**Unofficial Tyre Thread**

So the same website/source has conflicting information in two different reviews.

Maybe it’s just a case of “it depends” but what is certain is that an all season tyre is never the “best tyre” for a situation. But the compromise being you don’t need to have two sets of wheels. If you did you’d have summer and winter tyres.

Why you don’t have winter tyres is a mystery. It doesn’t get over 10c during winter in the north and it’s always wet.

I have all season tyres, because they are fit and forget; fitted to a small hatchback. I’m happy with their performance and know that they will be better than any budget or mid range regardless.
 
I can understand the mindset of if you're going to all the trouble of changing your wheels and tyres when the season changes then you should rotate a set of winters and a set of summers. So why are some people like myself alternating between sets of all season and a set of summers?

I can't speak for everyone that does but here's my justifications :).

Firstly it's the overlap of weather conditions between seasons. We get some odd swings in weather in the UK. Winter tyres are great in the snow but we rarely get much in the UK and in the slightly milder winter the all season are better. Better in what ways? All season tyres handle better than winter tyres in those favourable conditions, have less rolling resistance and noise, and you get better fuel economy from them. They wear at a lesser rate than winter tyres in those aforementioned overlapping conditions, so the all season tyres will last longer.

Why not just fit and forget all season tyres? Having driven about 400 miles on the all season CC2s the handling is no where near a match of my 20" UHP summer tyres and I hanker for them back :D. I couldn't live with the compromises to the handling of the all season tyres during the summer, hell no. If I drove a shopping cart or SUV that barely turned a bend at speed then perhaps I would run with all season all year round, but I don't. I'm no Stirling Moss but I don't hang around and I overtake a lot on the A roads.
 
Tricky one for me as living where I do in the south it is very rare to need anything other than summer tyres but having to do a lot of driving on rural roads, some light off-road, in any weather condition any time of day or night when the exception happens more suited tyres are really not optional. I've got lucky the last couple of years and not had to go out the odd day(s) when it has been bad - but I've been pushing my luck.
 
Mysterae_ said:
I can understand the mindset of if you're going to all the trouble of changing your wheels and tyres when the season changes then you should rotate a set of winters and a set of summers. So why are some people like myself alternating between sets of all season and a set of summers?

I can't speak for everyone that does but here's my justifications :).

Firstly it's the overlap of weather conditions between seasons. We get some odd swings in weather in the UK. Winter tyres are great in the snow but we rarely get much in the UK and in the slightly milder winter the all season are better. Better in what ways? All season tyres handle better than winter tyres in those favourable conditions, have less rolling resistance and noise, and you get better fuel economy from them. They wear at a lesser rate than winter tyres in those aforementioned overlapping conditions, so the all season tyres will last longer.

Why not just fit and forget all season tyres? Having driven about 400 miles on the all season CC2s the handling is no where near a match of my 20" UHP summer tyres and I hanker for them back :D. I couldn't live with the compromises to the handling of the all season tyres during the summer, hell no. If I drove a shopping cart or SUV that barely turned a bend at speed then perhaps I would run with all season all year round, but I don't. I'm no Stirling Moss but I don't hang around and I overtake a lot on the A roads.
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Pretty much same thinking as me. Suppose its easier for me as my firm owns a tyre shop so costs (me) nothing to swap them and i have somewhere to keep them stored safe until I need them again.

That and the stupid discount we get from Michelin means we are only spending around £450 on a full set of tyres (large wide ones!) anyway.

I may have a different view if I was buying tyres at £400 a corner.
 
[TW]Fox said:
I put the WinterContact TS860P back on the Mini the other weekend. I still struggle with the logic of using all seasons if you change wheels in winter. They are *all* seasons. For example, I had 4 Cross Climate put onto my sisters car as she will run the same wheels all year round, so that made the most sense. I'm very much not anti all season.

I'd be very tempted by those UHP all seasons if they are as good as they look and they come over here.
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I agree about the UHP All Seasons in the other test video. Based on the video comments, it sounds like the CC2s would outperform the Pilot Sport AS4 on snow, but otherwise the AS4 is the better tyre. As we can't get them in the UK it's somewhat moot mind.

As for the WinterContacts, in the 'Truth About Winter, All Season and Summer Tyre' test video, the CrossClimate 1s outperformed the WinterContact in all of the braking tests, wet and dry, above 2ºC. They're about the same at 2ºC — one would assume that the WinterContacts would start performing better below 2ºC. The WinterContacts are about 2 seconds quicker around the snowy race track than the CCs, but the CC2s are meant to be better than CC1s in the snow, so that gap may be smaller if the test was repeated with CC2s.

So if you're going to the effort of changing your wheels anyway, and unless you're spending a lot of time at <2ºC temperatures or a lot of time driving on snow, I'm struggling to see why you would bother putting the "inferior"* WinterContacts on your car?

*For UK conditions.
 
I didn't buy them last week so it's not like it's a decision I've only just made. When I said I'd put them on I meant I'd taken the wheels out the garage and put them on the car, not that I'd just had them delivered. If there is a better performing winter tyre than the TS860P now then it's that which I'd have purchased if I was buying new.

I've had them a while, but they were chosen for snow and ice performance as it's snow and ice where I wanted ability as snow and ice is the only area where I've found conventional tyres to be a problem.

On my 5 Series I happily drive it all year round on Pilot Sport 4. I'm satisfied with that choice and I've never had an issue with it personally in any conditions where frozen stuff wasn't on the road. The purpose, therefore, of the winter tyres on the Mini has been mostly to provide my partner with confidence in the event of snowy or icy weather - her mother lives on higher ground and they do sometimes see snow. She's made a number of journeys in the car in slushy conditions and the peace of mind the setup provided justifies it to me.
 
That's fair enough.

I've used SportContacts all-year-round for over a decade on various cars and never had a problem — I even managed a trip from Portsmouth to Cornwall in the snow driving the E60 5 Series with them, so I get the argument that for the UK, UHP Summer tyres *could* be better than All Season tyres in most conditions.

I only looked into winter tyres because I'm going to Germany and need something with a three-peaks label. I was actually going to go for the WinterContacts until I watched that video and did some further reading. Based on what I've seen (and based on my usual driving) the CC2s seem to make sense.
 
Greebo said:
Pretty much same thinking as me. Suppose its easier for me as my firm owns a tyre shop so costs (me) nothing to swap them and i have somewhere to keep them stored safe until I need them again.

That and the stupid discount we get from Michelin means we are only spending around £450 on a full set of tyres (large wide ones!) anyway.

I may have a different view if I was buying tyres at £400 a corner.
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Lucky you! ;). With the Kwik-Fit 15% discount it cost me just under £600 for 4, plus not forgetting the free Bluetooth speaker that I'll wrap and give to my lad for Christmas :D.

[TW]Fox said:
On my 5 Series I happily drive it all year round on Pilot Sport 4. I'm satisfied with that choice and I've never had an issue with it personally in any conditions where frozen stuff wasn't on the road. The purpose, therefore, of the winter tyres on the Mini has been mostly to provide my partner with confidence in the event of snowy or icy weather - her mother lives on higher ground and they do sometimes see snow. She's made a number of journeys in the car in slushy conditions and the peace of mind the setup provided justifies it to me.
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Totally get what you're saying and that was me a few years ago. I used to live in Wiltshire and on the rare occasion it snowed I was lucky enough to be able to work from home. My UHP summers did me all year long, for 5 years and performed admirably, apart from the snow, you just didn't want to be caught out in it. I didn't consider the winter/summer tyre change because I thought it unnecessary in such mild conditions of the south. However, now that I live in the Highlands and no longer have the luxury of being able to work from home, my outlook has changed and it now necessitates the need for appropriate tyres.
 
I'm fairly happy with my CC2 in milder temperatures with some rain and can't really fault them on the same corners compared to the F1 AS5 that came off. Can't really ask much more of a tyre on a 50mph damp bend or a roundabout that can be taken at 40mph. Did quite a few deliveries into streets with black ice on them and felt them perfectly fine unless you went silly with the throttle or slammed the brakes.

There's a steep B road around here that is tree lined and usually damp so full throttle up that the CC2 just bite and don't even think about struggling, the AS5 would usually throw the TC light on due to the nearside slipping on leafs.
 
Jonny ///M said:
There's a steep B road around here that is tree lined and usually damp so full throttle up that the CC2 just bite and don't even think about struggling, the AS5 would usually throw the TC light on due to the nearside slipping on leafs.
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One of the roads I do a bit - clipped it because of the signs heh. Doing it in the early hours and freezing, which is a possibility any time, is no joke - never mind if it iced up hard and/or snowed. Which makes for a bit of a dilemma for me as winter tyres are wasted 99.999% of the time around here but neither do I want to really run all seasons all year around but the odd time I actually need better tyres than summer as above they aren't really optional.

I have a set of all season/all terrain on order (if they ever turn up) as occasionally I do a little light off-road as well.
 
Had my wheels delivered today - DPD guy was not happy - basically 30Kg on the dot per wheel - but then it is an up to 30Kg service so...

dQ27CC1.png


They are the new AT3WA pattern which supposedly improves wet and mud handling compared to the original AT3W though not as aggressive looking - ignore the alloys I just chucked them on the cheapest not terrible alloys I could find as I didn't want to use steels. There is some method to the madness as I intend to relegate this vehicle to the dirty jobs so to speak fairly soon and get something a bit newer in its place.

In hind sight I think I should maybe have gone for 255/65/R17 over 255/60/R18 but this setup was a fair bit cheaper.
 
Anyone put winters on a golf? Thinking I'd quite like to swap out my 19 inch Santiago's on summer's for something a little more seasonal...
 
V_R said:
Anyone put winters on a golf? Thinking I'd quite like to swap out my 19 inch Santiago's on summer's for something a little more seasonal...
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My parents have had 16" steelies on their Mk5 GTI for the last 10 years :p
Only issue was losing a hubcap and the TPS sensor cable wore through at the very beginning due to rubbing against the smaller rim.

Yes, it looks as **** as you expect.
 
Blimey, just checked black circles.. £871 for 4 Continental Winter Contacts.

I'd be better off buying a cheap set of the 18" Monza's and putting winters on them, which is probably the better option anyway.
£500 for a set of CrossCilmate+ and then some cheap wheels off eBay.

Who's idea was it to get a car with 19" wheels anyway..... :rolleyes:
 
Get some 17s and some ContiWinterContacts. I think the Golf 7 looks fine on 17s. My 1.4 GT had Genevas on and it didn't look "under-wheeled"..
 
Have never swapped to winter wheels/tyres in 30 years, even with a 340bhp rear wheel drive BMW. But then I have never lived in Scotland/Scandinavia. :)
 
V_R said:
Blimey, just checked black circles.. £871 for 4 Continental Winter Contacts.
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Actually edited and removed my mention of the WinterContacts because I can't really contribute much in that respect - but the owner of the Golf with them on that I mentioned before I edited my post tends to pay for the best for actual performance rather than just because they are expensive so I'm going to assume they are good but I've no experience of them in actual winter conditions or any comparison specific to that vehicle in normal conditions.

chroniclard said:
Have never swapped to winter wheels/tyres in 30 years, even with a 340bhp rear wheel drive BMW. But then I have never lived in Scotland/Scandinavia. :)
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I think it was 2018 my brother did 100 miles in heavy snow in a Golf with whatever the stock tyres on a 2017 GTI are - just turned off ESP and drove sensibly and got through fine while dozens of people were abandoning their vehicles even 4x4s, etc.

I've never actually needed anything other than summer touring tyres in 20 years - but I dodged a bullet a couple of years where if I had been out already or had to go out they just simply wouldn't have cut it :s
 
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I didn't see your post pre edit. Black Circles only had two winters to choose from, Continental's being one of them, and they were both about the same price.
 
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