Big wheels and small tyres aren't everything

[Neil Brown]

Just returned from Italy for my annual pilgramage to pay homage to the great white stuff gods of the mountains.
On my way there, in Switzerland, I first encountered the ice. Slid at 35mph straight. should really have gone left around the bend, but the pirelli's decided to take me and the wife on a helter skelter, removing a six-foot post, bouncing off the three-foot snowdrift, across the road into the path of an oncoming fearless swiss driver. Readjusted in time informing said pirelli's to behave, and a few hundred metres later, stopped to an expected massively damaged front end... boy did I get a surprise. The drivers side fog-light binnacle was pointing at me as if to raise a shocked eyebrow, and I pushed it back into place, but that was the entire damage. I was absolutely gobsmacked. You see the swiss put these plastic poles at the side of the road, not as edge markers, no that would be too easy. No grit or salt on the road either. It turns out that the poles are to show the depth of the snow..... Why? can they not see it is deep?
Anyway, soon afterwards on an incline foretelling the pass o the Vereina Tunnel, the car decided'Stuff this, I cannot move another inch on these slippery fellahs. Pirelli's just aren't any good for climbing hills. At least not with a little snow on them. Out with the dreaded Snow chains. I only bought them because it is a legal requirement to carry them. I had no intention at all of actually using them. Have you ever tried fitting them? Me neither. it looked easy on the video.... but when you slide into a drift, backwards, just a few feet from an oblivion drop over the edge, and cannot open your driver's door due to the depth of snow, it becomes a reality check. Wife with coal scuttle shovel, freezing fingers, snow blowing into every nook and cranny, and a general feeling of 'why do we do this? seemed to add to the confusion, and it took some twenty minutes to get each chain around each unforgiving piece of useless pirelli. Truth is, you fit them, drive a few feet, lock and adjust them. Well mine went OK, but my travelling partner put his wife into the driving seat for that bit. 'Move a couple of feet forward dear' suddenly became a Le Mons GP start. Bang, and bits of chain link fly everywhere. It is amazing what you can do with plastic tieclips.
Anyway, we got there, had a great holidaY, got the chains repaired there, and drove home from Italy in 12 hours and 14 minutes.
Now the moral of all this entertainment is that you should ALWAYS prepare for a long trip, and the unexpected. and change those crappy 17" rims with sporty pirelli wafer-like tyres, to something that you can really USE on a 170 TDI sports Passat.
VW, I hope you read this, and realise how close your decision to fit ridiculously uncontrollable wheels and tyres as standard fitments came to causing two more fatalities on the European roads.

My next car may well be another Passat, but I shall specify some useable rubber to hold it on the road. Ouch !!!

Neil.

[james_tiger_woo]

A lesson there then....

PS, swap you your wheels then

[Phil Mcavity]

Mine came with fiitted absolute pile of rubbish dunlop sportmax's which are just as bad, no grip at all, especially in the wet, the car has no traction at all. why do vw do this, fit sub standard budget tyres when a car is propelled by nearly 200 bhp and 280 lb ft of torque. Forget trying a fast one from the lights , the car just sits there bouncing its wheels up n down without going anywhere!!!.

[sathound]

My previous car was a V6 2.5L Mondeo Estate fitted with 17inch alloys and low profile 225 Continental Sport Contact2 tyres. They were absolutely appalling in snow, more like downhill skiing with no grip or traction. They punctured very easily (went through about 5 tyres in 60000 miles due to punctures) and front wheel wear was appaliing about 10,000-12,000 miles only.

When I got the Passat 170PS SEL Estate replacement I elected for the standard 16inch alloys because of my previous experience and they came shod with Bridgestone 215/55 ZR16 97W tyres with which I have been very impressed in both dry,wet and frosty conditions but have yet to find out about snow. They have now done 11000 miles and look to have at least 50% more life in them yet on the front.

[Quatrelle]

Neil, interesting post! Presumably the grip with 17" wheels is worse in snow because of their extra width.

The plastic poles sometimes serve both purposes, width and depth - useful for the ploughs....

[GeoffW]

Neil

Sounds like we need to do a swap for the winter months, you can have my 4Motion with 140hp and I can have your 170hp

Geoff

[crox]

err ... I have Monte Carlo wheels, and they came with Conti Sport Contact2 as well. Not great in the wet, but then it is a fairly powerful engine. In the dry, it is quite respectable.

Mine will need changing soon, at under 10K (!), what should I put on them? The car is leased, so I don't pay, so I get to choose ...

[Bloater]

Crox - Can't offer an alternative, but nice to see you can't get miles out of Conti's either.

Some get 30k out of them, I get 7k, you get less than 10k. Something amiss here.

See my other posts for more info.

Bloater

[crox]

Crox - Can't offer an alternative, but nice to see you can't get miles out of Conti's either.

Some get 30k out of them, I get 7k, you get less than 10k. Something amiss here.

See my other posts for more info.

Bloater

I know that I have been driving enthousatically, with absolutely no regard for the tyres or for the road, so 10 - 11K isn't all that bad.

You have either been driving without ESP on, or taking it around Brands Hatch a few times.

I would have expected a lot more, especially as yours is the 140 (?). We have a couple of Octavia's, and they survive well over 20K.

[Bloater]

Sorry Crox - Didn't notice you had the 170.

No, not driving without ESP on, or Brands Hatch. I'm not happy with the wear either. I'm also not happy with the grip levels from the Conti's. As stated elsewhere, I can get the TC light flashing in 3rd gear leaving a roundabout at about 40 mph, in a straight line. Perhaps my car really is a dud. See what the garage comes up with on the 11th.

Bloater