i fitted mine last week as i knew the bad weather would be here this week, my tyres being new needed scrubbing in, now the slush and stuff is here there ready to use.

not sure on local places doing them but they do have an ebay page, but there £10 more expensive.

 

glad i found this debate!
looking at winter tyres/all weather ones myself as my falken 452's have been towing in & shoulders are knackered & about 3mm grip left & the rears are cheap nasty marangoni's.

Since having a 5 week old little boy on the scene i am after some good all round tyres so i know me or the wife will be alot safer in the colder weather.

Anyone tried the 205/50 R16 Vredestein Quatrac 3 87V? These seem to be a good all rounder & have to be a vast improvement over whats (ashamabley) on it at current.

 

Vredestein make really good tyres,

my wife is due in feb, hence me going winter tyres myself

 

Thats what ive read etc, but is it worth spending that much?!? i have found them at £112 ea so far on that 'click on tyres' website. was going to do the keep these for winter time & then stick some normal on for summer, perhaps more falken either 912's or more 452's, summer is not a worry as i do not push the car anymore as its beyond my capabilities! (too much to loose now being a dad!) just want to be sorted for winter & the (sunday) drivers that will be out there keeping you on your toes!

also seen these hankooks 205/50 R16 91H Hankook i Cept Evo W310 M+S at £89.68

just found the hankooks on camskill @ £75.40!

 

if its just for winter then get what i did, £50 a tyre they seem good i have been out in the slush breaking to see what they can do lol,

they are open sat too, so may be worth a drive, i live near there and deeside takes me just ove an hour to get too.

http://www.rossendalevulcanising.co.uk/

 

50 a corner is a good price, but not so sure with it being a remould & the 2 hr round trip/fuel..., where as the hankooks only £15 more and brand new, delivered to my work & fitted dirt cheap round the corner! hhhhhmmmm decisions, decisions

 

What size do those that have winter tyres run? I am not sure whether to go 215/45/17 or 205/50/17?

 

Out of interest, how much do you pay for fitting?

 

Guys be wary of buying part worn winter tyres. Whereas normal tyres are fine down to the last few mm of tread snow tyres become very ineffective below 5mm. They will look like they have lots of life left in them but will only be marginally better than a normal tyre in snow.

This is exactly the reason you see so many part worn snow tyres for sale - the previous owner will have replaced them once they got down to 5mm.

 

Thats the very problem I have with part worn tyres.
Plus the history of them - maybe they came from a salvaged vehicle.

 

hi mate, fitting for me is normally 'free' as i give the garage our fleet of vans for servicing & repairs. So i would probably give him £10 or £20 anyway as he does it whenever i ask/need it doing even though he does not want paying

As for part worns, nah would never touch them for the same reasons as mentioned. Same as remoulds, they just dont float my boat, rather pay that bit extra & have bran spankers

looks like i will be ordering the hankook i Cept Evo W310 from camskill @ £75 a corner when funds allow for all 4 & get the old girl tracked up
http://www.camskill.co.uk/m96b0s628p...R16_91H_XL_TL_

 

I did loads of checking around and some of these winter tyres can go for silly money so decided to keep the budget down to normalish money and look for tyres that are rated pretty reasonably in tyre tests etc ... so .. I've plumped for Falken HS439s from Mytyres.

They might not be the best tyre in the world .. but I am sure they will be better than what I have at the moment when it gets cooler .. so ... they are sitting on the spare rims waiting for spring to disappear !!

Oh .. and I paid £50 all in for 4 tyres fitted incl disposal and balancing.

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Fa...nter-HS439.htm

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.p...110&sowigan=Wi

 

I had 5 year old Bridgestone RE50s with 2mm tread left on my Impreza last year with the snow. That was very scary going down hill. Put 4 new Vredestein Sessantas on and the snow was no problem at all.

For the amount of 'real' snow we have I cant justify buying new winter tyres, yes I know the whole below 7º thing etc but in reality the tyres were fine. If I was to buy any then I would just get a new set of summers. New rubber with 6-7mm tread is a lot better than most used summer tyres with less tread and aged/hardened rubber.

 

No summer tyre will be as good as a decent winter tyre, to start with they wont work as well in the cold due to the harder compound (needs more heat to grip etc), the tread isnt designed for clearing snow properly and hitting slush/built up snow at the sides of the road will pull you to one side, you wont get that with a winter tyre.
Do you need a winter tyre? it depends, considering this year is the first year ive fitted them to the scoob, they do outperform summer tyres in the cold and slush/snow and give FAR better braking characteristics on snow than a summer tyre ever will.
If you are careful on summer tyres (not all as some really dont work well on snow), then you can get along, get deep snow or snow over ice and you will suffer on summers

Tony

 

One mini word of caution, do check with your insurance company first.

Mikey

 

Had some vredestein quatrac 3 on for the last month or so, noticed an improvement in the wet for sure. It hasn't really gotten that cold yet so can't speak to the performance in subzero and icey situations, though on paper the stopping distance is far better.