Do I need all seasons?

Gayjin said:
Interested to see this thread.

I have a spare set of wheels that i'm looking for tyres for.

I'm thinking either the following:

1 set of track friendly tyres (RSR's AD08's etc.)
and
1 set of All Seasons

Or

1 Set of rain friendly (it's Ireland after all) "sporty" tyres
and
1 Set of Winters

I live in the Wicklow mountains and whereas it's not exactly Everest, i'm more likely to see snow, and given that we're reasonably isolated, live on a country lane and down a small slope - I need to be able to get out if the weather turns.

I'm just thinking full winters would be extreme for mostly wet conditions, with a good few days of snow.
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I've got Bridgestone all seasons on my stock alloys on my classic Subaru Impreza and another set of alloys with track tyres. Seems a good compromise to me living in rural North Wales and driving through Snowdonia where it can be very useful to have something other than summer tyres on at least 1 car in the household.
 
I used to run on Continental winters in the Lexus and being completely honest I didn't find the performance in cold/damp/wet typical winter conditions any different to a summer tyre. In snow they were brilliant and I took great joy in walking an M3 with ease but the truth is we had to actively go out and seek snow to try it, it simply doesn't snow here.

I would say anything other than a summer tyre is a waste of time.
 
True - I've always coped fine in the winter with my summer tyres, but they're definitely not as good as they are in the summer (duh!! :p). All I know is when I was living and driving on the continent, changing to winter tyres did transform the car for driving in the winter, even RWD cars. That said, it made more of an impact when there was snow...
 
with our 5 hours of snow a year I stick to summer tyres!

if you want winters go for proper winters on a 2nd set of wheels!
 
Freefaller said:
True - I've always coped fine in the winter with my summer tyres, but they're definitely not as good as they are in the summer (duh!! :p). All I know is when I was living and driving on the continent, changing to winter tyres did transform the car for driving in the winter, even RWD cars. That said, it made more of an impact when there was snow...
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Surely RWD is the main point of all season or winter tyres? In bad weather if its a bit icy bmw/mercs arent going anywhere fast especially if its uphill.
 
tom_nieto said:
Absolutely this. Put some all season tyres on my S2000 (extreme example I know), but apart from a couple of very cold mornings the handling and grip was unbelievably bad. Would have been better getting a taxi on those mornings and saving the cash!
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Absolutely agree .. a few years ago I put Goodyear vector 4 seasons on a Bmw and while they were great during the heavy snow we had that winter allowing me to drive up a steep country lane some other cars couldn't get up, the handling and breaking during the summer would having probably been better on cheap
Chinese budget tyres!

The difference with Michelin cross climates though is they are based on a summer tyre where all other all season tyres are based on winter tyres and it really shows as I've noticed no loss in handling or breaking during summer. I really believe they are the best option for an average family car if you want more of a winter tyre performance during winter without losing any safety during the summer and don't want to swap tyres/wheels over every 6 months.
 
grudas said:
with our 5 hours of snow a year I stick to summer tyres!

if you want winters go for proper winters on a 2nd set of wheels!
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That's how I feel. No point in all seasons. But winter tyres do work amazingly well in the cold compared to summer tyres. All seasons are just a false economy in my opinion.

theone8181 said:
Surely RWD is the main point of all season or winter tyres? In bad weather if its a bit icy bmw/mercs arent going anywhere fast especially if its uphill.
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Yes but the compromise of an all season tyre does not make it worth it throughout the year. Shove some winter tyres on a RWD car and it transforms the car in the winter - I can only speak from experience though.
 
I have and love my cross climates, for an all season they wear incredibly well and summer performance seems on par with most premium tyres I've used.
In the wet they're very good, keep the car nice and stable without much aquaplaning.

Though we don't get much snow down this way, it did drop to -5 and I could certainly appreciate the difference over a summer tyres.
They're a good tyre for the safety concious who don't want the hassle of swapping tyres, or having to question their safety in the winter months.
One thing I will say, they have very angled shoulders, so you can push them only so far but you really feel the tyre pushing against you when pushing your luck.
 
Just changed my 2 series gran tourer onto cross climates. I'll hold out on the outcome, but the reviews seemed great. NW Cumbria here, so lots of wet weather.
 
Spartacus said:
Absolutely agree .. a few years ago I put Goodyear vector 4 seasons on a Bmw and while they were great during the heavy snow we had that winter allowing me to drive up a steep country lane some other cars couldn't get up, the handling and breaking during the summer would having probably been better on cheap
Chinese budget tyres!

The difference with Michelin cross climates though is they are based on a summer tyre where all other all season tyres are based on winter tyres and it really shows as I've noticed no loss in handling or breaking during summer. I really believe they are the best option for an average family car if you want more of a winter tyre performance during winter without losing any safety during the summer and don't want to swap tyres/wheels over every 6 months.
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I am really thinking of putting on some Michelin cross climates+ tyres on next after these current tyres need changing.

All reviews seem very positive, if i had somewhere to store another set of wheels, id have a set of winter tyres and summer tyres though

Been reading the Auto Express review on winter tyres and All season tyres etc, and these are rated very highly

just watched this video too and they do seem good :

 
Give the cross climates a go mate and see what you think. On my new motor i have Michelin vector Gen 2's . Better in the wet, dry and snow than the cheap Chinese ditch finders that were on it when i bought it.
On my old motor i had Kumho Ka31 Solus all seasons , they had much better grip in the wet and lasted longer than the continentals that were on it.
 
I swapped out a full set of goodyear eagle F1AS2's, which were superior to both the michelin PS2's and the uniroyal rainsport 2's I had previously, for cross climates last year and have zero regrets. (they even had 5mm of tread left) Thus far the performance difference between the tyres is virtually non existent during the summer, dry or wet, vastly better in the cold and infinitely better in the snow. Considering that I also dropped the size from 225/45R17 to 195/60R15, I'd say that's quite a feat. Best of all is that they are not only quieter but also seem to last for an impressive mileage. My brother had a set fitted 3 years ago and got 26K out of them.

The reality of it from my perspective is that the public highway is not my own private racing circuit and therefore I don't need track orientated UHP summer tyres, particularly given the horrendous state UK roads are kept in. I'm perfectly happy to give up what is around 1-4m hot dry braking performance for a 5-10m improvement during the colder months and north of 20m in the snow. It'd make more sense to keep a spare set of wheels with track orientated tyres instead. (as you can take them to a track day and destroy them, then swap back to sensible tyres to come home)
 
Dropping a size will improve performance in the snow and wet by itself though. A lot of cars come with tyres which are really to big for the power they have, but "it looks cool" so they come with them.
 
I was looking at these as an option as my car seems absolutely abysmal in the snow of which I get a lot more than usual where I've moved to.

Not sure if it's the setup of the car or just 225/40/18 with low end torque but for £20 extra a tyre I fancy giving the cross climate a shot over F1AS3.
 
I would just be concerned about the wobbly treadblocks in summer. The moves around a lot and doesn't inspire confidence when pushing on.

FWIW I've just bought a Golf that has had a 'brand new' (production date xx16) set of Goodyear somethingorother all weathers put on by the dealer and I was thinking of selling them and replacing them with winters, but that'd be a waste of money.

I'll keep the all weathers and buy a set of summer wheels/tyres to go with it. I doubt this car will be going to Alpine/Arctic territories in winter so I'm sure they'll be good enough for the winter months down here.
 
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