People amaze me they really do, some think nothing of paying £300 a month for a car they will never own, they will spend £housands to get a 10mpg improvement or to save £150 on annual VED, let alone the massive depreciation of new cars running into many £housands on the first few years, they’ll spend £100 on a ■■■■ up they can’t remember and tell everyone they had a great night
But spend a month’s rental making sure the only points of contact you have with the road are as good as you can get?, naa mate aint wasting my money on that rubbish
Interesting Mich’s Cross Climates are having such good reviews, and no i don’t think i’d bother with full winter tyres again unless i lived in a heavy snow district such as the Highlands, we haven’t bothered with full winters on either of the current cars (wifey’s winter wheel set came free with her last car and fit the replacement) mine are all season Yokohamas, but anyone thinking of changing then winter rated all season rubber makes sense, it isn’t just traction its safer cornering and stopping too and not being afraid to take alternative rural routes when the main roads become blocked up.
An interesting thing one day loading BINIs at Cowley, heavy snow laying in the compound, basic BINI came on sensible tyre sizes, the more expensive models on increasingly wider lower profile tyres.
The basic models in the load lane on narrower higher profiles had no trouble gripping, the elastic band jobbies would not move forwards at all and the only way to get them to the salted loading area near the lorry was by reversing them, so much for the superior grip many assume with FWD.
Juddian:
People amaze me they really do, some think nothing of paying £300 a month for a car they will never own, they will spend £housands to get a 10mpg improvement or to save £150 on annual VED, let alone the massive depreciation of new cars running into many £housands on the first few years, they’ll spend £100 on a ■■■■ up they can’t remember and tell everyone they had a great night
But spend a month’s rental making sure the only points of contact you have with the road are as good as you can get?, naa mate aint wasting my money on that rubbish
Interesting Mich’s Cross Climates are having such good reviews, and no i don’t think i’d bother with full winter tyres again unless i lived in a heavy snow district such as the Highlands, we haven’t bothered with full winters on either of the current cars (wifey’s winter wheel set came free with her last car and fit the replacement) mine are all season Yokohamas, but anyone thinking of changing then winter rated all season rubber makes sense, it isn’t just traction its safer cornering and stopping too and not being afraid to take alternative rural routes when the main roads become blocked up.
An interesting thing one day loading BINIs at Cowley, heavy snow laying in the compound, basic BINI came on sensible tyre sizes, the more expensive models on increasingly wider lower profile tyres.
The basic models in the load lane on narrower higher profiles had no trouble gripping, the elastic band jobbies would not move forwards at all and the only way to get them to the salted loading area near the lorry was by reversing them, so much for the superior grip many assume with FWD.
I’v4 seen a former rally driver in an old-school 1275 GT spin to a halt on a steep, icy hill. He span the car around and reversed up…cool in every sense of the word!
Obviously up here its a different World and most have studded tyres.Even in the areas which have less snow people have correct Winter tyres,many have what is known as '‘friction’'tyres.These are specail Winter tyres without studs but which are designed to give Amazing grip.People seem to panic about snow when snow is the least of the problems.The problem is ICE,which is where you need the grip.
I was living in Peterborough in the winter of 1985…it snowed, and then was really cold …they spread grit into the fallen snow and created a surprisingly grippy surface.
I kept some old carpet to put under the back wheels of my old ■■■■■■ van as ‘traction mats’: long bits of string attached them to the back bumper in use so you could drive away and tow them with you to somewhere a bit grippier if you had to stop on an untreated road.
Drempels:
Save your money, there’s no point in the UK.
just adjust your driving according to the road conditions.
They will give you traction where there is very little on ice, snow and wet roads.
They work better from about 8c downwards. When I had them on I was able to carry on driving almost normally in a 2wd car (Rover 400) and kept me mobile and getting to work. Getting the truck out afterwards was neigh on impossible from the industrial estate but the roads were clear enough.
Id advise getting them. Take your regular tyres off and put them in storage until the weather is consistently above 8c and then put the winter tyres back on when its averaging below 8.
You can probably get 2 to 3 seasons out of them.
I didnt go for the cheap ones but the next model up. So about £70 a tyre and then £3 each for fitting.
Juddian:
People amaze me they really do, some think nothing of paying £300 a month for a car they will never own, they will spend £housands to get a 10mpg improvement or to save £150 on annual VED, let alone the massive depreciation of new cars running into many £housands on the first few years, they’ll spend £100 on a ■■■■ up they can’t remember and tell everyone they had a great night
But spend a month’s rental making sure the only points of contact you have with the road are as good as you can get?, naa mate aint wasting my money on that rubbish
Interesting Mich’s Cross Climates are having such good reviews, and no i don’t think i’d bother with full winter tyres again unless i lived in a heavy snow district such as the Highlands, we haven’t bothered with full winters on either of the current cars (wifey’s winter wheel set came free with her last car and fit the replacement) mine are all season Yokohamas, but anyone thinking of changing then winter rated all season rubber makes sense, it isn’t just traction its safer cornering and stopping too and not being afraid to take alternative rural routes when the main roads become blocked up.
An interesting thing one day loading BINIs at Cowley, heavy snow laying in the compound, basic BINI came on sensible tyre sizes, the more expensive models on increasingly wider lower profile tyres.
The basic models in the load lane on narrower higher profiles had no trouble gripping, the elastic band jobbies would not move forwards at all and the only way to get them to the salted loading area near the lorry was by reversing them, so much for the superior grip many assume with FWD.
Ha, FWD has only one purpose - to save manufacturing costs.
Wheel Nut:
Avon or India Town and Country worked well enough on the shooting brake in 1967
I had those Avon cross country (cross ply) tyres on the rear of my Austin Cambridge, bloody lethal in the wet! I came around a small roundabout on Whitley estate in Reading (concrete road surface) put my toe down and the car did a complete circle in the road. Looked across and two coppers in a Panda car were sitting there, they just applauded me and laughed!!
I never bother with winter tyres despite living on a 1 in 5 hill in Matlock, if it snows I just stay indoors!
alamcculloch:
You are talking about a biggish expenditure for something that might not happen. Go on ebay and look for spray on chains. Not a joke you can buy a spray for your tyres and the stuff works reasonably well. I used to ski and had winter tyres on my Micra ,they made a lot of difference. I used to pass stuck 4x4s the drivers had all the gear but no idea.
Not an extra expense though - because while the Winter tyres are in use, you won’t be wearing out the Summer ones. This assumes of course that you keep your car for a few years.
roadrunner:
I fitted some bridgestone blizzaks 18 inch square set up as recommended by BMW as opposed to the standard 19 inch staggered set up on my M3 two weeks ago, I drove it all last winter in 6 inches of snow on summer tyres , never again !!! , got stuck a few times and had to abandon it at the side of a busy A road, then walked back later in the day to recover it when the gritters had passed by.
Was it an AUTO by any chance?
Problem with an M3 + auto is even a gentle tap in 1st often gives way too much power .
Tbh if it gets bad like last winter I might consider just not using the car.
Last winter I got rear ended and even if that guy didn’t hit me I saw plenty of idiots not having a clue how to drive in winter and skidding about all over the place.
Yes it’s 7 speed DCT , I always set off in manual and short shift on the paddles till the engine is warmed up mechanical sympathy and all that . On level ground it will move off in 3rd easily. But that didn’t work in a few inches of snow, once the treads fill with compacted snow the summer tyres act like an ice hockey puck , no traction whatsoever on the wider rear tyres, nearly binned it going down a steep road with compacted snow at walking pace , full right hand lock and understeered straight on almost hitting a dry stone wall at the bottom.
These are the tyres I have fitted on my M3 with the identical 18 inch winter alloys , these were offered on the car as an optional winter upgrade when it was new. Took me a year to find some mint ones on ebay , very cheap as I bought them on the hottest day of the year back in July.
I now drive an auto 3ltr Merc and if my old BMW 530d is anything to go by then that also will be a right pig in the snow but at least I do have the flappy paddle on the Merc. Need two new tyres on the front so may go for winter tyres and swap the rears to the front if of the same size …
Yes, really. All either of us know about the tyres in that clip is that they’re black and round. The location doesn’t look like London to me. Do you believe skin-care adverts too?
That’s slightly more plausible, but it’s presented by a motoring magazine… In the days of Cars & Car Conversions, Street Machine etc, they were run by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts.
Now they exist to sell stuff.
People, please don’t fall for this guff. The vast majority of the media exists to sell goods and services, plus promote agendas.
Somebody said here recently, that there are drivers that would happily use satnav 5.0 and fail to use eyes 1.0. Same principle here, open your eyes!
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