Who here owns a Renaultsport?

I had a look and there does seem to be a decent selection of Winter Tyres in 205/45/16. Michelin Alpin A4, Goodyear UltraGrip Performance 2, Pirelli Winter SOTTOZERO, Dunlop SP Winter Sport M3.
 
Car was fine again this morning, yay! Emissions light is still on but someone told me that should clear within 100 miles or so. If not I'll plug the code reader in and clear it, I just haven't had a chance yet as the software screws my laptop up, so have been putting it off.
 
I commuted fine in my Clio on standard summer rubber last time it snowed.

If your concern is a hill of ice, not amount of winter rubber tyres is going to help. Winter tyres are for climates where you spent a large period of time driving on freshly reoccuring snow and ice.

A slim chance of 1 or 2 days of snow does not warrant the expense of winter tyres.
 
I had a bit of a nightmare in the snow last year. I was living out in the sticks at the time, and at one point I was stuck, sideways, down a narrow country lane. Of all the things to come along a bloody Fire Engine with it's lights on came up. All of the firemen had to jump out and push my car to the side of the road so they could carry on their way.

Fortunately a tow truck was next and he gave me a free tow up the hill :)
 
Skeeter said:
I commuted fine in my Clio on standard summer rubber last time it snowed.

If your concern is a hill of ice, not amount of winter rubber tyres is going to help. Winter tyres are for climates where you spent a large period of time driving on freshly reoccuring snow and ice.

A slim chance of 1 or 2 days of snow does not warrant the expense of winter tyres.
Click to expand...

Sure about that? :)

 
Why don't they?

You pay a premium for decent summer tyres for their increased traction, better braking distances etc.

So why is paying an additional premium to achieve the same benefits in the winter a waste of time?

Don't forget winter tyres aren't just for snow - they offer sizeable improvements in the wet and cold, too.

Our winters seem to be getting worse - it's colder for longer, we're getting more snow, considering the cost of winter tyres are probably spread over the three years they'll last you, I think it's pretty good value!
 
Last edited:
MikeHiow said:
Don't forget winter tyres aren't just for snow - they offer sizeable improvements in the wet and cold, too.
Click to expand...

So claim the marketing departments of tyre firms. Always demonstrated by a nice graph containing 'Summer tyre' rather than a specific UHP tyre. Odd that, eh. When selling winter tyres, it seems all summer tyres are exactly the same with identical properties once it hits 6c..

And when Auto Express did a winter tyre test in a cold January and declared the winter tyres to be amazing and the summer PremiumContact to be horrible, when you actually removed the snow results from the test weighting the Premium Contact came 2nd and was superior to all but one of the winter tyres in the wet.

Think back to a few years ago before we had a few winters of snow and everyone went bonkers and before every car forum had winter tyre threads. Think back to a typical cold, miserable and drizzly January morning. Did you ever really have any problems with your quality UHP tyres?
 
We've had 2 tiny periods of snow over 2 years, and suddenly everyone has gone winter tyres bonkers.

At no point in the winters preceding the 2 most recent ones did I ever go "hmm, you know what, some winter tyres will really improve my car in this wet and cool grey winter....".
 
[TW]Fox;20130742 said:
So claim the marketing departments of tyre firms. Always demonstrated by a nice graph containing 'Summer tyre' rather than a specific UHP tyre. Odd that, eh. When selling winter tyres, it seems all summer tyres are exactly the same with identical properties once it hits 6c..

And when Auto Express did a winter tyre test in a cold January and declared the winter tyres to be amazing and the summer PremiumContact to be horrible, when you actually removed the snow results from the test weighting the Premium Contact came 2nd and was superior to all but one of the winter tyres in the wet.

Think back to a few years ago before we had a few winters of snow and everyone went bonkers and before every car forum had winter tyre threads. Think back to a typical cold, miserable and drizzly January morning. Did you ever really have any problems with your quality UHP tyres?
Click to expand...

Skeeter said:
We've had 2 tiny periods of snow over 2 years, and suddenly everyone has gone winter tyres bonkers.

At no point in the winters preceding the 2 most recent ones did I ever go "hmm, you know what, some winter tyres will really improve my car in this wet and cool grey winter....".
Click to expand...

It's not like this all over the UK. Cars were pretty much unmovable for weeks up here, stories of cars crashing everywhere. I am a confident driver, but even I was terrified driving in the weather we had here last year and the year before.

My dad, who has been a professional driver for years had to abandon his car a few times and walk home.

Now am not saying winter tyres would help in these situations, but because you only get 'two' days of snow doesn't mean to say the rest of the UK does.
 
To be honest, whether you wish to debate the benefits of winter tyres outside of their snow benefits is neither here nor there.

Whatever winter tyres cost is a price worth paying simply to avoid being stranded in my car miles from home, in an unfamiliar place.

I'm bored of hearing "summer tyres are fine" - The snow over the last two years probably encouraged me to drive more and I did not get stuck, but knowing the roads and having friends/family with 4x4s that can help if the worse happens makes it all a fair bit easier.

Just because you can complete your journey on summer tyres, doesn't make them fine. You can complete your journey on ling longs in the summer a damn sight easier, but none of you are fitting them to your cars.

I probably could crawl home on summer tyres, or I could get stuck on the aforementioned hill - who knows, but for the sake of £2-300, I'm not sure I really want to take any chances.
 
My girlfriend had winter tyres on her 1.2 clio grande, just on the front two and she was pulling me out the majority of the time lol:cool:

Winter tyres are worth the money and make a MASSIVE difference, your a fool if you think any different
 
Skeeter said:
Winter tyres are not worth the money and only make a difference in the rare case we get a day of snow, your a fool if you think any different.
Click to expand...

davy89 said:
Spending £200ish on some tyres for a few days in the winter? Are you having me on? :confused:
Click to expand...

Surely, as I've said this depends on where about in the country you live?

If I needed my car, and had to drive about up here I would seriously be considering it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom