Winter tyres on car

So we are near that time of year now.
Also seeing how bad it was last year (which tbh wasn’t that bad but still ground a lot of things to a halt)

As someone who has never had winter tyres before
Is it time to get winter tyres?
Do they drive fine or make more noise in the dry?
Can I mix winter tyres with normal tyres?
How long will they last if you use them all year round?

I don’t have a spare set of rims so it’s either get winter tyres or stick to summer ones.
Also last year i got rear ended by a old man in a 4x4 honda because he couldn’t stop in time and I was in a e36 bmw RWD…
So I know the biggest issue is everyone else when driving in snow BUT if winter tyres will help then I’ll give it a go.

Save your money, there’s no point in the UK.

Never had winter tyres myself either but know people who have & they say they are much better 1 had on an vw estate when we did have some snow few years back said his car ran fine straight up hills found them much better & easier

Mate has them on his Rave 4 all year last year he had to go out said the performance was good again straight up a hill where a car was struggling to move near the bottom he just kept on going up recons they don’t make much difference to noise etc in the summer price about the same as you he hasn’t got a spare set of rims

Drempels:
Save your money, there’s no point in the UK.

just adjust your driving according to the road conditions.

Drempels:
Save your money, there’s no point in the UK.

March this year was pretty bad.
And apparently it will be worse this winter.

Winter tyres are designed to work below 7’C, with grip increasing as the temp drops, the sipes in the treat designed to ‘grip’ the snow, and yes in snow/slush conditions they do work, and they are better on icy roads.
However on reasonably cold wet roads, which describes the UK road network for the majority of winter, and especially where salt has been laid for several days and then gets damp and becomes mushy, you can find those expensive full winters not as grippy as decent normal tyres.

Answering your questions.
Not really any noisier but those sipes can set a sort of buzzing noise up on dry tarmac, its not loud or unpleasant in any way.
It’s not the best cost time to get winter tyres, the time to get those is in the spring and early summer when prices fall drastically.
You should not mix winter and summer tyres, because the grip values will alter considerably depending on conditions, if you put 2 winters on the drive axle you’ll have more grip from the other end in the dry/wet, and then the grip will alter when its gets freezing, if you go on Youtube there’s some interesting videos showing what happens when they are mixed, scary stuff.
Full winters used all year round would wear quickly in the summer and give very disappointing grip in the warm weather.

Much depends on what sort of car you have, and more importantly what tyre size you are on, if you’re on elastic bands (ie 30/45 aspect) the chances are they’ll be bloody hopeless in snow, if you’re on more sensible stuff like 55/65 aspect then more likely to reasonable.

My own suggestion of you’re changing tyres anyway is to go for decent all season, such as Michelin Cross Climate or Goodyear’s equivalent, and i’ve also had very good results from Vredestein Quatracs over the years, and near enough half the price of the Mich’s.
By the ways genuine all season tyres comes with the snowflake and mountain symbol, some tyres are called all season but do not have this stamping, they are therefore not winter rated and their all season rating is ■■■■■■■■.
Some people confuse M&S with all season, all M&S means is that a higher percentage of the tread is open than more more slick normal tyres, it has no bearing on the rubber mixture or cold weather rating.

If you would prefer to stick to normal summer tyres, the best all rounder in the wet i’ve ever found have been Uniroyal Rain Experts, these are nearly as good as all season tyres in the winter in my humble opinion, Rain Experts become RainSport as the aspect ration drops, ie if you have 45 aspect tyres then it will be Rainsports, these are not quite as good as the Experts in the snow i would suggest, but that is only my opinion.
Thay don’t last everso well but cheap as chips (Camskill have the best prices on these) and the wet grip is worth it.

I take tyres seriously, personally i run all season (snowflake stamped) Yokohamas on my 4x4, these are brilliant in all weathers, like the proverbial to a blanket in the wet, but can feel a bit ‘squashy’ in hot dry weather, but its hardly a sports car so i can live with that minor gripe.
The Mrs rather faster AWD thingy (a bloody flying machine) i have just swapped onto the winter set of wheels/tyres which came with her previous same make car, not too sure about how they are gripping tbh (though absolutely fine on her previous heavier car) and it’s highly likely those particular winters will be coming off and a set of all seasons or Rain Experts going on.

There that’s clear as mud innit :laughing:

bloody hell jud are you bored, joking apart some good info there.

m.a.n rules:
bloody hell jud are you bored, joking apart some good info there.

Yeah it’s a complicated subject, we all live in different areas and have different needs and vehicles, no one size fits all solutions unfortunately.

adam277:

Drempels:
Save your money, there’s no point in the UK.

March this year was pretty bad.
And apparently it will be worse this winter.

I remember an eminent weather forecaster called Phillip Eden saying many years ago, that only a fool forecasts any more than five days away. For all the advances we have since then, they’re all based on modelling - just like traffic flows… Nobody has any idea what this winter will be like, until it happens.

I can see people living in the likes of Inverness, maybe having winter tyres, but if you live there, the chances are you already have a set!

We get very little snow, and what we do, doesn’t last long. Our biggest problem is ice, and unless you’re running studs, it won’t make a jot of difference what type of tyres you have if you come across it.

Avon or India Town and Country worked well enough on the shooting brake in 1967

Bugger me, haven’t heard of Town and Country’s for decades, next thing you’ll be telling us they were cross ply :smiling_imp:

Modern tread patterns are an absolute joke in anything like even a few inches of snow.Had enough of swearing at the combination of fwd combined with silly effectively slick tyres with their longitudinal grooves for just a few days of bad weather last winter so will definitely be getting some decent block treaded winter boots this year.

I have toyed with the idea of investing in some chains just in case of a substantial drop of snow, but not game enough to splash out on a set of winter tyres.

I have Michelin Cross Climates on my runabout van. They are excellent in the wet , wear well and are very quiet. They are not a full winter tyre but are much much better than ordinary tyres in ice and snow conditions.
I will certainly fit them again.

Looks like Juddian is the new go to guy for tyres - pretty sure many people in Michelin dont know this much!

I went to one of the tyre chains a few years ago and was quoted £800 to replace all 4 Winter tyres on a Citroen C5. Or about £300 for normal branded non winter tyres (Pirelli or Michelin) so picked the latter. Expensive things although there will be better places to get them. Oh and they wear out a lot faster than normal tyres.

Can also say it depends on your car. BMW, Audi or Ford Mondeo are crap in the snow whereas a Peugeot 206 or Rover Metro were fantastic. Only driven the latter three but they both ran bog std tyres.

Don’t change your tyres, change to a smaller car or a 4x4.

If it gets that bad then stay home, put kettle on and watch homes under the hammer…
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I personally don’t bother but do know how good they are. As a committed BMW nut I’m all too well aware of how carp they are in the snow. Like somebody else has said, just adjust your driving style to suit the conditions and have fun. Having said all that I do live and commute around the doncaster area which is fairly flat. If I lived in the Cornish back and beyond I might take a different view.
My concession to gaining grip was to have a quaife lsd fitted to my E92 330d :smiling_imp: Not for drifting or doughnut antics of coarse, just better traction :wink:

nomiS36:
I personally don’t bother but do know how good they are. As a committed BMW nut I’m all too well aware of how carp they are in the snow. Like somebody else has said, just adjust your driving style to suit the conditions and have fun. Having said all that I do live and commute around the doncaster area which is fairly flat. If I lived in the Cornish back and beyond I might take a different view.
My concession to gaining grip was to have a quaife lsd fitted to my E92 330d :smiling_imp: Not for drifting or doughnut antics of coarse, just better traction :wink:

How much was that from Quiafe?! I still shudder at what one cost me for my old Mexico… :open_mouth:

We brake a lot of cars among other things so never short on tyres , we keep a set of rims with winter tyres for all the cars because we cant get in or out where we are.
There well worth it in the snow or ice they do make a big difference!
Even my brother that drives like an absolute knob got every where with out struggling last year with his extremely heavy foot!

I thought it was a gimmick until we tried it even 325 BMW was able to navigate our steep lane!

Drempels:

nomiS36:
I personally don’t bother but do know how good they are. As a committed BMW nut I’m all too well aware of how carp they are in the snow. Like somebody else has said, just adjust your driving style to suit the conditions and have fun. Having said all that I do live and commute around the doncaster area which is fairly flat. If I lived in the Cornish back and beyond I might take a different view.
My concession to gaining grip was to have a quaife lsd fitted to my E92 330d :smiling_imp: Not for drifting or doughnut antics of coarse, just better traction :wink:

How much was that from Quiafe?! I still shudder at what one cost me for my old Mexico… :open_mouth:

£1600 fitted from Birds BMW near slough. Not cheap but well worth it on a Mapped diesel with over 600nm of torque.