I have winter tyres on the original 17" subaru rims and summer tyres on a separate set of 18" rims. Swapping then costs nowt if you're not lazy, although personally, I take the opportunity to get a tyre fitter to re-balance the wheels and check the pressures (re-filling with nitrogen), costs me about £10 (in Germany)!

I wouldn't really recommend swapping the tyres on the same rims as re-fitting and removal several times can damage the tyres. I would guess the cost would be about £25, so you're looking at £50 a year. Over three years, that's £150 and there's a set of cheap alloys for the winter!

 

bloody faultless logic there chap!

 

First time I've ever heard any mention of winter tyres in the British Media...

Do winter tyres work? - Autocar.co.uk

 

ive bf goodrich tyres 235 40 18 on an 07sti ppp ,id no bother in the snow at all with traction ,i found the diff in lock but not rear biased to be best for it . Its only when you brake they slide as well as any other car lol

 

I can't say I agree with the "FWD is better" post at the beginning of the thread. I've had several FWD and RWD cars and my Scooby walks it in the snow. If all four wheels are available for propulsion, vs two driving, and two being pushed/dragged, it's a straightforward benefit. Having said that, I passed a struggling Discovery, so you could also argue it's about technique as much as anything else, especially given our limited exposure to real snow driving in the UK!

 

There are so many variables. Of course AWD/4WD is better than FWD or RWD, but then less weight is better than more so a small FWD car with suitable or even adequate thin tyres may fare better than a big 4x4 with crap tyres, or even an impreza on summer tyres. Put good winter tyres on the impreza though and it will be better than the small FWD car or the big 4x4.

But then put proper winter tyres on the small FWD and it will probably be fine in anything but extreme conditions.

Then throw in some driver capability to mix it up even more

Basically the more of the following you can tick off, the better off you will be in snow:

Winter tyres
light vehicle weight
AWD/4WD
competent/cautious driver

 

Deffo an argument of driver capability... My Discovery ran rings round my Impreza... in fact it was so much better I left the scooby on the drive for 2 weeks.. There was really no comparision... at all... the D3 has the best 4x4 terrain system in the world, and has won awards (and still is).
I drove up a 1:4 snow/ice covered lane (avoiding the abandoned psudo 4x4's) dropped my nipper off at nursery and came back down the same hill using HDC.. not even a twitch... Superb Bristish engineering at it's best

 

Changed to winter tyres on sti 16's now and can't beleive how much better they are even though they are mix and match at the moment allbeit all top brands. I'm coverted.

 

+1

 

i ran with a set of bridgestone blizzak's on some spare rims, they were fantastic, couldn't believe the differance.

 

Tyres make all the difference.

I have tried a few, from different brands. At present Continental TS810 (or the successor TS830) are the best for mixed conditions.

Being stud-less, it'll have sheet ice as it's strong point, but it does put up a reasonable fight.

On new snow, and compacted snow, it shines...and it can take quite some commitment to get the car out of shape.

The beauty of this tyre is that it grips well in regular wet conditions...which is typical for Denmark.