Winter Tyres - my findings

There was quite a bit of discussion on here about winter tyres - whether to get them or not.
I just got back from Chamonix, France, with some cheapy Winter tyres on my original wheels on my A6 3.0 Tdi Quattro.

The roads were clear: we were lucky. It could easily have been so much worse.

But car parks and driveways were pure snow and ice, and some of them quite steep. The quattro handled them all with ease. I got out of the car in a car park, not having felt any loss of traction, and had to hold on to the door to stop myself slipping over.

These were the cheapest Winter tyres I could find. Mytyres : £55 each (Goodride brand) + £11 each fitting from a local tyre dealer.

Fuel economy seemed unaffected by these tyres, about 40mpg over 1410 miles according to the computer. They are a bit noisier and the steering is slightly vaguer, but nothing to cause concern.

The temperature went as low as -16C in the daytime, but the engine started first time every time, albeit not on all pots for a second or two I think !! I didnt put any special additive in the diesel, i was told the diesel in the Total station was good to -20C.


Saw a front wheel drive car with Winter tires slide into a wall, fortunately snow covered so no big damage, in the same car park as in the photos below, so the tyres arent a panacea - just a big help.... and there were plenty of 4x4s with normal summer tyres, slipping about, and a few 2 wd cars with snow socks (with holes in) and there were no snow chains fitted at all.

I probably could have gotten away with not fitting Winter tyres, but crashing's expensive!

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I haven't fitted winter tyres to my A6 in the 3 years I've had it. The quattro kept me from getting stuck and excelled where others had failed.

This was on 19" rims with 255/35/19 tyres. My alloys are destroyed due to bad kerbing and the paint is flaking off so the salt doesn't matter.

I purchased a 2009 A3 which is FWD so I'm thinking next winter to purchase a set of rims and winter tyres for this and keep the alloys unmarked.

Interesting to see you can get the tyres for that reasonable a price - I phoned my local dealer for a price and they came up with £250 per tyre.

Decided I'd take the risk (as staying in the UK) rather than pay £1k.

I think its a bit of a waste of money to put snow tyres on a Quattro if youre staying in UK, provided your summer tyres have plenty of tread.

But over on the Continent in the mountains is another story .... :biglaugh: