Haven’t (until this car) bothered with winter tyres, but got a pair cheap when bought car (Octavia TSI estate).
Can’t recall what they are, getting a bit worn.

Any suggestions for good (but not OTT) winter tyres, general small town and country driving, if the snow or ice is really bad I doubt I’ll actually be out so they don’t have to be *top* performance tyres.

Hankook ? Vredstein?

I do have some experience of driving in snow — not so fond memories of driving up the A9, all white roads, cars in ditch all the way and me in a 205 1.9 GTI with Carlos Fandango tyres..

First used Vredestein 30 yrs ago, I have no reason to change from them.

The 4seasons ones seem to get great reviews

Both brands you mentioned are decent, of the cheaper brands, Nankang are fine. We have a set of Firestones on my wife’s car and they’ve been excellent. Without teaching you to suck eggs, winters are a different driving experience and you have to except you can’t fly around like you may do.

OP from various threads all seasons seem to get the thumbs up for simplicity and decent enough performance

205 1.9 GTI with Carlos Fandango

Now you are showing your age 🙂 I had an equivalently spec’d mini (tyre wise not bhp wise) !

[video]http://youtu.be/xX__PlOda0E[/video]

All season might be a good shout next time rear wheels get done.
And in fact for the fronts just in case (been caught out last year after swapping out winter tyres only to be caught in snow, late April / early May).

Thanks peeps.

But yes, winters will be for getting me there, securely rather than quick. I’m no longer in that much of a hurry!

I put cheap kuhmo’s on my 120D , holy jesus they were f***** awfull. it instantly felt like the bushes in the rear were shot. To make things worse it was still turd’s in the snow. 🙁

In the last 6 years I’ve used Nokian WRG2 winters, Vredestien Quatrac 3 and Hankook Optimo 4S all seasons and now Continental Wintercontact TS850P winters.

The Nokian winters were amazing, especially in the snow. The all season are a great compromise, for a low to moderately powered car, especially if you don’t have the room or the cash to have two sets of wheels and tyres that you can swap.

I almost want it to get colder and start snowing to test the Contis out properly. They’ve been great in the few dry and damp near-freezing days we’ve had so far.

I’d avoid posting on here before the Driving Gods line up to tell you that you don’t need them 😉

Nokian a3 or d3. Very good.

I’ve always got on well with falkens.

virtually any reasonable branded winter tyre will be well worth the outlay.
I got a set of goodyear ultragrip 9’s last year and they have performed excellently in heavy snow.
One thing you may wish to consider is whether you get a directional or asymmetric tyre…

Michelin Xice 2 or 3 on both my vehicles. They don’t do as well in deep snow as some others but for slick roads and smaller snow falls they’ve been fine. They don’t rumble as much as more dedicated snow tires.

Can highly recommend the Conti wintercontacts. Have them on the both cars, no problems at all and snow performance fantastic. Also won Which tyre test.

I have Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons (all season tyres) on my Octavia 1.4Tsi. Good grip in snow. Also good in the wet all year round. Much quieter than the Bridgstone summer tyres they replaced. So much that the car went from tyre noise being a bit of an issue with the car to a non issue. I’ve had them a year now can’t fault them.

Won the Auto Express all season tyre test this year.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/accessories-tyres/92866/goodyear-vector-4seasons-gen-2-tyre-review

I’d avoid posting on here before the Driving Gods line up to tell you that you don’t need them

Well in Norway you absolutely have to have them

I use Continental with metal studs on them

I’ve been using Black Circles budget winters for a while now and can’t find a reason to fault them. Excellent value at about £50 a wheel for my s-max.

Michelin Crossclimate seem to be getting good reviews as a well performing all year round tyre.

I’ve had Pirellis and Nokians, both perfectly good. Might try the Michelin CrossClimates next though, and just leave them on.

I’ve just got a Saab 93-X which came with cheap Landsail tyres. I’d like to upgrade with something efficient for all year griptasticness without affecting mpg too much. Any recommendations?

Ta loves.

Trying to remember what came on the Volvo as they were absolutely crap everywhere. Snow, ice, wet, dry, fields. Definitely a budget line, probably why I can’t remember the name.

Have had Vredestein and Goodyear at other times that have been perfectly good.

And the MX5 ran out of ground clearance at the front before standard Toyo T1 gave up pushing.

I have snowproxes on mine, purely because I got them cheap on a set of hideous alloys. TBH they’re a mixed bag, the hard braking isn’t as good as my old icebears, they can scrabble around a fair bit- though, still way better than my everyday hankook v12 evos. TBH they’re too wide for a sensible winter tyre, I’m pretty sure that’s the problem. Slower braking they’re very good, for really nasty maneuvres, hill descents etc.

OTOH, forwards grip is hilarious. I tried pretty hard to get it stuck last year and found that the limit is the point where the bow-wave of snow that I’m pushing through crests up over the bonnet and covers the windscreen (and, not coincidentally, crushes the bumper, ah well). This is fairly ridiculous.

I wouldn’t choose them again, or at least, I’d choose a sensible size. But they’re good all round.

I’ve used Falken, Avon, Vrisden, Pirlli, Continental and Goodyear. I get the Goodyear & Continental ones on my company car paid for by work but the Falken ones are as good and are much friendlier on the pocket.

The only winter or all season tyres I’ve had that failed to live up to expectations were Michelin Alpin. Absolute shite, and also the most expensive; twice the price of Pirellis on the other car .

For the money in north america, nokian hakelepeta always rate highest.
Michelin xi3 next then contis new wintercontact si.
Ive used x-ice 2, extemewintercontact and new this year with no snow/ice yet the new wintercontact si.

The michelins have been superb, low rolling resistance long life and less noisy than cheap all seasons.
The contis are good from a price peespective but less direct, more noisy and a little less ttaction than the michelins.
I killed off a set of x-ice when they woukdnt have had another winter left over a summer and they peeformed better than the cheap all season in the warmer conditions imo.

Hankook 4s didn’t last me long at all on the golf <12000 miles

The Toyo snow proxies I had before that lasted much longer > 20000

Bearing in mind I leave mine on the wife’s car year round as she often drives at 6am and 8 pm when in our little corner of the world it’s often in winter tire temperature world barring about 2 month.

She’s now on maxxis all seasons and getting good wear out of them. Just rotated them round the car and they are hardly showing wear after 10k.

Fwiw I’ve always had enough traction with these tires for ground clearance to be the issue. I did have some really awful tires on my last 4×4 really aggressive all terrains . Minor damp and it was like having tea trays under the back wheels

However current bfgs are m+s and snowflaked. I suspect not even ground clearance will stop em 🙂

Did OP mean that pair only, meaning that winter tyres on front only?

Don’t do that, get all four or if you absolutely can’t afford four tyres you should put them on the rear.

Well according to ADAC this years best winter tyres are.

All season: Michelin Cross-climate and Vredestein. (nowhere near as good as real Winter tyres)

Proper Winter tyres: Michelin Alpin 4

Winter tyres suitable for high performance cars: Dunlop Winter sport.

ADAC test short version.

I’ve used Michelin Alpin most Winters for years, simply excellent for getting up and down from the ski resort without chains. They work better in the wet than my Summer tyres even when it’s warm.

Another vote for NOKIAN – i had the A3’s on the 5 series – still got them but wont fit the new car 🙁 awesome tyres in the cold and snow.

@mmannerr – yup, pair of steel wheels + winter tyres up front.
Swap the alloys and general purpose tyres back on come April/May.

Haven’t had any issues last couple winters, what’s the reason I shouldn’t do that?

I would have thought that if it was *really* a problem, garage would have given a caution TBH.

Been using Nokian WRG3 for a few years, got them as winter tyres but left them on year round. At the end of last summer they’d reached the end of their life so I put the old summer tyres back on (Pirelli P7). Got caught out with an early snowfall and dear christ I could really tel the difference. Pulled my finger out and got some Nokian WR D4 – £480 for 4* allow wheels and tyres from MyTyres. Ran them till April then went back to summer tyres. The winter tyres went back on last week

Plumped for the Nokian as they were the only winter tyres I could see with an a-rating for wet conditions – and in Manchester, it’s much more likely to be wet than snowy

I have a quite powerful rear wheel drive Volvo which came with Michelin Cross Climate tyres on it when I bought it. I’ve been out intentionally trying to wheelspin it in the wet and I had to try really hard to get it to become unstuck. Bought new wheels with normal tyres on and I haven’t changed them back – crikey the difference is amazing, they are like having greased tyres, slips and slides all over.
The CrossClinate tyres were just as good in slush, even with an auto RWD car like mine.
I know they aren’t winter tyres, they are meant to be all rounders, but I’m seriously impressed and will buy them for my own car in the future.

Volvo (the manufacturer) fit Hakkapeliitta to most of their own fleet. And if you buy OE Volvo wheels/tyres you are more than likely to get them too. Sometimes we order so many that Nokian can’t supply enough, so some cars get other brands.

I guess you had some horrible no name budget winters from kwikfit.

And as stated up there ^^^^ get a set. A pair on one axle might be ok for gentle driving around at low speeds, but the first time you end up doing anything like touching the brakes on an off camber bit or trying to stop to account for some other pillock, you’ll be watching the car swap ends.

@kcal: I don’t about your garage and it’s knowledge on snowy and icy things but it is really not sensible to put better tyres on front. Do a proper test (swerve test) on snow and you’ll see that when rear tyres loose grip neither you or the ESP can regain control. Having bad tyres on front is not ideal either but they limit your grip so you’ll limit the speed. With better front tyres it is easier to get going but they don’t help when you are trying to avoid accident.

I’ve 16″ Nexen’s on mine, put them on two weeks ago for their third winter (we live in rural Scotland).

They go on in November and come off in April when the 19″ go on 🙂

Not had much snow the last couple of years, but feel safe/secure.

also RE the one axle thing. It works as a get you moving drive at a safe speed . its the perception of safe thats altered when your front axle is gripping fine so the speed creeps up and so you find your self doing the swerve test.

When i was a student i used to run winters upfront and just drive even more carefully than i do now with the 4 winters on

Around here they fit 4 winter tires and continue to drive as if it was a lovely summers day and wonder why their miracle tires didnt stop them going through the farmers wall.

cheers trail_rat. that’s quite good!
aye, good friends have come unstuck with 4WD not equal 4 wheel steering or control. 8 pints didn’t help 🙁

TBH if it’s rubbish I’ll not head out but might see what garage can do for another set of steel wheels.

What a grippping tread one could never tyre of this conversation it wheely is good.

Snow way I’d want to miss it

I had Nokian on the t4 and they were amazing. Nexens replaced not so good

Nothing to do with winter/not winter tyres.

That’s just driving like an idiot.