winter tyres

knoxie

knoxie

K4OXE
Joined
Aug 6, 2011
Messages
615
Reaction score
15
Points
18
Location
harlow, essex
rightyho chapies and chapets im looking for a decent daily use winter tyre for standard 02 plate s3 wheels?

when i bought it about two weeks ago it came with 'triangle' tyres :s
they seemed ok at first tbh but at the weekend in one of the big downpours it turns out they are pants!!! haha

much love knoxie
 
Falken FK452`s are a good tyre for the money not sure if they are designed for winter but i run mine all year round
 
Khumo I'zen's are F**king awesome in the snow! & worth every penny if you want just winter treads. Anything below 5˚c & they will amaze you!

I might add that they can be a little "dangerous" if you forget about the difference in normal conditions, again anything above 5 & they seem to be a little soft & squidgy to the point where I've crossed the road on 1 corner where it would have stuck like glue with F1's on.

Imagine a corner on a stretch of road you know well. on a normal day, wet or dry with say eagle F1's or Toyo Proxes on you could easily take at 70-80. Try the same with the winter treads on & you would probably come close to the verge on the wrong side of the road...
That same corner covered in snow you would be reduced to 30-40 with normal tyres. With the winter boots on, 60 easy.

Stopping distances are also hugely different as we tested. Side by side, same car at 20mph & my mate took 2 full car lengths more to stop. Now imagine that at 40-60mph...
 
If you're looking for a proper winter tyre that you will only use for the winter months then have a look at the Dunlop Wintersport 4D.

I fitted a set to some 16" TT wheels which I swap over to for the winter.

If you want some cheaper options then try the Kleber range of winter tyres, I hear they are quite good.

Don't be tempted to buy "all-season" tyres, they are no good in the winter or in the summer.
 
ive just bought a set of nankang snow sv-2, dirt cheap. not run them yet but the reviews are good and when comparing to continental winters no real difference in compound or tread. no idea if they will fit the s3 though, ive gone cheeky on my 1.8t and bought some 15" seat leon alloys then sprayed them black to hide the corrosion.
 
The problem with cheap winters is they're often great in the snow, but ****e on wet roads. And unfortunately in this country you'll spend most of winter driving on cold wet roads.

The dunlop Wintersport 4D's, Contis TS830 and Goodyear UltraGrip 8 are all excellent options. Have a look on tyrereviews.co.uk at the "GROUP TESTS" for more.
 
veru true, i used that site when picking tyres - its not as good as conti and goodyear etc but its not bad and loads cheaper, im not planning on driving like i stole it this winter - ive made the mistake of thinking im Hannu Mikkola before!
 
I would'nt bother whats the point in buying winter tyres for two weeks of bad weather!,cost you £300 (there crap in hot or wet weather),and no one can drive on ice!,you'll want to change them by the spring another £300,if you want all round tyres that won't give you road noise less grip in nomal weather,look at the new bridgstone all weather tyre!,if not lower your tyre pressures for the bad weather and take it steady!!
 
liquids3 said:
I would'nt bother whats the point in buying winter tyres for two weeks of bad weather!,cost you £300 (there crap in hot or wet weather),and no one can drive on ice!,you'll want to change them by the spring another £300,if you want all round tyres that won't give you road noise less grip in nomal weather,look at the new bridgstone all weather tyre!,if not lower your tyre pressures for the bad weather and take it steady!!
Click to expand...

I used to have the same attitude as you towards winter tyres in fairness, but after having them fitted on a couple of my cars i'm now stuck on them for good.

A common misconception is that winter tyres are just designed to work better on snow, the truth is they are designed to outperform summer tyres (or what we all call normal tyres) in temperatures below about 7c and in ice and wet weather also. When you consider that about 3-4 months of the year in the UK will see average temperatures below 7c then it goes without saying that winter tyres are the better choice.

Cost wise its a judgement call, I accept they are not cheap, but the cost can be offset to some degree against the wear you save on your summer tyres in that period. The other cost to consider is the cost of damage to your car from having an accident in the snow or ice etc, it only takes a slight slip in the snow to bend a rim on a curb and there's the cost of your winter tyres.

If you live in a remote area, and have to drive to get to work or else, and prefer the extra safety in the cold winter months then they are well worth it IMO. Once you've driven on winter tyres you realise their benefits, and thats a benefit i'd not be without now.
 
Last edited:
^ I agree.
I am self employed so if i dont get to work then im not getting paid! not worth the risk or risking your car, i think its about this country looked at the rest of europe - its the law to have winter tyres in germany, as a result the country doesnt grind to a halt at the first sight of snow!
 
Yeh, spare set of scruffy cheap rims off ebay for the winters and you can swap them out come spring.

The cost is more or less offset by the reduction in wear on your summer tyres.

Unfortunately the UK winters are somewhat milder than you see across a lot of europe, which is why a lot of people here find it difficult to accept they should equip their cars appropriately come winter.

I baught a Set of Dunlop Wintersport 3D's last year from german ebay. They were all nearly new with 7mm of tread and i saved a fair bit of cash over buying new. Unfortunately you need to be patient and spend hours raking thru adverts in german to find some that are actually worth buying. A lot of germans seem to ditch the tyres when they get down to 4mm as they become useless in the snow much below that, but then theres little point buying ones with only 4mm on them and ebay is swimming with them!
 
Yea true just which ever tyre you put on will not work on ice!,normaly when it snows you can drive slowley in it,next day its ice and your stuffed!,everyones open to there own opinions though!
 
aragorn said:
Yeh, spare set of scruffy cheap rims off ebay for the winters and you can swap them out come spring.

The cost is more or less offset by the reduction in wear on your summer tyres.

Unfortunately the UK winters are somewhat milder than you see across a lot of europe, which is why a lot of people here find it difficult to accept they should equip their cars appropriately come winter.

I baught a Set of Dunlop Wintersport 3D's last year from german ebay. They were all nearly new with 7mm of tread and i saved a fair bit of cash over buying new. Unfortunately you need to be patient and spend hours raking thru adverts in german to find some that are actually worth buying. A lot of germans seem to ditch the tyres when they get down to 4mm as they become useless in the snow much below that, but then theres little point buying ones with only 4mm on them and ebay is swimming with them!
Click to expand...
cost effective and worth it i agree!,just don't agree with people that think that you keep them an all year,for one months snow!
 
You dont keep them on all year, they'd wear like mad if you left em on when it got warmer.

Mine will go on once the average temp drops below 7c. Its not quite there yet, although it has dropped below 7 a couple times the average is holding somewhere around 10-12 still. Then they'll come back off once it climbs above 7 again.

Last year they went on some time in late november and came off late february if i remember correctly.

You'd be surprised just how much traction you would actually have on ice with a good set of winter tyres, especially on a quattro car.
 
aragorn said:
You dont keep them on all year, they'd wear like mad if you left em on when it got warmer.

Mine will go on once the average temp drops below 7c. Its not quite there yet, although it has dropped below 7 a couple times the average is holding somewhere around 10-12 still. Then they'll come back off once it climbs above 7 again.

Last year they went on some time in late november and came off late february if i remember correctly.

You'd be surprised just how much traction you would actually have on ice with a good set of winter tyres, especially on a quattro car.
Click to expand...
Yea but as the first post,dose he want new tyres for the year or winter months,had a freind that had winter tyres on,in may and kept loseing the back end of the car!,winter only your right!,not only wear (grip) in normal weather!,is england that bad?
 
Last edited:
instead of spending £300 quid - i'd rather just drive that little bit slower and safer....
 
beanoir said:
Did you even watch that video, it was shot in an ICE rink...!?
Click to expand...
Yea but states its better but won't stop you,you will still slide!,and its a sales video!,looks like they are taking the corner at different speeds!,theres another video i watched after with qwinton wilson,and they put and auto 6 series against a 1series manual deisel,to sale winter tyres obveously a 6 series auto won't move!
 
aragorn said:
It will if it had the correct tyres fitted ;)

TBH you need to try them, this country has it burned into their brains that you cant drive on snow/ice.

This is what happens when you have 4wd and proper winter tyres:
Subaru Impreza Pulls Truck Out of The Snow - YouTube
Click to expand...
You can't get winter tyres for a 6series so was'nt a fair test to start with!,yea don't get me wrong winter tyres are a good idea in countrys where there is snow for 5 months,but not over hear one week or two,i think its a waist of money!,and like i said if the snow freeze's for two days i would'nt want to think i can drive normaly because i have snow tyres!,why not use snow socks to get onto main roads when its snowing!
 
As said winter tyres are effective from 7c on dry roads.. so it doesnt matter if its snowy or icey..they`re still going to be better than a normal road tyre in lower temperatures and once we get into mid november its going to stay around that level until atleast feb so they`re worth it really.

I have a set of brand new Golf R 18" wheels with Conti winter tyres, 5 of them that a customer has just bought from us to put on his brand new Golf R. Cost him £3700 which he thought was a good price!! he`s having them fitted tomorrow, i said its not quite cold enough in the day for them and he`ll end up ripping them to shreds but he`s having them done anyway but wont be too long before its that cold every day.

The downside of them is the limited tyre sizes yeah, i`ve had loads of customers ring up and want quotes on winter tyres but most of them are odd sizes which i simply cant get from any of my suppliers. Can either get smaller hatchback sizes like 15s/16s or huge 4x4 sized tyres but hardly anything in the middle ground.
 
Mine are 225/45r17, and theres plenty of choice online in that size.

I tried local garages and they could only really get me cheap and nasty budget winters. I had a moan at the guy at my local MOT station about it and he said they hardly sell anything other than budget tyres, summer or winter, and most of the cars he sees for MOT's are also running cheap tat.

Kinda worrying really to think nearly every car you see is running on crap tyres, as most budgets are ****** lethal in the wet.
 
Most of the smaller cars that come in wanting tyres we`ll fit firestone/uniroyal and the bigger hatches and saloons we`ll fit conti/pirelli unless the customer wants something specific that they`ve fitted themselves previously.
 
yeh, but i guess being a main dealer your seeing a different type/age of owner/car than folk who would use some of the normal small garages around here.
 
Yeah a lot of the smaller garages i deliver too i`ve noticed the tyres they stock are all budgets and look asthough they`ve been sitting there for years.
 
liquids3 said:
You can't get winter tyres for a 6series so was'nt a fair test to start with!,yea don't get me wrong winter tyres are a good idea in countrys where there is snow for 5 months,but not over hear one week or two,i think its a waist of money!,and like i said if the snow freeze's for two days i would'nt want to think i can drive normaly because i have snow tyres!,why not use snow socks to get onto main roads when its snowing!
Click to expand...

One question, have you ever had winter tyres fitted to your car?
 
LiquidS3, I think you have mistaken an excalmation mark (!) for a full stop (.). Or are you attempting to shout? Why is your opinion so strong against winter tyres and addamant that they don't work on ice?

Has anyone tried Vredestein Wintrac Extreme tyres?
 
No they are great,just don't think are winters are that bad to spend £400 on tyres and £200 on wheels for a week of really bad weather!,rather lower the pressure's,and if its black ice not risk crashing car!,certain roads dose'nt matter what tyres you have you wont stop very easy,mayby better than normal tyres (but won't stop),so is £700 really worth it!,last winter there wer landrovers getting stuck,my mate had a 106 with 155,70,13 tyres on with lower tyre pressure and never got stuck,small width tyres with low pressures worked and it was way below 7c!!
 
Alex C said:
Has anyone tried Vredestein Wintrac Extreme tyres?
Click to expand...

One word. Awesome.

I has some Snowtracs, then Wintrac Extremes, the Wintracs were much more of a 'all round' winter tyre, with much more grip than summer tyres in marginal conditions. Maybe not as good when it was really bad though/

With the general winter tyre thing, I find that people that are 'against' them, have never had a set. While people that have had winter tyres are massive converts. It seems to pass people by, that when its 5 deg C and wet, you get much more grip with a winter tyre. Somehow they just associate them with snow, which granted isnt really an issue in much of the uk. Plus if you keep a car for long enough to go through a few sets of tyres the only extra cost is more tyre-swapping.
 
liquids3 said:
No they are great,just don't think are winters are that bad to spend £400 on tyres and £200 on wheels for a week of really bad weather!,rather lower the pressure's,and if its black ice not risk crashing car!,certain roads dose'nt matter what tyres you have you wont stop very easy,mayby better than normal tyres (but won't stop),so is £700 really worth it!,last winter there wer landrovers getting stuck,my mate had a 106 with 155,70,13 tyres on with lower tyre pressure and never got stuck,small width tyres with low pressures worked and it was way below 7c!!
Click to expand...

So I think we've all ascertained now that you've never had winter tyres, your opinion is not based on experience and instead on your mates Peugeot 106 with underinflated tyres...

Lets move on shall we :)
 
beanoir said:
So I think we've all ascertained now that you've never had winter tyres, your opinion is not based on experience and instead on your mates Peugeot 106 with underinflated tyres...

Lets move on shall we :)
Click to expand...
Yes think everyone's missundersanding the point!,just cant see the point in spending the earth for that week or two,if you want an all round wet weather and warm weather tyre that you can use all year round (bridgestone all season tyre is more cost effective!
 
Is £700 worth it. Well for one £400 + £200 is £600 and you only buy the rims once, and thats if you havent already got a set of spare rims sitting at home. So lets say 4 winter tyres is £400. You are right you dont use them all year, so you only have them on say 4 months? Question for other people now, how quickly do they wear in winter conditions? Say you get 2 years of use (i.e. 8 winter months) out of them. So £200 quid a year. In winter you are 6 times more likely to crash. Cost of a crash anyone? Or cost of being stuck in the middle of nowhere in the cold? Cost of not being able to get to work? From what i have seen on the news the past two winters it has looked pretty expensive. Anyway thats my opinion(!)
 
Alex C said:
Is £700 worth it. Well for one £400 + £200 is £600 and you only buy the rims once, and thats if you havent already got a set of spare rims sitting at home. So lets say 4 winter tyres is £400. You are right you dont use them all year, so you only have them on say 4 months? Question for other people now, how quickly do they wear in winter conditions? Say you get 2 years of use (i.e. 8 winter months) out of them. So £200 quid a year. In winter you are 6 times more likely to crash. Cost of a crash anyone? Or cost of being stuck in the middle of nowhere in the cold? Cost of not being able to get to work? From what i have seen on the news the past two winters it has looked pretty expensive. Anyway thats my opinion(!)
Click to expand...
I respect your opinion,and if you have a spare set of wheels to put on thats fair enough!,and i understand obveously you ar'nt wearing your summer tyres so would'nt work out that expensive!,thats fair comment!,my situations different (my opinion)!,not wanting an argument,id have to buy wheels tyres persanlynot for me!
 
From the above posts its obvious that liquid has never driven on winter treads... I got them after driving in Norway (Where it's the law) one winter & the difference really is chalk & cheese so I adopted it from there.

& only a few weeks of the year??? Up in sunny Scotland here we had months of it last year!
You just need to look at the news & see M-ways at a standstill to see the reason they should be made law over here too! The winters are only going to get colder...
 
No i hav'nt beacause ive neaver had a problem in the snow!,and its a few weeks down hear!,i expect you would want them
in scotland!
 
wow got a right old debate going haha

im after just a decent tyre that will fare up well against the wet/winter time, as when i bought the car it came with really bad budgets and they are pants if it ****** down, and im not even going fast :(

i only ask as i use it as a daily driver, i dont really want to be spending a wad for them to wear out quickly

knoxie
 
So you don't actually want winter tyres at all then...?

It now sounds like you want summer tyres that perform well in the wet also. Totally different kettle of fish in that case.
 
Uniroyal Rainsport 2's then for a cheap well performing tyre thats good in dry and wet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
Winter tyres
Replies
13
Views
1K
The Doctor
The Doctor
D
Winter tyres and wheels
Replies
0
Views
417
dhobbs88
D
JD09
Tyres - potentially winter wheels?
Replies
16
Views
2K
KB
KB
W
which tyres to fit for the winter months?
Replies
2
Views
924
goodwoodgreens3
goodwoodgreens3
L
Tyres, tyres, tyres
Replies
16
Views
1K
dunk
D
Top
Back