THE Winter Tyres Thread

I got a set of winters for my mx5, now I know know Fox reckons they are pointless but I run AD08Rs as my other tyre, and I know which I'd rather have on if it's -4 with a chance of some snow. Will probably put the winter on end of October and take off again mid Feb.

Cant make any suggestions but I'd buy a road biased winter tyre, I ended up with a set of Bridgestone blizzak lm25v2 which are a proper mud and snow tyre, thanks to national tyres **** up and my own lack of observation (I ordered the lm32 but when I collected the car it was dark and wet, I drove away knowing I had Bridgestone blizzak but not which ones.. I discovered they'd fitted the wrong ones a day after, I went back and complained, got nowhere but when I contacted the head office I did get a fairly sizable refund although they would not swap the tyres). If we get snow I reckon they'll do well but in cold and wet I reckon you can do better than these - continental ts850 or whatever it is or goodyear ultra grip 8.
 
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Em3bbs said:
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SOLD!
 
I've run Bridgestone A001 all season tyres for the last couple of years on my Yaris. I thought they'd be a good compromise and so far they have been.

They've been wearing well, done about 35k and got about 4-5mm left however i have rotated them once so far. They are fine in the summer months and don't feel squishy and are about 10x better than the budget summer crap that was on it when i bought it. Only used them a couple of times in the snow as the last couple of winters have been mild but they were a lot lot better than summers in the white stuff. I'll probably get another set once these wear out.
 
Skeeter said:
What are people's views on winter tyres in summer? My neighbor has run winter tyres on her Polo all year. Do they turn to jelly above 7c?
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When I worked in insurance the underwriters used to make us decline cover if someone phoned up saying they had fitted winter tyres before a certain date & we used to have to state that if not removed by date X (which was 29th March iirc) it may invalidate the policy if an accident is caused by tyre failure.

That said most of the underwriting team were morons & I had numerous arguments with them where I sided with the customer over modifications.
 
Never seen the need for winter tyres even with all the snow we have up here and I have been caught in blizzards and white-outs. I have never got stuck or into a bad situation with normal tyres and if you drive according to the conditions you are fine. I have had Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance tyres on the car for the past 2-3 years and they are excellent in the rain and snow. Previous to that when I had the Focus I had a tyre that everyone seems to hate, Pirelli P6000's but strangely enough I had no problems with those either. The most common cars you see stuck around here are 4x4's!!
 
Interesting to see your opinion Pastymuncher. The Wife grew up in Insch, she would drive through snow drifts on back roads in her 106 no bother...well her passengers were cackin it. She wants snow tyres on her Fiesta Zetec S. I'm struggling to find anything decent though. 205/40/17 v.
 
Well her 106 would probably be using 165/65R13 or some such tyre so significantly narrower and better in snow than 205 tyres ;)
 
Haha. True. The issue might be she has been used to cheap tyres. I guess good quality summer tyres are better in snow / low temperatures, than cheap winter tyres. Is it worth going down the 4 steel wheel / snow tyre route?
 
I've got a set of Continental Winter Contacts on some scuffed up wheels to put on my D3 probably next month - rotate them with the Pirelli ATRs I have on through the summer. Hope we get some snow this year!
 
This will be the first year i use winter tyres and that's only because im running AD08R's on my new wheels otherwise i wouldn't bother.
 
How do I know what the minimum wheel size that will fit?

The Fiesta ST basic tyre is 205/40 R17. However there is only a poorly rated Pirelli winter tyre in that size available.

If I wanted more choice I'd need to go 205/50/ R17 but that gives a 6% error, ideally I'd go for a 195/50 R16 to match the speedo.

I'm not sure the ST will take a 16" wheel, ask Ford I guess?
 
mjt said:
Those are studded tyres.

/pedant
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Yeah yeah...but when you search 'snow tyre' in the UK it comes back with "winter tyres from xx", understandable as we really don't need snow tyres but annoying all the same as they are different from the winters really.
 
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