engineered for year-round safety, comfort, and performance.

Price from

109.99to399.99

Find your size

Drivers put the CrossClimate 3, in its 4x4/SUV variant, ahead of the Bridgestone Turanza All Season 6 and Continental AllSeasonContact 2.

It's 3PMSF certified, so snow performance is tested to a regulated threshold. It is also rated A for fuel efficiency in many common sizes. What's more, Michelin claims up to 15% more mileage than the CrossClimate 2.

If your size isn't in the range, the CrossClimate 2 SUV covers 17 to 22 inch. Michelin's documented claims for it — five metres shorter snow braking, two metres shorter wet braking, around 5,000 more kilometres of life against its main competitors' average. This data comes TÜV SÜD and DEKRA on a single size, 235/60 R18, with full conditions published.

Summer: for a quicker SUV

EV approved tyres: electric vehicle (EV) tyres are a category of car tyre that has been developed by several manufacturers to meet the specific requirements of an electric vehicle.

Michelin Pilot Sport 4 SUV

The Michelin Pilot Sport 4 SUV is the 4x4 version of the much acclaimed Pilot Sport 4 - designed for Premium SUVs.

Price from

150.99to576.99

Find your size

Qashqai, Sportage and Tucson drivers rate it above the Bridgestone Turanza 6 and Continental UltraContact NXT.

The controlled testing is more mixed. In Auto Bild Allrad's 2026 summer SUV test — nine tyres in 255/45 R19, a common Tiguan and Model Y fitment.  It finished fifth of nine, rated Gut (good).

It took aquaplaning resistance by a clear margin. What a tall, heavy vehicle wants on a wet motorway - and gave up 2.8 metres in wet braking.

A one-day test ranks peak numbers; months of ownership rank how a tyre wears and feels.

Large SUVs

For an X5, Q7 or XC90, drivers chose the Bridgestone Turanza 6, with the Goodyear EfficientGrip 2 SUV Highly Recommended and the Hankook Ventus S1 Evo3 SUV Recommended on 4.6. No Michelin made this podium: the heaviest SUVs ask for sustained load capacity and long-distance comfort, and a touring tyre came out in front.

Winter: if you need it

It scored 4.7 out of 5, with 94% of drivers saying they'd buy again — the highest buy-again rate in this year's winter awards. Drivers single out grip on snow and ice, and how quiet it is for a winter tyre. Again, it's Michelin's car winter tyre sold in SUV load ratings.

Worth it in the Highlands, the Pennines or the Alps. For most of Britain a 3PMSF all-season covers the year.

If your SUV is really a 4x4

Michelin draws the line itself in its SUV tyre guidance. Where a 4x4 may be fitted with off-road or mixed tyres, where an SUV is more likely to run road tyres.

An all-terrain has deep, blocky tread, a reinforced casing and a lower speed rating. It'll get you up a wet field, but on tarmac it's noisier, uses more fuel and usually longer to stop in the wet.

For occasional loose ground a road tyre copes, the Michelin above was second of nine on gravel traction.

For regular off-road use, the BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 won Best Tyres for Pick-Up Trucks 2026/27.

BFGoodrich has been owned by Michelin since 1989. The newer All-Terrain T/A KO3 adds 3PMSF certification, unusual for an all-terrain, but hasn't yet built the review volume to feature in the awards.

Four-wheel drive: buy four

Michelin recommends four identical tyres on a four-wheel-drive vehicle. Mismatched rolling circumferences make the centre differential or clutch pack work against itself.

Regulation 26 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 restricts mixing tyres of different structural types, and Regulation 27 makes it an offence to use a tyre "unsuitable having regard to the use to which the motor vehicle or trailer is being put or to the types of tyres fitted to its other wheels". If you only need two, fit them to the same axle.

The legal minimum

Tread depth is 1.6 mm across the central three-quarters, all the way round. Below that it's a £2,500 fine and three penalty points, per tyre.

Load and speed ratings are only checked at MOT on Class 5 and Class 7 vehicles, and even then the tester assumes they're suitable if the plate doesn't show axle weights. An SUV won't usually fail an MOT on an under-rated tyre — but the Construction and Use Regulations apply every day you drive it.

Choosing the right SUV tyres

Get the load index right first. After that, buy for the season.

Across 546,000 verified reviews, SUV drivers put the CrossClimate 3 first for all-season, the Pilot Sport 4 SUV first for small and mid-size SUVs, the Alpin 7 first for winter, and the Bridgestone Turanza 6 first for large SUVs. If the vehicle genuinely works as a 4x4, the BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 took the off-road category.

A note on our sources

Driver rating data comes from the DriverReviews Customer Choice Awards 2026/27 and Winter Customer Choice Awards 2026/27, certified to ISO 20488 and AFNOR NF522. Controlled test data comes from Auto Bild Allrad via Tyre Reviews. Michelin's claims about its own tyres are drawn from michelin.co.uk and identified as Michelin's claims. Legal requirements come from legislation.gov.uk and the DVSA MOT inspection manual on GOV.UK.