Howdy looking at getting winter tyres for a jolly to Europe next month if all's good. Looking for recommendations for a Hawkeye. Must have snowflake on the tyre. I've looked at kleber from eBay, Yoko's and a local garage recommended maxxims. Continental seem to have the best rating but 170 a corner seems steep. Anyone have some thoughts or experience? Cheers

 

Hey, go to tyrereviews.com and look what tyres have actually proven themselves in testing rather than some random recommendations. An Impreza on snow is an absolute riot so don't cheap out on the tyres. Plus better tyres means more safety, too. Personally I go for sporty biased tyres to try and offset a little that winter tyres are softer and flex a lot more.
I'd get a good allrounder that performs well in the wet and dry, too as you'll likely spend most time in those conditions.

 

Another thing is check the speed ratings if you're intending to go fast on the German autobahn as the winter tyres tend to have lower ratings, so another reason to pick one of the more sporty offerings. Not that I'd recommend going too fast on the Autobahn on winter tyres!
I've got a set of goodyear ultragrip perfromance gen-1, probably superseded by now but they're good.
There's plenty good ones to pick from!

 

I've got Pirelli Sottozero 3's on both the Scoob and Beemer but fitted a set of the new GY Ultragrip Performance+ to my dad's Evoque last year and they're outstanding, they're a real step above the Sottozeros (and the tests would tend to show that too). Very good tyres. If you're thrashing it in warmish temperatures of 5c and above you're going to chew them up but for true winter performance up here they're incredible.

 

Nokian for me; the Finns know all about snow tyres.

 

Yeah I have been on tyrereviews but many tyres not available for our size. 235 45 r17 is Classed as an old size!!

 

I've tried Nokian , Michelin Pilot Alpine (can't remember which version), Continental Contact TS850, Vredesteins (sorry, can't remember the model unfortunately) and Nankang SV2 (I think) in various cars, mostly Subarus.
My favourites in order of preference have been the Continental TS850 followed by Michelin and Nokian/Vredestein. Although the Nokians were great in the beginning, on the 3rd winter of use they didn't have as much grip as new despite having a lot of thread left.
At the end of the day, any mid-range winter tyre will perform much better in temperatures below 6C than the best summer tyre.

 

This is true of most budget/ midrange tyre. They don't last long even if you don't use them much. The rubber in the tyre isn't usually good quality so generally after around the 3 or 4 year mark they need to go in the bin.

 

we use Michelin Cross Climate on the wife's Legacy all year round as it does so little mileage its not worth chopping and changing rims..........

the T5 has a set of softer tyred / large rims for most seasons and a set of Firestone commercial "winters" that offer exceptional wet grip which is what seems to let other full 'winters' down

 

All weather tyres are a good compromise for UK's climate, I use Continental All Weather Contact in the XV and find them great.

 

have michelin pilot alpin 4 ,3rd season did few EU trips on winter
worth to have them when snowing
handling when wet on corners, roundabounds is not so good
prefer f1 supersports on UK winter but owe alpins and put them on for 4 months Nov/Feb