Tyres: All season tyres, do we have them in the UK?

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Hi there


I now have the Jaguar and as tyres are cheap in 16" I am contemplating giving it fresh boots all round.

However here in the UK it seems tyre manufacturers mainly only push either Summer, Track or Winter tyres.

Wheras in the USA they offer what they call All Season tyres, such as the Conti DWS extreme which seems a jack of all trades and performs quite well, it even works to acceptable levels in snow.

So considering the UK only gets a smattering of snow, how come all season tyres don't seem to be pushed over here as surely a tyre like the DWS extreme from Conti would be ideal in the UK climate for all year round use and would work well on the snow we do get.

Check the tyre out:-
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Continental&tireModel=ExtremeContact+DWS

As you can see it seems a good tyre.

Unfortunately its not available in the UK. :(


So does anyone know of a similar all season tyre here in the UK, I've not tried looking to hard so I may have just missed something obvious but am interested in finding something like the DWS extreme for the Jaguar as its not an all out handling machine and it will be used in winter months mainly but winter tyres are massively over-priced and for the amount of snow we get there is no need for a dedicated winter tyre as such as a decent Summer tyre still offers good performance even in the cold, its only in ice/snow summer tyres completely fail.

So if anyone knows of a tyre they have used in light snow and has performed well please let me know.

What I might do is just order a set (4) of the DWS Extreme from the USA as they are only £250 plus shipping, plus VAT.
 
Fox is without doubt our resident tyre nazi :P I do kinda agree with him though just wack some decent shoes on it and be done with it. We get a few days snow a year so you would be mad to base your tyre choice on that fact. Although I do keep seeing a dunlop advert on tv about snow tyres and the tread pattern does look kinda funky.
 
[TW]Fox;20479648 said:
They are not that popular because they reduce tyre performance for 75% of the year in return for... Err what exactly?

beatdeadhorse2.jpg


Let it go already, it's getting embarrassing.
 
If you have a performance car and want to hoon it around in winter during icy and snowy conditions then buying a set of wheels with performance winter tyres is probably a must and would make some sort of sense. You would still have a high chance of stacking it though.

I would assume, most of the above people just adapt their driving style and slow down enough during poor winter conditions or on un-grit roads etc rather than still bombing it around regardless.

When snow and ice become a serious problem in the UK, the roads usually become impassable anyway until they are properly ploughed and grit especially as 99% of the other cars end up stuck, so whether you can still transverse the road or not becomes a moot point. If you are facing these extreme conditions for more than a few days a year, or live in the middle of no-where, get a 4x4 or at least snow chains on a regular car.

For sleet, heavy rain, light snow and sub zero temps using good ‘summer tyres’ and slowing down a bit will be sufficient. Vredestein QUATRAC if you must for all seasons.

The only time I have been in real trouble in heavy compacted snow was when the camber of the road was such that when I stopped at a junction to give way, my whole car slid sideways into the verge (did this when I was stationary). Two cars behind had the same problem, then when some idiot tried to pass us, he started sliding into my car. Eventually we all managed to reverse back down the road by helping each other out.

I gave up trying to get to work at that point and went home then worked from there.

There was one day last year where I couldn't get out of our road due to snow and so I walked to work.
 
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If you have a performance car and want to hoon it around in winter during icy and snowy conditions then buying a set of wheels with performance winter tyres is probably a must and would make some sort of sense. You would still have a high chance of stacking it though.

He isn't really talking about a high performance car, relatively, it's a slow old mans jag that he's knocking around in to save his 911 getting salty, dirty, or crashed into by some idiot.

I believe (may be a vicious slur) that it has some form of ling longs on atm? So obviously can see he'd want to change, and as it's just a comfy winter run-about for him why not try something in-expensive and suited to the conditions he'll be using it in.

I wouldn't advise winter tyres for this because he'll probably sell it in March and having winter tyres on then might put people off. Decent winter tyres would doubtless cost more too and be of questionable advantage.

Ultimately though, opinions without experience are worse than useless and tyre reviews little better so I'd recommend to give it a go, at least you'll know then and if you can't experiment a little on a winter run-about when can you?
 
He isn't really talking about a high performance car, relatively, it's a slow old mans jag that he's knocking around in to save his 911 getting salty, dirty, or crashed into by some idiot.

Yer I know, hence the suggestion of Vredestein QUATRAC if all season are a must. Not many other options really.

My rant about people with performance cars wasn't aimed at gibbo it was just a generic rambling.
 
0-60 in 6.9 is hardly slow really is it?

Anyway in your haste to put me down with a funny gif (:p) you missed my point anyway. Gibbo was suprised that the all season tyres are not more popular.

We dont have the winter many other countries have and as a result fitting tyres suited to winter is a very discretionary thing. It only tends to appear on the radar of the less cost concious, more interested motorist as the ones who simply want to save money will usually tend to just not bother.

All Season tyres then offer reduced grip in summer over a summer tyre and reduced grip in snow/ice/whatever over a winter tyre.

The discerning non-cost-concious motorist will thus go for the better combo of a good set of summer and winter tyres. The cost-concious motorist will simply not bother and keep the Ling-longs on. Leaving a very limited market for the compromise choice of all season tyres. This is therefore why they are reasonably rare over here yet more common in parts of the US where if you have summer tyres on in the winter you are going nowhere - so the budget-minded drivers dont have the choice of not bothering at all..
 
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[TW]Fox;20480498 said:
0-60 in 6.9 is hardly slow really is it?

i think the 185bhp version does 0-60 in 6.9, but the std ones do 7.9 :) Still, its hardly slow vs most other "shopping trollies" ;)
 
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i think the 185bhp version does 0-60 in 6.9, but the std ones do 7.9 :) Still, its hardly slow vs most other "shopping trollies" ;)

Its got 243BHP I believe and is indeed 6.9s as its a manual. :)

Auto's are same BHP but 8.0s and the AUTO tends to self destruct every 60,000 miles. :eek:
 
Hi there

My point was that the car currently needs one tyre replacing, down to legal limit, so I always change at least a pair at a time in order to have matching tyres on axles.

Now wheras this is not a slow car, its not a performance car, I don't intend to be trying to break any record corner speeds or braking test, as such a premium performance Summer tyre is not necessary or a requirement.

As I will use this car throughout winter and maybe odd times in warmer months I just wanted a tyre that will work reasonably well all year round, which includes any small amounts of snow we will/may get.


Fact is in the UK winter tyres are not a requirement, they are designed for more extreme environments and are only really necessary if your car is fitted with extreme Summer/Track type tyres, for example R888's, AD08's, RS2's, A048's etc. etc. This kind of tyre is bordering dangerous in freezing/wet conditions and completely useless in anything resembling snow.

However your decent Summer tyre like say Conti CS3 or Goodyear F1 is a superb tyre in all conditions, even in freezing wet conditions, I know this as my Michelin Super Sports on the 911 are providing tremendous grip even when its been as low as 3c and wet in the mornings recently, infact mind boggling. So yes a good Summer tyre works very well all year round, apart from on snow.

But when snow does fall then Summer tyres are also pretty much useless actually on snow, only all season tyres just about cope and winter tyres offer up a lot more grip.

So for me I'd only buy dedicated Winter tyres on a performance car I used all year round which in the Summer months had Extreme/Track type tyres fitted, this is when Winter tyres is a good idea, aka when I had the EVO, been able to drive on snow at 60mph was simply awsome. :)


The Jaguar however is not a performance car and as such it just needs a decent all round set of tyres which will offer acceptable road handling in all conditions and still have a bit of ability in snow. From what I can gather any tyre sold as all season here in the UK has stupid pricing associated with it, typical UK pricing.

So that leaves me either trying to buy the Conti DWS Extreme from US which is highly rated or I go with a Summer performance tyre that tends to win more awards for its wet performance and fingers crossed it will just about cope with a bit of snow. Because where I live there is steep hills and we do get snow every year.
 
Hi there

The Jaguar however is not a performance car and as such it just needs a decent all round set of tyres which will offer acceptable road handling in all conditions and still have a bit of ability in snow. From what I can gather any tyre sold as all season here in the UK has stupid pricing associated with it, typical UK pricing.

So that leaves me either trying to buy the Conti DWS Extreme from US which is highly rated or I go with a Summer performance tyre that tends to win more awards for its wet performance and fingers crossed it will just about cope with a bit of snow. Because where I live there is steep hills and we do get snow every year.

As pointed out, just get some Vredestein QUATRAC if you need this sort of tyre, they seem to come up best value overall. Why go through all the hassle of sourcing or even contemplating the DWSs?

If you have snow then nothing will beat snow chains and some decent Michelin or Contis for the rest of the time. Heck snow chains will work as well on budgets.

In the UK we either have snow deep enough to warrant snow chains and for the few days per year you may need them, it is worth the effort to pop them on as and when, or slush/ice to simply warrant careful driving.
 
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