Winter Tyres

We had Crossclimates on the front of our last Qashqai, summer rears. No problems. Worked well in fact.

Despite having survived with no real issues without Winter tyres for as long as I can remember I am tempted to seek some out for the 125 coupe this time around - partly as the upfront cost will be significantly less onerous with this car (125 coupe vs. 6 series) and I now live on a road that (given the rubbish trucks rarely manage to get down) will remain largely un-gritted during the winter and is has a fairly steep slope to the adjoining junction. Plus the trip to pick up my kids is cross country on similarly untreated roads.

The idea of the 125 on some steelies is also quite appealing so may well seek some out in a smaller size as it may well be more economical than sourcing 18" winters on the current rims

Those are a bargain!!!!  Buy 2 tyres and get 2 more plus 4 wheels free

Winter tyres are on - as of Saturday - finally the weather has dropped into a consistent "proper winter" mode. I really don't like the look of the XFR as much with the standard silver wheels (which also have less offset and are slightly narrower than the gorgeous cold-forged XFR-S black ones).

On the trailing edge of manflu and the beginnings of sinusitis it was not an ideal Saturday afternoon, though it makes up for the gym being closed. I always wash the ones coming off the car and dry them before storage, need to put air into the ones going on, etc - it's quite a faff. Frosty mornings will hold less fear now anyway, and bring on some snow this winter please!!! When I was in Winchester it was sufficiently close to coast to miss many snowy days, here - half an hour north up the A34 and close to the hills of the Ridgeway - it tends to dump down pretty hard on the occasions southern england actually gets any.

I went for a half hour drive to ensure all was OK, on the way to an "essential retail" coffee and baguette - at sensible speeds the only give-away is the immediately light and utterly feel-less steering. What I will have to watch - not that I often get the opportunity to drive hard these days anyway - is overlapping braking or accelerating with steering. And corner entry speed in general... Winters force a driving style that was best practice in the old days, but modern tyres allow a lot of liberties (and indeed going quickly is largely about trading off the blending of trail braking and steering on entry, and acceleration overlapping corner exit).

My new (to me) winter set are being fitted tomorrow morning - definitely noticing the reduction in grip on the cold greasy mornings with the current summer tyres on. I'm not expecting great things from the winters in 'normal' conditions but I won't be driving hard regardless. The knowledge that if it does snow at any point I can still get up my road (confirmed is not gritted) and to pick up my kids is comforting.

I thought winter tyres were supposed to be better in cold conditions? My Kumho KV23s are absolutely shocking so far, in both rain and ice. This morning I had to bimble down the back lanes to take Phoebe to school as anything other than a tiny squeeze of throttle sent the DSC into a meltdown of Britney proportions and the whole car felt like it was floating on the road surface. It's not like it was really bad ice either, more like the first proper frost we've had (-1.5 degrees)

Maybe I'll just try driving across fields and see if they fare any better on mud.

I’d watched the same video a couple of weeks back - very informative.

I’ll almost certainly move to a good all season for the winter months next year but given I’d shelled out for the alloys and accompanying tyres I’ll stick to the winters they have on them for this season at least and just drive accordingly.

Is it wrong that I’m hoping it snows now just to feel like it’s worth having this set?

On real snowy and icy surfaces in Alpine ski resorts, my 440i has gone up steep roads I never expected a powerful RWD car to be able to manage. The Pirellis perform really well in those extreme conditions. But here in the UK, I agree that cross-climates are doubtless the way forward.

I assume "Nordic" means the studded sort? Even in Moscow I didn't bother with those on the Alfa because (a) the Nokian winter tyres I did buy were excellent in snow and ice and (b) so far as I'm aware studded tyres are illegal here and I wanted a set that could also be used to drive back to the UK.

A Nordic tyre is an ice tyre and can be studded or not, the one in the test wasn't but they are for conditions where the roads aren't cleared and it's below freezing all the time.

Ive had Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen 3 fitted to my mums car and having taken it out for a quick thrash, and looking at the figures in the test below, how long before a decent set of all seasons is just  the norm, and what will be standard fittd to a lot* of cars:


www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2020-Tyre-Reviews-All-Season-Tyre-Test.htm

*a lot...as in standard road cars. For example, I still wouldn't have all seasons fitted on mine, as in the spring/summer/autumn I'd still want PS4's , and I reckon most performance cars would be the same. But reading the figures above, tyres like the Goodyear seem all the tyre you'd ever need  for most

My Michelin winters are great in greasy and damp conditions. I can take off from the lights like a scalded cat with no traction issues whereas my summer Pirelli's would have me crabbing down the road looking like a plonker. Over about 8 or 9 degrees I notice the winters becoming too soft but at this time of year most of my driving is early in the morning and in the evening when the temperature is usually 5 degrees or less.

Binned my winter wheels and tyres off today and put my 18s back on. Turns out they're all shod with M+S tyres anyway. I should make £200 flogging the 17s with the Kumhos on.


I also got given a pair of brand new Michelin PS4s for the front of my car after a colleague ordered new tyres and they delivered 6 instead of 4 and I fitted them for him. I just need to find some rears to match now.

It wasn't just the snow it was the frozen solid sleet that had fallen beforehand. I had to use water to melt the ice and free the doors and even with the engines running it took me nearly 15 minutes to defrost 2 cars. The ice around the door handles was over 1/2 an inch thick. I was glad for the winter tyres this morning.

The thin covering we have is frozen