We drove to sking last year as the flight cost was stupid. Even after buying a set of wheels and winter tyres it was still less than the cost of one flight. Was very glad to have bought them with the amount of snow that can down, especially on the drive back. Would have been horrible on summer tyres. I went for the steel look. Black steelies on a black estate 👍.

“The sipes are for very low friction surfaces (i.e. ice) they arent big enough to move water like the main grooves.”

By ice – you mean the thin layer of water on the top of ice that makes it slippy ?

At 40 quid you cant moan especially for daaan south .

The sipes are for very low friction surfaces (i.e. ice) they arent big enough to move water like the main grooves. So in countries that enforce a 4mm limit that only applies in Winter, you’re allowed to run them in the summer down to the normal limit.

Wot he said. All the Winter tyres I’ve seen have had 2 sets of wear bars, the first one is when you lose the sipes and the full benefit of the “Winter” designation. After that you’ll still have a more flexible compound that’ll work better in low temperatures so still worth running rather than Summers for the UK unless you’re likely to need to drive on ungritted snow and ice.

Matt ..yes you will need a Costco account ..add £26.00 for that

The “winter tyre debate”  is done and dusted as far as I’m concerned. I used CrossClimates all year round on my reasonably powerful FWD hatch.  I’d not used dedicated summer tyres on it for probably 3+ years.

Their ability to drive in snow is a bonus, but for me living in the wet West of Scotland its how good they are in the wet.  Traction out of junctions is so much better than summer rubber

I’ve just bought a Focus ST and on summer tyres you had to s q u e e z e the throttle coming out of junctions you were constantly managing slip at low speed in the wet. There was noticeable tourque steer under acceleration too as the front tyres hunted for traction. I fitted Crossclimates again and its much more manageable, loads more traction coming out of junctions and just all-round better road manners in the wet.  They are quiet too and on the last car at least lasted really well.

Gone for cross climates on the wife’s car and impressed so far. This was after running her winters to death through this summer (not ideal but only used for local pootling) as after 3 years of seasonal swapping the winters weren’t good enough for another winter and the summers were gone.

RichMTB – I’d have thought you’d be feathering the throttle out of junctions in a ST anyway, in an effort to try and get double figure mpg ;->

I dunno what to do.. Cross climates £570 on my alloy wheels, or I buy a set of steelies with Conti Winters for £552 (or £660 for a better set of steelies)… i don’t have loads of space but could fit them in the garage, and have two newish ‘economy’ tyres that came on the car.. Ahh if only it was clear cut or I had a bigger garage & then I’ve seen snow here today, so I’m not panicing really I’m not…

Matt_outandabout, yes you do need a Costco account for that.

No real issue though, I have an account andlive in Central Scotland so if you wanted to meet up it wouldn’t be a hassle.

Let me know!

I’m sure mine saved me this morning. It was about 3 degrees on the way to work and an L200 pulled out of a lane in front of me. I don’t think I would have stopped in time with my summer tyres fitted.

RustyNP – have you got your Volvo V70 on steel wheels?  I’m looking to get a set for my 2015 V60 D4, but I cannot find anywhere that will assure me that 162 steel wheels of the correct bolt configuration will actually fit my car (other than the bolt holes being in the right place)

After years of shall we shan’t we put Crossclimates on our C4 Grand Picasso last month ready for the winter. Thought they gripped better in the wet from the drives I’ve had. Got admitted back into hospital last week for an infection in my foot after the operation. Came out on Monday night to find out we have swapped the car so it’s back to square one for us at least for this winter.

I’ve just put cross climates on the Amarok truck (£630 inc. vat for 4), im SW based so there’s little ice, but being 1000 ft above sea level (and i can see the sea 20 miles away) means a surprising number of snow days. So far they are a damn site better than the Bridgestone duelers that came off in wet and dry, I’ll be trying on muddy fields over the weekend. I suspect they’ll work fine in the snow and mud and apparently are better mpg wise and quieter too but as it’s been all B road work so far, I don’t know whether that’s true. I know they won’t work as well as pure winters in the alps for example, but feel ill have the best comprimise for the other 49 weeks of the year’ plus I always take chains to the real mountains anyway!

oh, and my wife’s Touareg on  BF Goodrich urban terrains (their very road biased winter tyre)was unstoppable last winter – and we ran them all summer to be able to pull trailers out of fields without any significant wear despite the constant high temps.

I’m in a forced hand situation, two tyres needing done and one getting close. Ford again.

Difference in price between 17″ for the alloys or 16″ isn’t enough to justify going for steel especially as I’m debating getting another car.

I can’t believe no-one has come on here and said you don’t need winters just a self righteous sense of invincibility, and best of all “it doesn’t snow enough in this country” excuse. Bless them.

Don’t forget, NEVER EVER help someone in the snow if they don’t have winters fitted.

I have some premium Conti summer tyres and some Michelin Alpin 4 winters on a spare set of standard alloys that I picked up cheap. The difference in low temperatures and in lousy conditions is astonishing. I’ve been too busy to change the summers over to the winters so far this year, and boy do the summers feel sketchy. It isn’t even proper winter yet.

I get an average of 45mpg on the summers and an average of 45mpg on the winters BTW.

I’ve been very impressed with the Alpins, but I do wonder about just sticking some crossclimates or something on next. Our mileage isn’t sky high.

Hey Quattro owners, Crossclimates sound really good, I have an A4 Avant Quattro Diesel 3.0 and it wears the outer strip on the front long before the rest of the tyre is done, I’m pretty sure the tracking is OK and this is a heavy engine “feature”
– so – does the front outer edge on the crossclimates scrub worse than “standard” tyres with quite solid edges like Pilot4?
For now, I’d be putting just 2 on so “standard” advice would be to put those on the back.

moved this to a new thread “Michelin CrossClimate on 06 3.0 TD quattro A4”

Serendipitous circumstances this morning.

Drove in to a garage to get the full set of CrossClimates fitted that I ordered from Blackcircles on Friday.

By the time I left an hour later, an inch of snow had fallen, the first of the winter in these parts.

CrossClimates were being used to their full potential here this morning too ! Interestingly, they only have about 4mm tread left I think and seem almost as good as last year when they were much newer. They’ll be getting replaced with same from BlackCircles in a few months..