Winter/Summer Tyre Mix

[MrBones]

Hi All
I have just tried to order some tyres from Camskill, after the good advice from this site
I ordered six tyres in total, four for the Audi A3 and two Vredestein Quatrac 3 for the front of the wife’s Golf Mk4
They then sent me email saying they only had one of the two Quatrac 3 that I ordered from their website after everything went through ok
When I spoke to the salesman about this, he advised me that you can only put these all season tyres on cars that have a complete set of four all season tyres?
Apparently my insurance would be void if I "mixed and matched" them?
Is this true?
Can you mix two front all season tyres and two rear summer/normal tyres
Or are they just trying to blagging me off ?

 

[LEE69]

No, as you would have more grip on one axle than the other

 

[desertstorm]

This question seems to come up a lot. I ran my previous car for three years like this a 1.9 Passat TDI estate and the wifes car also has winter tyres on the front. On a FWD car with all the steering all the traction and 70% of the braking happening at the front why would you not want the best tyres fitted to the car.

It is true that tyre manufacturers state you should fit a vechicle with winter tyres to all wheels, Well they are in the business of selling tyres it's also why they recommend replacing tyres with less than 3mm of tread.As they are proven to be less effective in the wet.
It's a proven fact winter tyres give you a lot more grip than summer tyres to any body thats used them they are a no brainer.

Summer VS Winter tyres Warm weather performance | the online tyre guide

Fitting them to the front of the car only will result in a grip inbalance front to rear, but at least you have some grip unlike joe blogss with his 2mm of tread on his ditchfinders.In my experience of the last three years the only issue you tend to get is on roundabouts and the like where the front is providing a lot of grip and traction and the rear slides, This only happens because you are able to go that much faster with the increased cornering grip and traction from the front. Once you understand this you drive accordingly.
It's a better situation to have than somebody on all round summers who takes 3 times as long to stop, is sliding around on corners at even slow speeds and gets stuck on hills.
If anybody can present me with a confirmed documented case where an insurance company has refused to pay up because a car was fitted with winter tyres only on the front I will eat my proverbial hat.

Winter tyres | AA

The AA advice above " Whatever tyres you fit they must have enough tread – at least 3mm is recommended for winter, and certainly no less than 2mm." So anybody with a legal tyre 1.6mm of tread who has an accident won't be insured.
In the manual for my car it says if winter tyres are fitted they should be fitted to all wheels. But it also says that as the car is a Quattro all wheels and tyres must be fitted with the same type make and tread pattern.
So does that mean any Audi Quattro car that has an accident and doesn't have the same 4 tyres of the same make and tread pattern have invalid insurance. I don't think so.
What happens when you have an accident with your space saver spare on the car? .
As long as the tyres are legal and the correct load rating I can't see there being an issue.

Karl.

 

[LEE69]

Front winter tyres loads of grip and summer rears, back will say hello to front soon i bet.

 

[davc]

Front winter tyres loads of grip and summer rears, back will say hello to front soon i bet.

Bet his missus will love that

 

[desertstorm]

Difference between winter and summer tyres, well known by all who have tried both

Winter Tyres v Summer Tyres: the Truth! - Auto Express - YouTube
see how bad summer only tyres are

Why you shouldn't fit winters only to the front and drive at normal speeds

2 or 4 Winter Tires - YouTube

I would like to see how summer tyres only on the same car would cope, assuming you could get moving you would be in a much worse position when attempting to control the vechicle. Two winter tyres on the front is not as good as all 4 but it is much better than trying to drive on Summer tyres. You have to know the limitations of your vechicle and your driving ability.
Last year I very nearly had an accident with a car that came from a side road, she was going way to fast and basically slid straight out in front of me, had I not had the winter tyres on the front there is no way I would have missed her and stopped in time.
You will never convince me that having 4 summer tyres on a FWD car is safer than having 2 winters and 2 summers.
My wife has driven her car for the last 3 years and never had any issues, she quite likes easily moving past all those people struggling especially those in Fancy BMW's , Mercedes and the like who are sliding all over the place.
Karl.

 

[manor13]

go for all 4 winters or fit the winters to the rear as I found out the hard way

 

[B5NUT]

Front winter tyres loads of grip and summer rears, back will say hello to front soon i bet.

I can confirm this will happen, but I had old winter tyres on the rear and new winters on the front, next day got a new set for the rear will never make that mistake again.

 

[DomH]

I've always ran just two on the front axle and never had any trouble, obviously all four is ideal, but most people do just fine on two

 

[MrBones]

Thanks all for your comments
Lee69, Yes I am conscious of the back end coming around (especially in the snow), but I am the only one who drives the car in the snow and the wife drives like a granny…Thanks
Desertstorm, Yes this was what I was thinking, the car is a low powered front wheel drive Golf TDI, I thought a little more grip would be better than running a car with all four summer tyres in the winter?. In the snow/heavy weather I normally do all the driving and have always been conscious of what the car can do in various environments and drive accordingly….and so far so good
The thing was Camskill said that the car would not be insured if the car was in an accident with two all season tyres on the front and two summer tyres on the back??
Yes in an ideal world I would like to put all four tyres all season tyres, just for piece of mind, but also I wouldn’t have the misses going around in an old golf, but a nice 4motion, but she loves it
Thanks DomH, B5NUT and manor13 for your comments, I will do so more research on ordering a set of all four all season/winter tyres….it’s got to be cheaper than a 55 plate Golf TDI 4motion

 

[desertstorm]

Try Car-Tyres, Van tyres, 4X4 Tyres for tyres they are quite competitive.

Karl.