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 – Member

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.

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 – Member

Total 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 really 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 😉

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

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 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!

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 very 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).

If you can get ’em in your size and have the cash and if ya check with your insurer about your coverage being affected or not…it’s a no brainer.

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]