What are your impressions of the above?

I recently bought some Nexen N Blue 4 Season tyres on the back of a positive review in Autocar gaining a respectable enough 4th place in their grouptest.

They only cost me 47 quid each on ebay from Germany & in the recent snow feel every bit as good as a premium snow tyre.  I was climbing seriously steep roads in 6” of snow without loosing traction.

They might be slightly compromised in Summer driving / temperatures but they aren’t attached to a performance car so I won’t be squeezing every last ounce of grip out them on B-road thrashes.

Recommended!!!

Michelin Cross Climates are amazing and I’ve heard people struggle to get hold of them as they’ve been so popular.

Ive got some on my Volvo 940 – rear wheel drive, automatic and turbocharged. I went out in slush once with the intention of getting the back end out and try some drifting and really struggle – i had to properly boot the throttle to lose grip.

Not so much all season, but back in october the local tyre guy had dunlop winter sports in cheap, £40 each. I thought why not , winters coming and if i get a year out of them all good. Had no issues with the snow, and there’s been enough cold and icy days to justify them so far. I know  in the summer they will probably be pants, but the thread should last enough to justify the cost.

I got the Cross Climates when they came out and have been waiting for some snow. They’ve been really good and will be replaced by Cross Climate +

Had maxxis all seasons on the old berlingo for 20000 miles. Getting past their best now but did the job well. They kept going right up till the snow was too deep and the front of the car rode up. But under moderate to heavy breaking (purposfully to test) on cold wet road ….abs would kick in . And made no difference to road noise. They also got rid of wallowy disconnected feel that the previous Uniroyal rainsports had

Latest berlingo has nokian winter’s on -they really are a different beast to the all seasons . Heavy braking purposefully  on a cold wet day and I couldn’t get abs to kick in at all. The tires just wouldn’t let go.

I wouldn’t bother with summer tires again tbh. All seasons are where I’d stick my money.

Watching with interest. Have been car shopping and have been checking all season availability for wheels as a key purchase decision factor.

This review was excellent I thought.Cross Climate’s will be first choice but open to alternatives especially if Michelins work out much more expensive.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/accessories-tyres/92863/all-season-tyre-test-20172018-top-all-weather-tyres-tested

Cross Climates are indeed test winners but are more summer biased than winter.  I think if you live somewhere that regularly gets snow in the UK one of the other ones in the test would maybe be a better bet.

https://www.mytyres.co.uk

the above is a gd website for all seasons

I put CrossClimate plus all round on my A6 Quattro in December and have  impressed with them through a fair amount of snow and slush here in west of Scotland.

All seasons should be standard fit in this country, with owners of fast cars switching to their summers wheels with sticky rubber.

I’ve had Toyo H09’s, Kleber Quadraxer, Nokian Weatherproof and now Michelin Cross Climate+.  The Michelin’s are the best so far in terms of handling and expected wear.

I put Cross Climate plusse’s on all round on my V70 a few weeks ago. They’ve now done a ski trip to Austria and the snowmageddon a couple of weeks ago.

Very good. Quieter, no impact on fuel consumption or handling and they gripped well though without a back to back test, difficult to tell how much better than summer tyres. £160 a corner and they apparently last 20% longer so the £ premium required is self funding.

I have been running full winters all round for the last 8 years, 12 months of the year. I have been toying with a swap to cross climates next time so this is a timely thread.

The OP’s tyres are interesting, I google them and all the images show a tyre that is very similar in tread design to my Gislaved Nordfrosts (full winters) so it’s perhaps not surprising that they perform so well in decent snow. But it does raise the question about where abouts the switch from all season to winter tyre occurs – there must be some all seasons that are identical or close to winter tyre performance in full winter conditions. Or even better.

My tyres have been defeated in fresh wet snow and I had to stick the chains on going uphill in the alps. To be fair everybody else was in the same boat, save for the 4×4’s, so I wasn’t too disappointed.

Those Nexen tyres look interesting, I’ve found them for less than £40 online, so I might see about using those instead of the cheap generic rubber I’ve got on the Octavia when the time comes to replace them.

I have Nokian Weatherproofs (no Cross Climates in my size).

They have been awesome in the recent weather. Haven’t really been able to tell much difference from my wife’s winter tyres.

Very impressed with the Vredestein Quatrac 5s we had fitted to our Golf last Autumn.  The grip in the snow was excellent, even around hilly FoD. (Will have to wait and see what they are like when the warmer weather arrives.)

Being too tight and fitted new tyres in October, I’ve been thinking about getting some narrower steel rims and putting on some winter tyres – but again, it is cost that is stopping me as it still isn’t ‘cheap’ (N.B. I’m happy to spend money to be safe, but given the lack of snow and ice for about 48 weeks of the year, I’m struggling to see the benefit at present).

So, all season tyres – what are the pros to these and the cons?

Or, where to find cheap steel rims and where to find cheaper priced rubber – not cheap rubber, just the lowest prices for the tyres.

We’ve had Hankook Dynapro HP2 on the Kuga since new. Done allsorts of roads and weathers and never had a worry.

Pro of All Seasons (or for Cross Climates, summer tyre with the winter performance of All Seasons) is complete lack of faff. No spare rims to store, no remembering to change to winters in a warm October (or in my case changing my wife’s summers to winters when it started snowing), no £1000 for another set of alloys and tyres.

Pro of full winters – better performance in snow.

Ok, so sounds like All Seasons for the cheapskate wallet in my pocket, ta.

I’ve just arranged fitting of 4 crossclimate plusses for the octavia…
£40 off a set of 4 on black circles – £370 all in… 225/45/17s..

FYI

DrP

Got the Nexen 4 seasons for our Yeti from mytyres and had them fitted locally as the local Nexen dealer couldn’t get them in. Have been great so far in the snow and mud.

Michelin Cross Climates are amazing and I’ve heard people struggle to get hold of them as they’ve been so popular.

Not massively impressed with my Cross Climates. That said they are on a 21 year old Caravelle as they were the cheapest load rated tyres available at that point, which is maybe not the best platform.

@countzero:  Yes, i found them on ebay for 47 quid from germany for 205/55/16s so they were much cheaper than Michelins / Good Years etc.

Aparently Nexen totally revised them for this year & so they are lots better than their predecessors.  The only weakness being more prone to aquaplaning in standing water than other all-season tyres

The only downside I’ve found with Cross Climate+ is that they grab heavily into standing water. Everywhere else they’ve been good and I haven’t noticed any other compromises to the original Hankook Ventus S1 EVO2 which were on before.

This winter I’ve used Cross Climate +s – in previous winters I’ve used Continental Winter Contact TS850s.

The Michelin’s do not have the same ability on a slushy road as did the Continentals. The Continentals always felt totally planted but the Cross Climates sometimes felt squirrelly.

I’d love one set of tyres to get me through the year – so much simpler! – but am not sure if the Cross Climates are the ones for me – I think I might prefer a more winter biased all-season tyre.

Basically, what Murray said above!

Are Cross Climates like winter tyres in that you have to have all 4 wheels done at the same time?

I need two new rears on my car, but the fronts will probably see my right for another 4 or 5 months.

Anecdotal but my mrs ran cross climates on the front for longer than that over summer and bought 2 more in december, never had any issues.  I think as log as you have the 4 by the time you need them you’d be fine.  I drove her car in the snow with them once as mine couldn’t move, the difference was impressive.

I’ll be doing mine before next winter (although may look at cheaper all season tyres as I’m stingy)

Cross Climates are summer tyres so no problem mixing them with other summers. Fitting to the back is the best way to go for new tyres in any case as it reduces the risk of oversteer.

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Are Cross Climates like winter tyres in that you have to have all 4 wheels done at the same time?

I need two new rears on my car, but the fronts will probably see my right for another 4 or 5 months.

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You might be alright if by 4 or 5 months you don’t mean much wear, but I had fronts about a year newer that my rears and it made the car **** lairy in icy weather!

I have Nokian Weatherproof, my wife swaps between winter and summer tyres. Weatherproofs are awesome, will be sticking with them and doing both cars once she needs new tyres (or a new car).

Cross Climates are summer tyres so no problem mixing them with other summers. Fitting to the back is the best way to go for new tyres in any case as it reduces the risk of oversteer.

With that much better grip than a summer tyre in cold or wintry conditions, that might not be a brilliant idea. The problem won’t be as extreme as mixed winter/summer but I wouldn’t want to mix them. New summers on back, older cross climates on front has a fair chance of leading to a bit of winter weather ballet.

Just move South and use summer tyres all year. Solves all this worrying.

Round here I don’t think i want to be able to stop too quickly as the enraged southerner behind me (heaven forfend I obey a speed limit) will end up in my back seat.

(Tongue in cheek before the h&s offended Wade in on technicalities and relative merits).

I ran Nexen N Blue on our previous car, they were good tyres for grip and wear, but I was concerned that they cracked around the circumference of all the tyres in the valleys of the tread very quickly. They also came up very small for their size so looked weird on our car compared to the previous tyres.