Winter tyre advice giulia Quad

Caporegime
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Mine are currently just on the patio :cry: Will go in the shed once i've give them a wash. Might be able to squeeze them in the 20ft x 10ft space :D Already have several jacks and Impact gun / torque wrench as do a lot of work on my cars myself so no real hassel. Just 20 mins of my life twice a year, and the daughter enjoys helping now!

All depends on your circumstances really.
That's it, having space is a big factor in being able to run two sets of wheels and tyres.
 
Associate
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Yes, I did say I wasnt going to with the megane, as the Freelander runs all seasons all year around. But then i've ended up doing the nursery drop off 3 times a week, down country roads, some of which arent gritted, so seemed a needless risk not to get a set of something for winter.
 
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Man of Honour
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I've run two sets of wheels and tyres on our Mini for years - it works out no more expensive than having one set of wheels if you are keeping the car because the tyres for the winter wheels (We have 16" wheels for winter, 17" for summer) are less expensive than the summer ones and you can generally sell the wheels on when you change the car.

One of the biggest benefits has been that it has kept the summer wheels in perfect condition - it is a 2018 car and the wheels still look brand new and have never been refurbished. The spare set of wheels takes up not much space in the corner of the garage.
 
Soldato
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When will/did you swap Mini onto winters - as commented roads already becoming greasy&sub10 in Cambs with lots of mud left by those tractors
(with the high up most dazzling headlights - but thats for bad driving annoyances)
 
Man of Honour
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I've usually done it by now but I've not yet this year. I'll probably do it next weekend. I don't run them on my car (Though I would if finding a good set of wheels and tyres was as inexpensive and simple as it was for the Mini!).
 
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I do not like All-Seasons. 2-3 years ago I bought 4x Bridgestone WeatherControl Evo for wife's Megane and they seemed fine, but got 4 x Goodyear Vector Gen3 for my Audi A8 after they came top in the big review videos and they were awful. Just as I imagined winter tyres to be, expensive, noisy, squishy, squirmy, can't stay in a straight line on the motorway. What's more, the weather in the subsequent three winters were just wet and mild apart from 3-4 days and that was it until the cars were sold on. Would not buy again. Maybe CrossClimate 2+ or whatever but not available in my car's size anyway.
 
Associate
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Dont bother with all seasons. They were on our car when we purchased it and were just as useless as summer tires when it snowed or down wet dirt tracks, we had to immediately purchase a set of winter wheels and tires. although we are in Atlantic Canada and does snow more often, but the climate is similar to North of Scotland.

Winter tires have more cuts in the tread to stop mud and snow sticking in them which effectively makes them slicks. We use Michlin X-ice and on snow and slush the difference was amazing.

I had a set of Nokkian Winter tires for my scooby in the UK and these saved me a couple of times when it eventually snowed and i was several hundred miles away from home, but you still get stuck as the remaining 99% of people do have them and they block the roads. I once had to tow a landrover out of the way as it couldnt get up the hill and was blocking the roads :D
 
Man of Honour
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Dont bother with all seasons. They were on our car when we purchased it and were just as useless as summer tires when it snowed or down wet dirt tracks, we had to immediately purchase a set of winter wheels and tires. although we are in Atlantic Canada and does snow more often, but the climate is similar to North of Scotland.

All season tyres available in the UK are generally different to the ones you find fitted to almost every car as standard in parts of North America, though, so without knowing exactly what tyre you had fitted it's difficult to know whether your experience would be the same as somebody who picked Michelin Cross Climate.
 
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Not sure if this has been linked earlier but:


Used to run summer/winter on a spare set of alloys as others have said but having seen the above I’ve moved to summer/all season as we see very little snow. my experience has been very positive. No issues in the snow on Cross Climates and if I didn’t have a sporty car I wouldn’t hesitate to use them year round. But don’t want to compromise summer grip and performance.
 
Man of Honour
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All season tyres available in the UK are generally different to the ones you find fitted to almost every car as standard in parts of North America, though, so without knowing exactly what tyre you had fitted it's difficult to know whether your experience would be the same as somebody who picked Michelin Cross Climate.

Canadian road surfaces tend to be quite different to the UK as well, which makes a difference when you are driving on snow on them.

As you alluded to there is a range of all-season tyres as well, from stuff only suited to light snow and ice, through to tyres which will cope with a couple of feet of snow.
 
Man of Honour
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I've got it down to 2.
Either Continental DWS 06 plus or Michelin Pilot Sport All season 4's

Leaning towards the Conti's, but a few more reviews to read.

Are you sure you can buy those in the UK? They sound like they are North American market tyres.
 
Man of Honour
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At least for my vehicles can only see the Conti All Season Contact available in terms of anything like the DWS 06 plus (in terms of Continentals). The only tyre I can see which is somewhat similar in approach is the Bridgestone Weather Control A005 EVO but I dunno that would be as responsive handling wise in more normal conditions.
 
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mjt

mjt

Soldato
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I've got it down to 2.
Either Continental DWS 06 plus or Michelin Pilot Sport All season 4's

Leaning towards the Conti's, but a few more reviews to read.
Are you replacing your summer tyres or putting something on for the winter before changing back in the spring?
If it's the latter, get ContiWinterContacts.
 
Caporegime
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I don't know why people don't just buy PS5 to avoid threads like this.
Very happy with mine since they were fitted at the end of February on 43,198 miles. Still look to have loads of tread left too and I'm on 49180 or thereabouts now. They were even decent in the really cold snap we had up north in early March.
 
Associate
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I don't know why people don't just buy PS5 to avoid threads lik ethis.
Because they are the only 4 things keeping you on the road, so if you have to drive on ungritted roads, i'd prefer something thats actually designed for the conditions. So i'll happilly run my pilot sport 4's during summer, but I'd prefer something that means I dont have to drive like a granny at the first hint of white stuff in winter.
 
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