Snow tyres advice please

[johnnyecosse]

Anybody recommend a decent winter/snow tyre please? Budget - under £100 preferably. For an A4 avant tdi 1.9 se quattro. Also - is a winter tyre and a snow tyre the same thing or different? Thanks in advance.

[SPECKSTER]

I always used to buy Vredestein......

http://www.vredestein.com/Banden_Bandgroepen.asp?UsersessionID=22064936&BandgroepID=2

[johnnyecosse]

Thanks. Did you use same size as fitted during summer. How much of a difference do they really make in snow?

[jon-]

Anybody recommend a decent winter/snow tyre please? Budget - under £100 preferably. For an A4 avant tdi 1.9 se quattro. Also - is a winter tyre and a snow tyre the same thing or different? Thanks in advance.

This winter tyres buying guide (http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2010-Winter-Tyres-Buying-Guide.htm) should answer most of your questions :)

In short, we do not need snow tyres in the UK as these are usually spiked and useless when it's not snowing. You'll be after winter tyres which are good in both the dry and the snow.

[percymon]

Best place to buy is www.mytyres.co.uk who are actually a German company, but they have 20 times the selection of anywhere else.

Look at www.tyretest.com and www.tyrereviews.co.uk for reviews and user ratings.

The best seem to be

Continental TS830, Dunlop Sport 3D, Pirelli Sottozero and Goodyear UltraGrip 7

However, all the tests place a high weighting to snow/ice performance and do not rate tyres fro wear.

I've read more reports and user reviews than i care to mention - in the end i went with Nokian as they seem to have phenonemal life even when used all year round, and were a bit cheaper than the others (which i feared might wear rapidly on warmer sunny UKwinter days).

I went with Nokian W+, a bit more all seasonal than the slightly more sporty WR G2. I paid £240 for 4, shipped from Germany and fully fitted (195/65/15). Took 4 days to get from their warehouse to my chosen fitting centre, will have them fitted to my spare rims (£10 off ebay with trims) next Wednesday, although it'll be a few more weeks before i actually fit them to the car.

[Redbus]

Hi - I've done a bit of research on this recently and spoken to a good friend who lives in the Swiss Alps/Frech Jura region. They tend to change from summer to winter tyres every year out there due to the snowfall. He has run semperits over the last winter (and kept them on over the summer!). He said they have been very good and well priced. (I assume the same would be true in the UK). Look out for tyres stamped with the M&S or snowflake symbol. I have tried and not been that impressed with 'All season' tyres'. Good in a little dusting of snow but not as good as proper winter tyres in the stuff we had earlier this year. (they were better than summer tyres).
I'm going to change to winter tyres in a month or so and going to go for Semperits or Vredesteins (unless I can find a very good deal on winter Conti tyres).
Let us know what you get and how they do..

[Bratty]

I have just received my monthly ADAC (German AA) magazine through the letter box and they run a series of tests in typical German analytical (AAnal) fashion.

They tested 225/45 R17 wintertyres on an A3, and the top three were:-

Michelin Alpin A4,
Continental ContiWinterContact TS830P,
Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D.

They also did 185/65 R15 T on the same car, top were

Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D,
Goodyear UltraGrip 7+,
Esa-Tecar Super Grip 7

They positively warn against buying "Chinese No-Name" makes as the increased braking distance in the wet when compared to a better manufacturer is more than 22 Meters. You get what you pay for!

Dunk

[discobarry]

Johnny what size tyres do you have on??? We are selling a lot more snow tyres this winter due to the two previous winters and whilst we can get Avon and Kuhmo(both decent mid range winter tyres) we seem to be buying a lot of nankang and nokians(personal fave) from the mentioned above.

I also like vredestien a lot but they continuously go up in price.

[johnnyecosse]

Tyre size is 205 55 16. I am now seriously leaning towards Mastersteel winter+. They get really good reviews and seem to give great grip in the snow which is more important to me than noise levels etc. The price is very reasonable too. I suppose I'll be fitting them within the next few weeks and I'll post back once I've experienced them in adverse weather.

[guesthouse]

I'm going to try Vredestein SnowTracs in 205/55/16 for my Bora.

I've been quoted £100 each and I've tried a number of garages around Aberdeen who've been unable to provide this size or who're quoting quite a bit more than that.

Winter tyres are unknown territory for me so I'll see how it goes. Mind you, I was in Finland in February/March and travelled up to the lakes and around a very snowy Helsinki in a Punto, Audi A4, Passat and Merc CE Coupe on proper studded tyres with ease. The difference to the journey from the airport in a Mondeo with winter tyres at best was astonishing.

[OSB]

I've been looking in to some winter tyres for my Passat TDi 130 Estate, I have found a set of 4 steel wheels and when they arrive I will most likely order a set of 195/65 15H Goodyear Ultragrip 7+ from Event Tyres (http://www.event-tyres.co.uk/) not only do they do a mobile fitting service, but have a £20 discount for 4 tyres and seem to work out at about the best fitted price for a set of tyres that consistently come out in the top 3 in the major tests. As this is my first winter in a long time without a proper 4x4 to fall back on, I hope this is the best option.

[OSB]

Update on the above, having acquired a set of genuine steels from Stevens breakers on ebay I ended up ordering the Goodyears from mytyres (http://www.mytyres.co.uk/) as Event only had them in a 'T' rating, delivered to my choice of fitting station (Roadwheel in Fleet, Hants) in 4 working days, rather than the 6 suggested, and Roadwheel rang me as soon as they came in to tell me they had fitted them to the wheels I had already dropped off with them.

[neil w]

I run my 1996 A4 tdi avant on 16" alloy rims for the summer and in the winter use a set of 15" ex VW Caddy van wheels with 195/65 TR15 Pirelli snow tyres and it so far unstoppable. I prefer the higher sidewalls and steels for the winter as there is less likelyhood of pothole damage to steel rims with taller tyres.
That said I've recently taken the 17" rims from my wifes 2003 A4 Avant off and put on an old set of 16" alloys with Avon ICE Touring 205/55 HR 16 tyres and the results are very impressive.
Before fitting them the car would not move from the drive (18" of snow), since fitting them it will go anywhere within reason for a 2wd car
Thing that most people forget is that snow tyres are also designed to work better at lower temps and when below freezing they will grip much better than normal road tyres.

[johnnyecosse]

I agree that the Avon Ice touring are very good indeed - that's what I fitted in the end. My quattro is unbelievably good in the snow - every bit as good as my Pajero that's got M+S tyres. The only thing that will stop it (and it hasn't happened so far) is depth of snow. Winter tyres make some difference I can tell you! :D

[discobarry]

Hello everybody, a little late maybe but we are a garage in Halifax and we have a fairly large stock of winter tyres in various sizes and makes so i will be putting a thread up over the weekend into monday with differant sizes makes and prices for you all to have a look over.

We can send the tyres out or fit them at our depot.

[OSB]

Having run the Goodyear Ultragrip 7s for a month now I can say I'm well impressed, plenty of grip in all conditions, even last weeks ice & snow. Smooth quiet ride on the motorway and predictable secure handling, I'd go so far to say they are better than my other tyres were in the summer.

Really glad I got them when I did, the price has hiked by 50 now :eek:

[vwawudi]

Hello everybody, a little late maybe but we are a garage in Halifax and we have a fairly large stock of winter tyres in various sizes and makes so i will be putting a thread up over the weekend into monday with differant sizes makes and prices for you all to have a look over.

We can send the tyres out or fit them at our depot.

That would be great! Do you have a website? I need to decide by the weekend so if you could post sooner rather than later it would be nice.

[carmit_the_frog]

Thought i'd throw my experience in.

For the last 2 years I run Dunlop Winter Sport M3s during winter on my A3 quattro and they have been superb. I saw the benefit of winter tyres whilst skiing. Mixed with quattro they have coped with everything from sheet ice right up to the 6 inch snow down here recently.

I keep them on a spare set of wheels and drop from a 17" 225/45 in summer to a 16" 205/55 in winter.

I used this website for advice but others have listed so excellent alternatives.
http://www.tyretest.com/wintercar_tyres/index.html

[Richard Symonds]

Hi,
We changed our VW Sharan tyres to all seasons vredestien's after getting stuck last year in a blizzard in France. Have used it in the pre Christmas snow/ice in London then up Swiss alps and found them excellent. It has totally changed the performance of the car on cold slippery surfaces.

Cheers

Richard