as a follow up, can someone tell me the pros and cons of winter tyres for the car. In what ways would they be an improvement on a general purpose tyre, do winter tyres have any failings in more general use etc.
In the UK we don't tend to have the need for them. In Germany, they are law. They drag more, are poor at speed and generally will get trashed on roads.
They are also very noisy so you get a lot more road noise! I dont think you would need them for the few weeks (if that) that we might have snow in the UK. It isnt really worth spending the money.
Agree with everything above they are great in snow, no better than standard tyres on ice (although they find grip quicker in the broken up/slushy bits round the edges), they are noisier and put up your fuel consumption a bit.
Whether to use them depends on where you live, where and how far you usually drive and how much snow usually disrupts you during the winter (a function of the previous two)
Total waste of money if you live in the UK. In terms of driving its pretty difficult to differentiate between summer and winter here, apart from some exceptions.
I just use the same car tyres all year round & change 'em when they wear out..........
;o)
Winter tyres might be of use depending on where you live.
They are not just designed to be better in snow. They have a compund which deals better with cold weather. Normal tyres start to harden at about 7 deg. C and so start to lose grip.
Winter tyres work better at colder temperatures - it just depends if you experience enough of these cold temperatures to make a difference.
Winter tyres generally have deep, wide spaced tread to clear snow/slush and as such are noisier, and won't 'handle' as well as some decent normal tyres. They will generally have a higher rolling resistance so will increase your fuel consumption, are softer so won't last as long and will be noisier.
Living in East Anglia, I don't consider them a requirement.
If I lived in Scotland, I would probably give them a go and get them on a set of cheap steel wheels to see me through the worst weather.
When i lived in Germany, the company cars i had access to had winter tyres fitted until about April and they made a HUGE difference. I was in North Bavaria and experienced lots of snow - the tyres coped excellently. You could ALMOST drive normally.
I live in Scotland and I know for a fact they would be a total waste of money. Mind you I use the same tyres on my mtb all year round so what do I know.
Why would they be a 'total' waste of money? They are still tyres that work on your car and so long as you keep the tyres you take off, and put them back on when it warms up you aren't really losing anything (apart from the cost to change over and slightly higher running costs).
But, you will definitely get better performance in snow and colder conditions. It might be that you rarely need to drive through snow, but when you do, winter tyres do work more effectively.
To say they are a waste flies in the face of what some countries require their drivers to do by law and change over to winter tyres. I think in some countries, driving without winter tyres even invalidats your insurance.
When i was over in Germany we had a thaw in mid-April and loads of people rushed to the garage with their summer wheels & tyres. Then we had a load more snow and a couple of weeks colder weather. In 3 months I hadn't seen any accidents and all of a sudden, there were several people having prangs after losing control on their summer tyres.
I know a guy on another forum (Parkers.co.uk) who lives in Scotland who drives a lot for his job and he swears by winter tyres.
[i]To say they are a waste flies in the face of what some countries require their drivers to do by law and change over to winter tyres. I think in some countries, driving without winter tyres even invalidats your insurance.[/i]
I said they are a waste of money in the UK, which I stand by.
When it's 5c and raining next week we will look back and laugh at this thread...
[i]When it's 5c and raining next week we will look back and laugh at this thread...[/i]
hence i was wondering about pros and cons, do winter tyres offer a benefit or at least not offer significant drawbacks in cold rainy conditions. Which is what seems to be most of a british winter.
I wouldnt bother with them unless you live somewhere really rural thats affected markedly by the weather - i.e. not many gritters etc come your way.
Places like Germany- yes. I can see why but here no.
Save your money and drive with care and attention. Next.
I've driven in Scotland for over 25 years, all through some serious winters and on various ungritted roads. I've never once considered "winter" tyres.
Aye comes down to care and attention. Winter tyres (unless they are spiked) wont mean **** all if you drive over ice. Once you put all your trust into your new winter tyres you'll get reckless..
I live in highland Scotland and would not even think about winter tyres. They are only of use when driving on snow, which on anything except side roads occurs for about 2 days per year. To say that ordinary tyres lose lots of grip below 7c is absolute rubbish. Even if they are slighly less effective they will still grip ordinary roads better than winter tyres, and anyway will warm up to over 7c after a few miles.
Winter tyres will hugely increase fuel consumption and road noise, wear very quickly, and screw up your handling as already said. If you have a car with low profile tyres you probably can't get winter tyres so you would have to work out what wheel size/aspect ratio tyre would give you the same rolling circumference
Once you put all your trust into your new winter tyres you'll get reckless..
Thats a helmet argument, that is.... 🙂
Look, the suns come out and the snow is melting!
snow not melting here on the north face of the cotswolds. The ice is getting ever more polished. and no gritters for a mile.
Winter tyres, a great way for tyre fitters to sell imported winter tyres to a worrying public...year on year.
Snow tires (winter tires) do work better in cold conditions generally. As mentioned above, the winter rubber compound works better below 7degC than a summer compound. On a frosty morning, go and poke your tire tread and see how little it moves.
They do work better on ice.. as thats where their design is focussed. Winter tires are siped to pull water away from between the ice and tire to let the tire grip better. The sipes also provide more edges to the tire for traction.. as well as keeping the tread more able to move and conform to the road surface.
As a product, winter tires are the best thing I ever did for my car..but here in BC in my situation they are a hugely justified expense. If I were still living in Nottingham, I wouldn't bother and drive with more care and attention than normal (having had an MG Midget and Westfield, I'm now conditioned to driving carefully in adverse conditions anyway).
In Scotland - I probably would have a winter set if I were doing lots of miles.
Driving winter tires on a hot dry road will see you buzz through the tread life pretty quickly!
[url= http://www.canadiandriver.com/winter/at_winter-tire-time.php ]Canadian Driver Winter Tire Advice[/url]
Worked pretty well on my car today - highly recommended in slushy snow, and not bad on ice. At least as good as anything short of spikes, anyway.
Total waste of money if you live in the UK. In terms of driving its pretty difficult to differentiate between summer and winter here, apart from some exceptions.
I had some more than 20 years ago in the UK, everyone laughed at me until I was the only one to get out of the valley we lived in.
Got some on the car now and love them. Fit them at the beginning of winter and leave them. I haven't been stopped by the snow in two winters with them.
No faffing around with chains, which I carry in case the snow tyres (Vredestien SnoeTrac 3s) let me down. I wouldn't even consider socks...
Normal road tyres more or less 900km per tank, snow tyres more or less 900km per tank. So no noticable increase in consumption.
Absolutely no noticable increase in noise, if it exists I haven't noticed. I sometimes doubt whether critisism of snow/winter tyres comes from experience or parroting someone else's opinion.
I live just a bit north of Madrid.
The time that they live on your car, you're not using the existing set, so you're not really using any more rubber. The existing tyres will last twice as long!!
Go for it.
When I was a lad, most people I knew in Aviemore swapped over to winter tyres for winter as there used to be a lot more snow about then. That was 20+ years ago mind.
I live in Scotland. I've driven with winter tyres on the continent on both snow and clear roads and believe that they would be generally better than summer tyres here for a few months of the year (I live in central belt but not a big city). My anectodal experience is they are better on "ice" than most people here suggest. I obviously didn't have an identical car with "summer" tyres to do a side by side experiment. Likewise I wasn't aware of handling or noise issues at 120 kph.
HOWEVER, I haven't bought them, nor even seriously considered them because every time I've actually been held up by the weather it wasn't my traction that was the problem - it was the people somewhere in front who were stuck / sliding. I do own a set of snow chains (used twice for 200m to get to cleared road in the last 3 weeks). Likewise if I stop quicker in the wet (one of their claims) then the guy driving too close behind without winter tyres will probably run into me! Thats why I believe to make significant traction (pun intended!) the winter tyre argument would need to be driven by regulation rather than voluntary decision. The real benefit comes from the "collective" benefit of everyone being less likely to get stuck, slide, skid, and stop quicker.
I'd also actually argue against clearing/ploughing roads, because it makes people believe the conditions are OK to drive in, they expect it to be done and moan when it is not, the focus is (understandably) on roads not pavements which encourages people to drive. It makes it a PITA for people to use snow chains / socks which have to come on and off every time you reach cleared/uncleared road. IMHO it might be better to leave roads covered in snow (perhaps excluding the Motorways and major trunk roads). This would encourage average car owner to equip his vehicle properly and make it worthwhile to invest in equipment (chains, better tyres etc) if your journeys were important enough, or mean you leave your poorly equipped car at home because its clear it is not worth the bother/risk. Council bin lorries, mail vans, police cars, busses etc could all also be easily equipped with chains / winter tyres etc enabling these "vital" services to continue with minimal disruption.
as an ex-pat canuck who's been living in scotland for almost 12 yrs, this is the first year i've found my normal tyres to be a problem.
when the camber of the road on our ice-covered street was enough to keep me from going anywhere (starting in second, "rocking" back n' forth, car mats under the tyre etc.. were useless), i jumped onto the net and scored the first set of winter tyres i could find (and it weren't easy for the size i needed) and had them fitted yesterday.
glad i did.
will report back when i've used 'em in anger...
p.s. and 'ditto' to what poly said.
I've just come back from Sweden and seeing ordinary cars, even Mercs and BMWs getting about completely normally in heavy snow and slush because they all were on winter tyres was an eye opener. When there we used a Renault Megane and Volvo S60 and I was amazed at how well winter tyres worked.
Well Cpt Mainwaring you may only encounter snow on main roads a couple of days a year in the highlands but here in the wilderness of southern England I can assure you in the last couple of years I've seen plenty of snow on main roads and I also need to use snow covered minor roads to get to those mythical gritted A roads. We also have rear wheel drive cars which are useless on normal tyres in even light snow on any kind of gradient so I'm seriously considering getting a second set of winter tyres before next winter (they're stupid prices just now).
Oh and for those who claim studless winter tyres don't work on ice have a look at this
I can't believe the posters that are claiming winter tyres are a waste of time especially those in the Highlands of Scotland. I've lived there most of my life and I wouldn't be without these tyres in this weather.
I use Vredstein Quadtrac 3 on both of our family cars and both suffer much less loss of traction, brake confidently and corner better than with ordinary tyres.
I fitted these tyres to just the front of my bigger car with standard tyres on the rear and have just fitted them all round on the small car and they are brilliant.
They aren't outright snow tyres but rather Mud and snow all season tyres so can be used all year and will continue to provide sure footed driving whenever the roads conditions are dodgy with rain or snow and to be honset I wouldn't be without them now. Everytime I'm out I am easily catching up cars fitted with standard tyres slipping and sliding about and I haven't had any loss of control, unless I'm in an empty carpark ;O)
Winter tyres make a big difference, especially on cars that are poor in snow (ahem BMWs, Mercs, etc!), however it doesn't snow here much.
Landy tyres are Mud and Snow rated so we just use that now. Much better than any "snow tyre" for normal cars (apart from spiked tyres maybe).
Winter tyres are classified as a tyre for below 7degs, so most of our winter, some would argue summer too 😆
My girlfriend passed her test in the summer and given how bad last winter was around here, we decided to put winter tyres on her car. She had a couple of scares before they were fitted and they have transformed the car. Its not been stuck compared to similar cars in the same coniditons. My Octavia 4x4 never got stuck last winter, but i do appreciate the benefit of improved stopping/steering, so i've fitted winters to that too, whilst not as big a difference, it is an improvement.
The biggest difference however has been at work. I'm a Paramedic on the Rapid Response cars, a focus estate. The focus struggles in the wet, due to the weight in the boot, in the snow/ice it only gets worse. They've now been fitted with winter tyres and WOW 😯 HUGE improvement. In the wet, it will now struggle to wheelspin, steers and brakes much, much better.
You can get by with standard tyres, but winters will make things a lot, lot safer. Its not just about being able to get moving
I have all season tyres on the back of my focus estate, while not a full snow /winter tyre grip is still good and it doesn't slide about so much. On the front in the winter I have full snow tyres, these will stay on till the end of March. Then a normal set of standard tyres will go on till the Winter. I don't get paid if I don't turn up for work, simple as that. After faffing about digging my self out of a hole every 100 yrd's I bought some Winter snow tyres. The grip is fantastic, no probs at all so far. What I'm buying is a bit of piece of mind. I'm giving myself a chance that's all. I also carry my son and wife in the car. It's a no brainer. 100 quid fitted for two and changed over in the spring for 6 quid each.
Holy thread resurrection!
If you do a search there have been a couple of long threads on this within the past month. FWIW I wouldn't be without mine now, they are brilliant and I'll be keeping them on all year.
If you are thinking about buying now, the prices have at least doubled in the past month!
Edit: here is one of them [url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/snow-tyres-do-they-erm-work ]Winter tyre thread[/url]
Ha ha! I hadn't seen the date!!
Remember reading this thread first time up and laughed my head off at some of the posts. Anyone who buys a car with decent winter tyres on and didn't know, would be hard pushed to think "oh this car must have winter tyres on because of noise/wear/handling penalties"
in the end i got a set of vredestein quatrac 3's not a full winter tyre but seem more than enough for last winters conditions. Have had NO snow this year!!!!
I wanted winter tyres for my Peugeot but got quoted stupid prices in Ireland. I ended up getting rain tyres from Uniroyal which have been pretty good but all too easy to loose grip in ice. Snow - ok, ice - loads of cold sweat at times (I live off a main road half way up the hill between two sets of traffic lights).
Next yea it'll be imported winter tyres and new wheels off the ebay. Say what you want but when it's colder they make a difference (I had a set last year on the same car as now).
Hora, get yourself an atlas or a map of Europe before you say your usual, please:
[b]I wouldnt bother with them unless you live somewhere really rural thats affected markedly by the weather[/b] - i.e. not many gritters etc come your way.[b]Places like Germany[/b]- yes. I can see why but here no.
There really is a lot of rubbish posted on here. I have in front of me the 17th October Auto Express where they tested winter tyres. Here are the results (all marked as a percentage of the highest score), car was a VW Golf.
[u]Snow braking[/u]
Best winter tyre 100.0
All season 77.8
Best summer tyre -32.3
(Braking from 40km/h on snow winter tyre took 17.5m, summer tyre took 43.1m. Summer tyre was still doing 32km/h when the winter tyre had stopped.
[u]Snow traction[/u]
Best winter tyre 100.0
All season 89.1
Best summer tyre 35.9
A 2 wheel drive with winter tyres will move when a 4 wheel drive with summer tyres won't.
[u]Snow Handling[/u]
Best winter tyre 100.0
All season 97.7
Best summer tyre 42.9
Based on lap times round a snow covered circuit
[u]Rolling Resistance[/u]
Best winter tyre 100.0
Best summer tyre 90.5
All season 86.6
So that's the fuel consumption argument blown then.
[u]Cabin Noise[/u]
Best winter tyre 100.0
All season 99.1
Best summer tyre 99.1
And the noise argument as well
And on dry roads are the winter tyres a liability?
[u]Dry braking[/u]
Summer 100.0
All season 91.1
Winter 89.9
[u]Dry Handling[/u]
Summer 100.0
All season 98.9
Winter 98.4
So for very little extra money (when the winter tyres are on, your aren't wearing out the summer tyres), why would you use tyres which only have 35% of the grip of winter tyres? And yes, it's generally traffic jams which cause the problems, but if you can use the side roads instead of the main roads (which everyone uses because they are gritted) than you can get round the jams.
Really, why wouldn't you?
I've just come back from Sweden and seeing ordinary cars, even Mercs and BMWs getting about completely normally in heavy snow and slush because they all were on winter tyres was an eye opener.
When I lived in Stockholm in the early 90's it was law to use studded tyres after a certain date or chains if your car wouldn't take a studded tyre. Not sure if this is still the case but they are far from normal winter tyres.
well here in Norway its the law and we have to change to winter tyres. I have them on my car from Oct to April. Anyone bleating about them being a waste of money is a moron. They are a safety issue first and foremost and they work excellently and they save lifes. By the way i live on the south west coast and the climate aint much different to Scotland.
Desperate for winter tyres but my companys fleet insurance claims they are a 'modification' and won't cover them; I told them I'll modify the front end using tree or ditch but they weren't interested. I can't quite see the economics of my company paying for tyres and reducing the risk of any accident being less cost effective than me pranging the car and the insurance paying out.
Any insurance types on here can explain this random thought process?
Gary_M - MemberTotal waste of money if you live in the UK. In terms of driving its pretty difficult to differentiate between summer and winter here, apart from some exceptions.
Has anyone ever been more wrong on here?
CaptainMainwaring gave it a good shot
Winter tyres will hugely increase fuel consumption and road noise, wear very quickly, and screw up your handling as already said.
Gary_M - MemberTotal waste of money if you live in the UK
By 'the UK'? Do you mean Torbay or Inverness?
Assume you change out of your flat leather soled jimmy choos when it's icey?
Ben, was this recently? A couple of weeks ago they had a bit on the news about drivers having trouble with winter tyres and insurance, they had some interviews from the main insurers and the general gist was that its not a modification, and that you should make a complaint if they won't cover it.
Ben, was this recently? A couple of weeks ago they had a bit on the news about drivers having trouble with winter tyres and insurance, they had some interviews from the main insurers and the general gist was that its not a modification, and that you should make a complaint if they won't cover it.
It's only because people are stupid enough to tell their insurers. The insurers systems have somewhere they can list modification but not anywhere to list model of tyre. So... they fill it in as a modification. They should say there's nowhere to enter the tyre model so they don't need to know. Simple training issue.
Would you tell them if you swapped from Michelin to Pirelli?
Your handbook will tell you what tyre size, profile and speed rating the car takes. As long as the winter tyre complies you're covered.
I ended up putting winter tyres on my car last winter as were going skiing in France, and you couldn't fit snow chains (legal requirement) to the normal wheels.
In normal conditions, is very hard to tell the difference, but when you hit snow it makes a huge improvement, often the difference between being stuck and being able to drive.
Given that the tyres I've got are less than half the price of the normal summer tyres, it saves money too.
I did have some grief with the insurers as I had them on different wheels, and despite the fact they were a cheaper factory option, they insisted they were a modification and wanted over £100. So I switched to a more grown up insurer who quoted a cheaper premimum anyway, so more money saved 😀
I was lucky enough to find a new set of steels shod with winter tyres for my t5 van on ebay last year. In snow and ice the difference between them and my normal tyres is massive - did a mini before / after test on an ice covered side road when I had them fitted - slamming on the brakes at 30mph the winter types stopped in less than a third of the distance. The biggest benefit is I can now go up hills and steer round corners in the snow - previously the van would just go straight.
In 'normal' uk winter conditions (cold and wet) I can't say I've noticed any real difference in terms of fuel consumption / noise. They've also worn pretty well - done about 10,000 miles on them so far and loads of life left (this is obviously helped by the fact the tread is much deeper than normal tyres).
It's only because people are stupid enough to tell their insurers.
Don't think I agree with this. I had some minor crash damage to a car years ago and when the guy from the insurance company came to look over the car, he started going to the passenger side of the car. I helpfully told him that the damage was on the drivers side. He responded with 'I'll get to that later mate'. He wasn't checking the damage, he was checking over the car to see if he could get out of honouring the claim.
If there is one thing more stupid than telling their insurers, it's paying for insurance that is worthless, that is [i]really[/i] stupid. Insurers will try to weasel out of claims if you don't have the right speed rating, i'd have thought winter tyres would be too good an opportunity to miss to not pay a claim.
CaptainMainwaring gave it a good shot
Winter tyres will hugely increase fuel consumption and road noise, wear very quickly, and screw up your handling as already said.
Except they don't, they don't and they don't.
Really special amount of crap being spouted on this thread.
Have the people going on about winter tyres being 'a total waste of money', 'noisy', 'not different from normal tyre', 'no good on ice' etc ever actually used any?
They are the correct tyres for low temperatures with or without snow or ice. No significant difference in noise fuel consumption or handling in my experience and actually wear less than summer tyres during the winter.
Plus, they cost me a total of £40 extra a year to get them swapped over in autumn/spring, and that is probably recouped in reduced wear.
Oh, and my car has more grip and is safer during the winter months, and never gets stuck in snow. I don't know about you, but I find that a bit of a bonus.
In a word CHAINS
If you keep decent treads what on Earth is the point of winter tyres? If its that bad you can either a) not travel b) if you have to then chains will get you out of everything but deep drifts
So why bother with winter tyres which could void your insurance as a modification, the cost of swapping on and off or buying spare rims?
Buy a set of chains and don't get stuck in the first place!
If you look at the 'crap' spouted, I think you'll find it was from the thread started a year ago. People are a bit more clued up now 😉
[i]If you look at the 'crap' spouted, I think you'll find it was from the thread started a year ago. People are a bit more clued up now
[/i]
Its STW it's got a PHD in Crap! 😆
Who the hell revived a year old thread? 🙄
i cannot believe the amount of uninformed stupid crap that comes out of folks mouths about winter tyres
i ski most weekends and my civic 2.2 was useless in the snow last year ..in fact i was close to selling it for another scooby !!
bought Khumo i zen KW27's Winter M+S marked from black circles in Nov for £55 each, ( Summer OEM bridgestones are £90 each )
Totally transformed the car,
happy to batter up and down anything now, in fact the biggest issue seems to be ground clearance!
different noise ..bridgestones quite high pitched , winters ..low pitch, quite pleasing ...
no issues with reduced fuel ..maybe 1-2mpg max , but you drive more economically in winter ...
snow socks are great for occasional users as a get out of jail card but if you live places that get decent snow and cold winters then winters are well worth it even if for the peace of mind that improved braking and steering in cold weather gives you
from an insurance pov it's not a mod as i'm using the same wheels, just a tyre change ..
i reckon the goverment should just specify all vehicles are shod with a minimum of all season M+S rated tyres, that would make a huge difference up here.
it works well in europe and from my pov scotland is getting more and more likeit for the last few winters
i cannot believe the amount of uninformed stupid crap that comes out of folks mouths about winter tyres
i ski most weekends and my civic 2.2 was useless in the snow last year ..in fact i was close to selling it for another scooby !!
bought Khumo i zen KW27's Winter M+S marked from black circles in Nov for £55 each, ( Summer OEM bridgestones are £90 each )
Totally transformed the car,
happy to batter up and down anything now, in fact the biggest issue seems to be ground clearance!
different noise ..bridgestones quite high pitched , winters ..low pitch, quite pleasing ...
no issues with reduced fuel ..maybe 1-2mpg max , but you drive more economically in winter ...
snow socks are great for occasional users as a get out of jail card but if you live places that get decent snow and cold winters then winters are well worth it even if for the peace of mind that improved braking and steering in cold weather gives you
from an insurance pov it's not a mod as i'm using the same wheels, just a tyre change ..
i reckon the goverment should just specify all vehicles are shod with a minimum of all season M+S rated tyres, that would make a huge difference up here.
it works well in europe and from my pov scotland is getting more and more likeit for the last few winters
In a word CHAINSIf you keep decent treads what on Earth is the point of winter tyres? If its that bad you can either a) not travel b) if you have to then chains will get you out of everything but deep drifts
So why bother with winter tyres which could void your insurance as a modification, the cost of swapping on and off or buying spare rims?
Buy a set of chains and don't get stuck in the first place!
Yeh, I'll stick some chains on when the car is in the ditch after hitting a patch of black ice.
Winter tyres are not just for snow, they are for colder weather and ice.
You obviously have not used Winter tyres if you really believe what you wrote.
Used to have winter tyres with my old car but chains save a whole lot of hassle if its really that bad
Personal preference after all
Dab
I take it you are happy with the KW27's then. I was between those and Nokian WG32 until I read +ve reports on GT Champiro's on a Canadian website and went for them instead as they were slightly cheaper.
I'll endorse everything you say although I can't comment on the mpg as I haven't been able to do a proper comparison yet but from the car computer it's not more than 1 mpg difference.
Apart from having a big hill to climb to get to work, I'll be driving up to Aberdeenshire for xmas and with at least one trip to Glenshee planned I'm [b]very[/b] please I have M&S tyres fitted. They have transformed my car (Ford Cougar) which was appalling in the snow into something quite capable.
@Woody
yes, delighted for £55 each .... now over £95+ if you can get them !!
GW2's were my favored tread along with Vredersdien snowtrack 3
but as i say price was a bit silly for them.
hth
Got mine at £67.50 - a week later when the snow came they were £109.40 !
Promised update:
Got some maxsport alaska IV's (from ears motorsport on ebay) fitted and finally got to try 'em out on a coupla inches of fresh/packed snow and ice last nite.
What you'd expect, really: confidence, traction, ease of movement, no need to follow in the "tracks" created by other cars. Totally different car (honda jazz).
[i]If[/i] you can get 'em in your size [i]and[/i] have the cash and[i] if[/i] ya check with your insurer about your coverage being affected or not...it's a [b]no brainer.[/b]
Just a quicke question (sorry if this is obvious), do people replace the front and rear (mines front wheel drive)?
Different people say different things: e.g the front will stick but the rear will wash out if only the front are fitted. Drive sensibly, some say, and having them on just the front is fine (assuming it's front wheel drive...).
I went for four, fwiw.
I would unless you like seeing the rear of your car overtake the front in slippery conditions!
Makes sense
phatstanley
I just have winter tyres on the front of my Passat and I'm managing through the snow in North East Scotland without much fuss. When the car does slide (other than when I'm yanking the handbrake) it's the rear that goes but it's easy enough to catch and correct and can be avoided if I would just stop chucking the car into the corner... Sometimes it just has to be done 😉
I have fitted Mud and Snow tyres all round on the Fiesta and it is great for romping through the snow. It's much different to drive as it's much lighter than the Passat but it has convinced me so much of the benefits of winter tyres on the rear that I'll be looking to invest in a couple more wheels and winter tyres for next year.
Quite stunning to hear that winter tyres would be considered as insurance-nulling modification. These winter tyre threads and the other ones about heating the house have been rather surprising for this Scandinavian. You are a tough lot here at STW.
I hear that, Bob!
Although you get a more predictable and safe feel with them on all four tyres (which, with kids/family in the car, feels right)...
...handbrake turns are not so exciting and dramatic anymore. 😀
C'est la vie en neige...
Have had my winter tyres on for about 3 weeks now, the difference is simply amazing.
Even on cold wet roads its surprising, let alone snow and ice.
Drove back from north yorkshire today and driving on snow, ice and slush and the car didn't even blink, no traction control light and no abs (the damn thing on summer tyres cuts in every so often on wet roads).
They almost caught my girlfriend out though, she had just driven up to mine in her car (normal summer tyres) and then she drove my car when we went out. She was having to correct her steering as you normally expect summer tyres to slide very slightly when turning and allow for that. In my car the tyres simply did not slide so she ended up oversteering the car.
That was on cold wet roads.
Simply put for £360 fitted its only £100 more than my excess and a whole lot less than having the hassle of destroying a car due to shite road conditions (like last winter)
finding winter tyres the size I need has been a nightmare
[smug] just got a pair of brand new conti winter contacts for £45 each fitted [/smug]