Winter Tyres on a CC ?

[Deetees]

Last winter my Passat CC (on 18" wheels) was nearly useless in the snow (not quite as bad as my other half's MX-5 admittedly). I wasn't expecting 4x4 abilities but getting up our slightly inclined drive with a couple of inches of snow seemed beyond it.

Anyway, now on Passat CC no.2...this time with 19" wheels. Not looking forward to winter at all. Anybody got any experience of putting winter tyres on a CC ? Is it even worth it with such low profiles tyres ?

[hartry]

No experience myself, but... http://www.volkswagen-zubehoer.de/pdf_englisch/katalog/WKR_2011_engl.pdf

You wouldn't put winter tyres on the existing 19s, you'd get some smaller wheels with tyres, see the brochure above for VWs offering, they're both 17" for the CC which would be a lot better than the standard 18s and even more so your 19s.

There is a big thread on this subject on the Golf thread: http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?125322-Winter-tyres

[gamichea]

Is it even worth it with such low profiles tyres ?

A big yes. I ran my CC on winter tyres last winter. It was a revelation. The standard fit summer Contis are well known to be useless on a scrap of snow or ice and I experienced that in the winter of 2009/10. Last December in Lake District and Northumberland snow and ice road closures were the only thing to stop us going where we wanted to go. They were very useful here at home in the East Midlands, too. Remember they work better in all conditions once the temperature falls below 7 celsius.

Note that VW specification for winter tyres on my 59 reg. CC is 205/50 93V XL x 17 regardless of the size of wheel & summer tyre the car comes on. Your insurance should not charge for winter tyres on non-original wheels but may if you deviate from VW's specification.

You can find winter tyre tests on line at WhatCar and Autoexpress. I bought my Nokians in the summer of 2010 when they were relatively cheap along with a set of 5 Dezent alloys TUV-approved for winter tyre use on the CC for about £900 including some VW wheel centres and fitting. They look like lasting me 5 or 6 winters. Since the UK became winter tyre aware prices have climbed. The Nokians do not top the test tables but are not far behind and are well thought of in western Europe.

Another option, if you want to stick with the wheels you have, is all weather tyres with M+S markings. They won't be quite as good as winter tyres in winter nor summer tyres in summer but seem to be a good compromise (see Autoexpress winter tyre tests for 2010 and 2011 which both included an all weather tyre). We are switching my wife's Qashqai to all weather tyres this winter with the intention of keeping them on all year.

My winter wheels & tyres went on the car yesterday in good time for trips oop North this winter!

[bf47]

Have a spare set of Macau 7.5 x 17 rims (ebay jobs) with Vredestein snow tyres for my last B6 Passat that were great and at least got the car home safe on a couple of occasions and can therefore really recommend them. I was going to flog them but I have checked with a couple of dealers who say they are ok for the CC (might look abit funny tho???) so am nearly ready to swap em over as the weather is starting to look iffy and temps are dropping.
Got the tyres from Tyremen in Hull who were best on price at the time and took great care when fitting them-not like some of these t***ers who always seem to run the bar around the rims when easing the tyre off!